Breathing the Radiance of Life

The holiday season has slipped away and perhaps, in that time of ease and celebration, we have found moments in which to reflect on the past year, to share old memories at gatherings of family and friends, and have reached a kind of “closure” of the passing cycle in life’s rhythm. We may now be ready to look ahead with eyes less clouded by “unfinished business”, and with a freedom, a freshness in our consciousness, on which the future may reflect more clearly. We can be more open to the vibrancy of new potential.

While in the northern half of the world, Winter is bringing an internalising of life and a more subjective mode, here in the southern hemisphere, Summer is flowering and drawing us out into the longer days. Both summer and winter are key points of the greater life cycle in which we are all creative participants. They are the high points of the mighty pulse of the world as it drives the cycles of livingness which order and synchronise the great Life we share. In this moment, whether in the depth of winter or the height of summer, we all find ourselves at a point of synthesis in the beginning of a New Year when awareness seems to expand and we breathe in the possibilities of what opens up ahead.

In this more receptive state and as we move forward into a new cycle of unfolding life, old concepts and values might dissolve in the emergence of newer more expansive ideas; compassion may swell beyond previous bounds; relationships might be reconfigured as a broader view emerges and we progress into a larger reality – within our own lives, within our groups, within humanity as a whole and throughout our worldly home, our planet. And so new understanding flowers and grows out of the dissolution of the old. And all the while the fiery heart of the world beats life through everything in commensurate measure and time. Fresh life-sharing energy flows – renewing, refreshing and recycling as the world breathes in the new and breathes out the old.

What one kingdom breathes out another breathes in and life is passed up, down and throughout the chain of creation. Slowly but surely humanity seems to be absorbing this deeper pattern of Life and realising that the in-breath (taking) must be followed by an outbreath (giving) in co-measure to sustain the life-flow throughout the planetary being in which we are deeply immersed. We are finding a new point of balance beyond our own individual needs, one that is at the centre of life. It is a more expansive point of integration within a great reciprocal system wherein animal nature breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon which plant nature then inhales and returns oxygen; and wherein mineral nature provides riches for plants and plant decomposition feeds mineral wealth. Similarly, from the spiritual realms divine ideas are breathed out into the world and those who respond breathe them in as inspiration to create a new cycle and pattern of living – each new breath advancing and bringing us more into resonance with the divine essence we share and into the flowering of a new era.

The whole symbiotic cycle is constantly substituting life-bearing energy, passed down to nourish and redeem the next kingdom as it is magnetically drawn upwards. The finer substance replaces the denser. We are told that:

This interesting process of transference of energies is called by several names, such as ‘radiatory substitution,’ ‘energising at-one-ment,’ and ‘inspirational reflected light of energy.’ All these terms are efforts to express in somewhat inadequate words what happens when the higher energies are substituted for the lower, when the magnetic ‘pull’ of the spiritual energies draws upward and absorbs the lower energies which are concerned primarily with the personality life…” Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, page 168

In a way the whole world resonates with a vast breathing that drives a mighty pulse through everything, each in its own reflected measure. The natural world responds automatically and instinctively to this motivating impulse as it unfolds through time and evolution. Humankind, however, has been gifted with consciousness, free will and choice. And we are in the process of uncovering, or re-discovering, our role as conscious, coordinated atoms within the mind, heart and pervasive presence of God, the One in Whom we live and move and have our being. The more we sense the divine thought currents, the more that great Life expresses in the world. We are told:

…you have been designated a guardian of space. You can restore health to it or can defile it. … With your every breath you send either restoration of health or destruction into space.” Supermundane IV, sloca 764

Our planet is a glorious Garden of Eden in which we may find the Spirit that is in all things and is their true source. Thought is our medium of exploration:

Man should realize that he is called to saturate Infinite Space with thought. The realization of the infinite power of thought is in itself the highest joy. Imagine what a beautiful garden of thought has been given to you, and rejoice at this knowledge” Supermundane II, sloca 371

Why does man think so rarely about the great responsibility of his existence? …every beautiful thought creates a new nerve in space.” Supermundane IV, sloca 764

In the natural, manifest world we develop our capacity for thought and explore where its currents may take us, drawing on and adding to the great reservoir of knowledge as we progress.

There is much knowledge in man; some of it is awakened easily, but much requires deep concentration to be brought out into the consciousness. A vigilant concentration can only be developed by using the manifestations of earthly life. Therefore, withdrawal from the earthly life can be only a temporary one.
Spirit is a quality of matter; therefore We repeat: Do not withdraw from the earthly life, for in it too are found spiritual joys, and joy is needed for supermundane feelings. It is especially necessary to care for those who labour, in order that the proper rhythm of labour may generate in them the joy of the heart. The humblest worker can be a great vessel of joy, if he perceives the supermundane vibrations.” Supermundane IV, sloca 706

We may be more powerful than we yet know and so must be attentive to the currents we allow to flow through us and thence through the substance of Mother Nature. What do we “breathe in”, what inspires us, and what do we “breathe out” and express in the world? What do we offer that might lift and refine the shrine of man’s living and its part in the divine whole? How can we affirm and celebrate Spirit in the myriad of its expressive forms?

People often say that for cooperation between individuals, similarity of character is needed, but they should speak not of similarity, but of harmony. Only the harmony of energies can be useful. Harmony is not repetition, it produces a chord. May this chord be strong and sonorous. It is hard to imagine a symphony built of monotonous octaves. People should love polyphony; the richer it is the more human hearts it will touch and call to action. Thus we will be open to the rich multiformity of perceptions. Nature must not be dealt with as if impoverished… The Thinker said, “Nature is inexhaustible.” Supermundane IV, sloca 740

And so may we expand our compassionate understanding to all things, and our heart to all beings in all dimensions, that we may know ourselves to be inextricably and joyously part of the pulse that beats in the bosom of the Mother of the World.

The Source of Joy

No one knows what makes the soul wake up
so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze
has blown the veil from the face of God.

A thousand new moons appear.
Roses open laughing.
Hearts become perfect rubies
like those from Badakshan.

The body turns entirely spirit.
Leaves become branches in this wind.

Why is it now so easy to surrender,
even for those already surrendered?

There’s no answer to any of this.
No one knows the source of joy.

A poet breathes into a reed flute,
and the tip of every hair makes music.

From The Book of Love by Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks