THE PATH OF KENOSIS
“To reach satisfaction in all
desire its possession in nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.
To come to the pleasure which you have not
you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge which you have not
you must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
you must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not
you must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something
you cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For to go from the all to the all
you must leave yourself in all.
And when you come to the possession of the all
you must possess it without wanting anything.
In this nakedness the spirit finds
its rest.
For in coveting nothing,
nothing raises it up
and nothing weighs it down,
because it is the center of its humility.”
John of the Cross, Toledo, 1578 ( poem from Ascent
of Mt. Carmel)
The above poem written by a Spanish monk and
mystic of the 16th century was composed as a summary statement of an
entire work he penned on the process of spiritual purification. The poem with
its series of apparent paradoxes is often dismissed as confusing or
theologically incorrect. Yet it
states the process of union with God in a series of negatives. In the broad spectrum of denominations
and traditions in the history of Christianity many paths to God or spiritual
salvation have been taught. Some
emphasize right belief, some emphasize right behavior, and others emphasize
right ritual. For them, no doubt,
this statement is puzzling at best, or heretical at worst. Mystical
Christianity embraces the “Via Negativa” or the understanding that we come to
God through the process of subtraction.
In mystical Christianity, God is already
present and accessible to us, and the sole obstacle to our conscious union with
God is ourselves,that is, the self-created self, a product of our mind. Our
identification and idolatry to this mind-creation renders us consciously
inaccessible to God’s Presence. In other words God waits eternally for us at
the center of the sanctuary of the Heart.
We come to God by peeling the onion of our layers of false self identity
and releasing from all the brain-created mind objects, motivations, and mental
formations that cement them and hold them together. To realize in our soul/consciousness, to make aware, and to
live an ontological union with God that already exists we are invited, as the
poem declares, to ‘get naked.’ The
Beloved invites us to rest in our true inner being, and therefore rest in
“God’s being at the center of our being” (paraphrase fromThe Cloud of Unknowing ).
In this ‘No-thingness’ of the Divine that that John of the Cross
describes as “Nada, Nada, Nada,” the spirit finds its rest, and we find our
life’s purpose and reason for being.
Various
global mystic traditions define this obstacle of the separate-self identity as
“forgetfulness,” others as “delusion,” or “illusion.” For me these descriptions all possess truth. Thomas Keating,
the Christian abbot and spiritual teacher, explains our problem this way:
(paraphrase) ‘the source of the human condition arises from the habitual course
of human development and coming to full adult ego development without the
benefit of an awakened interior knowledge of our union with God.’ This dilemma
is beautifully described in this anecdote I once heard, (allegedly true): A young couple brings home a new infant
from the hospital, their second born. The first night at home, the babe sleeps
in a crib in a nursery equipped with sound monitoring for the sake of safety
and the peace of the parents. The parents hear the patter of the footsteps of
their 4 year old daughter enter the nursery, walk slowly to the crib and pause
in the silence. The daughter’s voice breaks the silence as she peers through
the bars of the crib. “ Please tell me about God, I’ve almost forgotten.” Indeed it is the recovery of our memory
of God, and who we are in God and living that truth in the world that comprises
our true spiritual salvation (healing). Meister Eckhart puts it this way
simply, “God is at home; it is we who have gone for a walk.”
Why is this so? Why does our
spiritual/evolutionary development take this course? The answer may come again
from the 14th c. Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, who said that the
purpose of the spiritual journey of transformation is “God expects but one
thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you
are a created being made and let God be God in you..” (Perennial Philosophy, Huxley)This is another
way of stating the spiritual theology of theosis, the foundation of Eastern Christianity. We are here
in the human created state to become incarnate vessels of this “living water”
that Yeshua spoke of, that, if we consent, will “well up” and flow within us. Yeshua proclaims an amazing truth, that
the purpose of human existence is to consciously and intentionally live Divine
Life in our own.
What is the nature of this Divine Life?
Mystics say, and experience tells us, that the nature of God is Love that offers
of Itself without condition, unlimited selfless Love, Love for Love’s sake. And
so it is, that to live this Love in our own humanity calls forth a great
letting go of the diversion of self-seeking on our part. Hence the word, kenosis, or self-emptying is used in the spiritual
transformative journey. St. Paul uses the word “kenosis” in First Philipians to describe the self-emptying
of Yeshua of any personal desire or clinging to a self-identity, in order that
his essential Life of the universal Christ, the emanation of the Source (Abba)
might be fully manifest in his own human life. Paul invites us to "Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," (I Phil: 2:5) So
this same union with the Divine, realized in Yeshua, can also be actualized in our
own life. And the realization comes through an utter and progressive surrender
of self-seeking so that the separate self-identity melts into the unitive
Christ identity. It involves no dramatic slaying of a monster false-self, but
rather a deepening letting go into our own naked inner being, releasing from
all the fake substitutes our egoic mind has created. Being given to love without expectation or self-seeking is
no small task. Yet when we truly trust and sink into our deepest humility, Love
is present and Love lives and moves through us unimpeded. The Greek word for
this love is Agape. In the
self-emptying, and growing freedom and spaciousness of kenosis Agape flowers.
