Dear Friends, This is a space for you to ask questions, to post your own reflections about the practice of presence. Perhaps you find quotes, poems, writings, books that you have found helpful on your journey. Feel free to post what you find along the way.
I will try to respond from time to time with my own reflections over the summer.
This is a way to stay in touch with each other and the circle of presence that we have created over the months. Remember this is a sacred space. This is not a place to give advice but rather a place of listening, sensing and sharing your own experience. As with any sacred space it thrives in openness, vulnerability, sincerity. Superego be gone!
This is another experiment. Lets see if this kind of circle can support our journeys in presence more and more. Your feedback is always welome. Warmly, Alison
Today in my reading I ran across a quote from C.S. Lewis that really started me thinking about the perceptions I have about that precious thing of my soul. This quote is very short but it's been coming back to me all day and is really helping me look at 'who/what is me'.
ReplyDelete"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." -- C. S. Lewis
Yes! And the curious thing is that in order to know your soul you need your body! It is the capacity to sense, touch, feel, taste, know, see that allows us to discover the preciousness of our soul!
ReplyDeleteI continue to process the idea that I AM a soul and it has been very exciting and sometimes things just spill over as the realization takes firmer roots.
ReplyDeleteAs I do this I realize I have a reluctance to share this experience. Not because I don't want others to know or have the experience but for 2 other reasons. I think the superego may be lurking and adding to my hesitance, I keep thinking this whole thought process is so different that I may be crazy, but I reassure myself I'm not - so be gone superego!
My reluctance comes primarily from wanting to hold this bit of realization close to me and savor it before someone/something can come snatch it away from me. It feels so special, so precious and it is extremely exciting for me -- I don't want it to be taken away. Perhaps that's the superego again, in a more devious, underhanded approach. Hmmmm, interesting . . .
So for now, I'll share what I feel comfortable with and take this slowly.
For most of my life I have thought of myself as a body and recently have tried to figure out whether or not I have a soul. Or how to get a soul.
ReplyDeleteRealizing that I AM a soul, that my soul is the core of my being . . . . this is a new concept. I begin to realize that the human body is actually just a bunch of cells and as such is not really capable of emotion. I have long questioned how is it that certain creatures are able to 'feel'.
I see that it is our soul that gives us that capability. I don't think it comes from our brain or even our heart . . . those are just cells . . . I think it has to be our souls that give us that capability.
And I see that I buried my soul, or hid it, as a very young person in order to protect it. . . . Somehow (I still don't understand how) there was some kind of intuition, some kind of knowledge, or perhaps Grace that knew the soul needed to be protected and buried it, hid it deep inside until . . . . now.
The practice of being present asks my soul to be here, to be present . . . . because I see . . . my soul is actually me . . . the core of me . . . who I am . . .
And maybe this soul feels so much more than we can ever imagine. From our feelings, from the felt reality of our cells, from the depth of insight and realization all the way to the deepest knowing/being as presence. This realization Carolyn is profound. Let it unfold you. Your mind cannot figure this out. The revelations will arise, and your understanding will open into the deeper knowing. It is a journey without goals and with no end. And the mind will try to grasp, will try to figure it out. It knows no other way. But you are discovering that this revelation arises through presence. And thank God we know as children to put this away for safe keeping until the time is ripe. Such intelligence!
ReplyDelete