The Inner Sanctuary - St. Teresa of Avila

There is a secret place.
A radiant sanctuary...

This magnificent refuge is inside you.

Enter

Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.

Be bold.  Be humble.

Put away the incense and forget the incantation
they taught you.  Ask no permission from the
authorities.

Slip away...

Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the invisible path
that leads you home.

Listen...

Softly, the One you love is calling...

Listen...

At first you will only hear traces of his [her] Voice.
Love letters he [she] drops for you in hiding places -
in the sun dipping down below the horizon,
in the nameless sorrow that fills your heart when you
wake in the night and remember that the world has gone
to war and you are powerless to break up the fight.

Let the idle chatter between friends drop down to
what matters.

Listen...

his [her] Voice will come closer.
A whisper you're almost sure is meant for you
fading in and out of the cacophony of thoughts
clearer in the silent space between them.

Listen...

Be brave and walk through the country of your own
wild heart.

Be gentle and know that you know nothing.

Be still...

Listen...

Keep walking...

Crossing the moat [threshold] between this world and that...

This is The Beloved reclining in the innermost chamber,
waiting for you...

The Beloved has chosen for his [her] dwelling place
the core of your own being because that is the single
most beautiful place in all creation.

Enter the center of your Soul...

Excerpts from the Introduction to:
The Interior Castle
by St. Teresa of Avila

translation by Mirabai Starr

[brackets mine]

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering

2024

 

The Inward Pull

There is an intimacy of the Heart in turning inward,
following the pull of "The Silence"
that is hauntingly
sublime...

A magnetic pull of
"The Mystery"
pulls
from within,
pulling ItSelf back to ItSelf...

In fluidity of being one feels suspended
in an endless depth and breadth,
fullness and emptiness,
all at the same time;
noticing a subtle movement of awareness
aware-ing everything at once...

Collapsing into the Cosmic waves of Pure Being,
into Existence prior to manifestation,
everything within softens and opens,
like a delicate flower,
including the body,
touched by a subtle
rhythmic caress
of
the Unknown
~ breathing ~
~ embracing ~

surrounding and filling;
unwinding contractions
of body and mind.

There is a sanity in this Cosmic Silence

that bestows a soundness of Heart through Grace
that is beyond polarization...

In this deeper Rhythm within
one loses a sense of "self."
Conflict and chaos dissolve,
becoming "The Silence" ~

breathing ItSelf...

The Breath of the Infinite

The Whisper of Love

Mystic Meandering
March 1, 2017

_/\_

Photo - Cosmic Waves and Splash
Craypas oils - 2012

~

This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter.
Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway...
Be bold.  Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you
home.

St. Teresa of Avila

The Refuge Within - St. Teresa of Avila & Angeles Arrien

There is a secret place.
A radiant sanctuary.
As real as your own kitchen.
More real than that.
Worlds within worlds.
A clarity so complete you will
never again forget.

This magnificent refuge is inside you.
Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway.
Step around the poisonous vipers that slither
at your feet to throw you off course.
Be bold.  Be humble.
Put away the incense and forget
the incantations they taught you.
Ask no permission from the authorities.
Close your eyes and follow your breath
to the still place that leads to the
invisible path that leads you home.

St. Teresa of Avila
Mirabai Starr translation

~

I trust the mystery.  I trust what comes in silence
and what comes in nature where there's no diversion.
I think the lack of stimulation allows us to hear and
experience a deeper river that's constant, still, vibrant,
and real.  And the process of deep listening mobilizes
exactly what's needed at that time.

Angeles Arrien

With thanks to Michel
at No Mind's Land

A Wish for the World - Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear...
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls...
Where words come out from the depths of Truth...
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit...
Where the mind is led forward...
into ever-widening [inclusive] thought and action...
Let my country [the world] awake...

Excerpt from Verse 35 of the Gitanjali
by Rabindranath Tagore

~

Only the inspired should make decisions
that effect the lives of many,

never a man who has not held God in his arms
and become the servant of unity...

St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582)