Evagrius Ponticus (4th c.) is
one of the early masters of the praxis of contemplation in the desert tradition
of Christianity. His Praktikos (Chapters on Prayer) are a classic text in Christian mysticism. Evagrius recognizes that the obstacles to the fullest
awareness of God, of being at peace in God, begin with self-attachment to
thoughts. These attachments pull us away from our own spiritual center, or
Heart, where we experience our abiding and rootedness in God. The practice of
Hesychastic meditation/Prayer of the Heart is described by the ancients as one
of bringing and rooting our consciousness into the Heart or spiritual
sanctuary. This must of necessity involve a release of the consciousness from
being embedded in habitual patterns of thinking and all the emotions and
behaviors that flow from them. As we release from thoughts, by not giving
attention and will, they incrementally lose their power over us. Over time we
began to reach in degrees the state of "apatheia ", or interior
freedom, (not to be confused with “apathy”) which is the state of calm or peace
found in freedom from the passions and restlessness. Those who practice the
Prayer of the Heart gain freedom by letting thoughts rise and fall without
giving them the power of volition.
The more of an inner groundedness we have in this inner peace and
freedom, flowing from the state of resting in the Heart in silent interior
prayer, the more we are able to carry this same awareness into daily life. This
is an insight key to the praxis of kenosis and true interior freedom in daily
life. I recall the statement of a spiritual directee of mine who expressed with
astonishment that pure awareness is a dimension of her pure being and that the
passing of a thought through awareness is just “phenomena.” Thus she found an
insight giving her great freedom.
I speak in my first book
(The Beloved is My Refuge) about the growing freedom and choice we have as our inner Prayer
of the Heart practice grows both in silence and in daily life. We cultivate awareness of thoughts and
their effects on us, “…the more we can make choices about our thoughts. When we
give volition, or choice, to thought, there are consequences for good or ill.
When our choice is in utter harmony with the deepest intentionality of the
Heart, we bring forth goodness. In our sitting practice we release from thoughts
and abide in the Heart. In the
midst of life we also observe the mind and abide in the Heart. But in activity
in the middle of life we must choose.
Choosing and acting on some thoughts leads us to peace and harmony in
communion with God within. Acting
on other thoughts leads us from peace and towards further disharmony and
dissonance from our own Heart.” The ancients simply referred to this release
and centering in the Heart as “setting aside thoughts.” Evagrius in his Praktikos
goes further to describe how release
from the obstacles to Love allows the “living water” of Agape, pure Love, to
spring up naturally from the Divine Presence already in the Heart. "Now this apatheia (inner freedom)
has a child called agape." ..…"Agape is the progeny of apatheia.
Apatheia is the very flower of ascesis." His term “ascesis” is another word for kenosis, releasing from the web of thoughts that
are the glue of the separate self-identity and all that keeps it intact. As
Prayer of the Heart practice deepens we taste the naked state of pure being in
God wherein lies our true humility and true abode and release from all created
substitutes of the mind.
Kensosis in
Daily Life
We are not the
creators of Divine Love, or Agape.
We are both the vessels and stewards of the sacred Wine of Divine Love
that is Christ. We are the medium
where our human love is consecrated,transformed, and poured out as Divine Love
in the Cup of Salvation, in the eternal Wedding Feast of the Beloved and
Creation. The Wedding Feast of Love happens in the everyday where we are called
to be in relationship as spouses, friends, parents, children, brothers and
sisters in the human family and in the family of all Creation. This is the joining of the many small
circles of separateness into the One Circle of all beings in the vision of
Sioux mystic, Black Elk. And at the center of this Circle is the Beloved, the
Tree of Life from whom all Life comes forth and is lived.… for I was
seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape
of all shapes as they must live together like One Being. And I saw that the
sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one Circle, wide as
daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to
shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was
holy." (Black
Elk Speaks)
Though we often treat
these relationships carelessly or even with contempt, they are the garden of
our stewardship. As we awaken in
the Heart we began to see how precious each one is, and how our purpose and our
responsibility is to regard each with reverence and care. This can only happen when we have
cultivated the capacity to release and let go of the separate-self agenda and
motivation, and the thought forms of emotional reactivity that hold and
maintain the separate-self consciousness.
Serving and loving the One Being, the Heart of Christ, in each being can
only happen through the freedom and spaciousness of kenosis.
Kenotic
Praxis
Undivided Presence is a primary dimension of kenotic
praxis. We must be fully present
with the task, event, or person before us, fully present to the sacred
dimension of each and equally present to the mental formations that arise in
response to each that may deflect or filter the sacred. In this regard our previous
conditioning or habit energies must be seen for what they are and released, so
that the present moment is alive and complete. Ceaseless practice is ceaseless presence to the Presence,
observing the mind and abiding in the Heart. We bring awareness to all that brings disharmony or
disturbance in our thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Letting Go- Releasing from all conditions,
reactions, thoughts, judgments, or behaviors that affect or impede our full presence
and attention to the person, task, or relational interaction before us. Releasing from all that is dissonant
with the most kind or loving intention of the heart.
Offering Up- to the Beloved all that is beyond our
understanding, beyond our control, in need of help or healing, everything
before us in our consciousness that is in need of release.
Self Offering- our best intention, our best effort, our
best service, our kindest and most loving action to the relationship, task, or
situation before us. Accepting
that our best and most loving offering is enough, being always willing to
modify or change it as the need arises, while releasing from every expectation
of reciprocation or approval from another.
In all conditions and
circumstances our ongoing practice of prayer word and breath remains a “homing
pigeon” to grounding in the Heart in the midst of daily life.
Loving in
Human Relationships and the Dance of Kenosis
Human relationships
are all characterized by attachment with self-seeking motivations. We learn to love selflessly through
such attachments and motivations as love matures and grows, and as our capacity
to give of ourselves deepens. The
pain that arises through hurts, conflicts, and disappointments is the raw
material of our growth in loving.
We learn to return and ground ourselves in the Heart and the Heart’s
intention of loving kindness or Agape, rather than our agenda. We learn to see our unconscious
motivations for what they are and release from them for the good of the beloved
ones in our life. Here the principle
of non-reactivity is
essential. Because of our Prayer
of the Heart practice we can rest and act from interior stillness while
observing and releasing from the hurts and fears that arise in the middle of life. If we are caught by our reactions and
act on them, we can use the pain to return to contrition and resolve to stay
and act from the interior stillness and loving intention the next time. Our human relationships of family,
helping, care-giving, companionship, work, and friendship, all become the
garden of the stewardship of Divine Love. In them we learn and grow to fulfill
our life’s purpose to “Let God be God in us.” The practice of Presence, Letting
Go, Offering-Up, and Self-Offering continue ceaselessly. Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
gradually harmonized with the deepest awareness and intentions of the heart,
and dissonance becomes increasingly and painfully felt as a guide to greater
loving. The greater our
willingness and capacity to release and empty of these dissonant reactions and
intrusions of the mind, the greater we grow in our capacity to love. “To
be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of
God.” (Meister Eckhart).
Familial and
Spousal Relationships
The greatest hurts and
damage are inflicted in spousal and familial relationships when our defense
mechanisms are in charge of our thinking and behavior. Our capacity to “see” our thinking,
feeling, and behaving reactivity and release from them before we choose and act
on them is essential to growth in love. Our praxis of Inner Communion and
Kenosis make possible the needed
sanctuary of trust, safety, and reverence for such sacred relationships in our
garden of the Stewardship of Divine Love.
Personal
Account
Work-I was blessed to work for over 30 years in the mental
health counseling field. During
this time I did have a Prayer of the Heart/Meditation practice. Especially in this profession where the
practitioner enters the private psychological space of another in a
relationship of trust, I found it vital to maintain a vigilant observance of
the content of my own mind, mental and emotional responses to another. I found
there was a certain quality of “stickiness” or “jaggedness” when such content
of my own was filled with reactivity of the “self.” By contrast when I found I
was moving “with” a client without the intrusion of agendas, reactions,
judgments, or otherwise of the “self” there was an inner experience of ease,
and of simply focusing on the counseling task at hand and of a movement of
grace greater than my own effort at work. In this work frequently the clients
who sought help were in a disturbed state. My kenotic practice meant I needed
to exercise a “self-vigilance” of observing the mind, abiding in the heart,
releasing from reactivity, in
order to have the empathy, professional judgment, and detachment necessary to
be of real help in particular where critical outcomes are at stake.
Kenosis and
Dark Nights
Caregiving- Just prior to writing this paragraph I
found myself with the responsibility of caring for my elderly mother of 86
years of age, afflicted with advanced Alzheimer’s Dementia with a psychotic
mental illness. While my
relationship with my mother has been a sometimes troubled and painful one, I could not have anticipated the time
of trial I would be facing in taking on this 24/7 responsibility. Coping with my own reactions to the
irrationality, paranoid symptoms, and hostile affect and behavior present in my
mother’s condition proved to be an ordeal that tested my spiritual practice to
its core. I found being a witness
to this degradation of all that I found human and endearing in my mother to be
a challenge of hope and faith. I found my own psychological lows and reactions
to her behavior and illness to place me in a posture of vulnerability rarely
experienced in my life. I found the confidence in my 40 year spiritual practice
to maintain inner stability was shaken.
Blessedly the responsibility for care-giving came to an end after three
months, and I have been left with a great compassion for all of us human beings
who must confront such a terrible illness as caregivers or as victims who
endure it to the end of life. It
was a “dark night” where many of my spiritual consolations were taken from me,
and I was challenged to a level of kenotic practice rarely experienced
before. All that was left to me
was simply to let go, to “offer up” all of the pain and resistances to the
emotional and spiritual pain I was experiencing, and to offer each moment my
best effort of service. I found I
had to trust Divine Love was present when my personal love was undermined or
seeming to be so insufficient, and the relationship of mother and son so
damaged by the onslaught of the disease process.
Death and
Loss- No time of kenosis
is more profoundly felt than the death of a loved one. The greater is the
attachment, the greater the challenge to our practice of kenosis. When I was
just 31 years of age my beloved son of one year of age was taken from me
through the disease of Acute Leukemia.
There was a moment of grace that taught me a life long lesson in kenosis
and the stewardship of Divine Love: My son, Carlo, was in a children’s hospital
in Portland, Oregon with a diagnosis of Acute Myelocytic Leukemia and a grave
prognosis. One evening I was
pulling him in a wagon with an IV bottle attached along a circular corridor
where all the children who could were moving in the tricycles and wagons, or
pulling toys in a circular caravan. I was filled with rage and resistance at what was happening
to him. In a moment of paralysis I pulled over to an alcove. An inner voice told me to just drop my
rage and crazy thinking and look into his eyes. The eyes were clear and peaceful and had a simple question.
“Are you going to walk with me through this, or are you going to run
away?” In that moment there was a
powerful clarity that cut through all of my pain and resistance. I knew there was but one answer, and I
could say it. The answer was an
unequivocal “Yes!” By letting go of all the things I didn’t have control over,
by offering them up to the One Love who is Greater than everything my son or I
might endure, and simply offering to my son, Carlo, what I could do, I could be
at peace. Yes, I could walk with
him, no matter how painful it would be Yes, I would love him the best I could,
and be the best father I could. Yes,
I would endure with him the disease and its outcome. Yes, that’s something I could do, and I
did. At such moments we are naked, unprotected, and vulnerable. And we can
choose love and the inner refuge of Yeshua’s Fire in the Heart. It is the only
refuge we have that is real in this life.
Nakedness of
Spirit
About five years ago
I retired from my adult life-long profession of mental health counseling. At that time I was grateful for the
time and spaciousness to give myself to a deeper life of Inner Communion with
Christ. Yet I could sense a stripping away of identity and a sense of
protection that professional identity gives in the world. What would I do with my life, now
without a work identity? At that
time I began my day early, about 5 AM in my morning meditation space. On my lap I laid a quilt that had been
given to me by my stepmother, Margie, whom I loved dearly, and who had been a
healing force in my life. She had
died just months previously. And
that is how I started my day. Still I held the question, “What should I do with
the remainder of my life, who am I now, that I am no longer a mental health
counselor, with no work identity?”
One morning very early,
before rising I had a vivid dream.
In the dream I found myself naked in a room filled with polite but
horrified guests in a very proper social situation. I ran away in this naked state to be alone and away from
public scrutiny. I found myself
walking along a country road.
Thankfully there was no one around but I felt acutely uncomfortable and
vulnerable in this state of nakedness.
After a while of feeling fearful and forlorn as I walked alone, I
noticed something ahead along the side of the road. There was a bush, resembling a lilac bush overhanging the
edge of the road. As I got closer
I noticed there was a quilt hanging from the bush. As I reached for the quilt I was amazed to see it was Margie’s
quilt, my meditation quilt. Very
slowly and tenderly I took the quilt in my hands and wrapped it around my
body. And I felt safe and secure,
and at peace. Then I awoke from the dream, feeling a great liberation. I knew
my practice of Inner Communion and the freedom and trust of Kenosis in Prayer
of the Heart was the sole refuge for my nakedness and vulnerability.
Yeshua replied:
“On that day when you are naked
as newborn infants
who trample their clothing,
then you will see the Son of the
Living One
and you will have no more fear.”
Logion 37, Gospel of Thomas
