Jesus said: “I am not your master any more, for you have drunk, and have become inebriated from the bubbling spring which I have caused to gush forth.” ~Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, 13
Where is this bubbling spring? How can we drink from it?
These words of Jesus are not symbolic. The spring he describes bubbles out of an open heart, flowing with an inward Light that is not figurative but substantial, an energy more real than any material object in the world.
Christian Gnostics called this heart-center the bridal chamber. Yogis call it hridaya. When the divine Spirit, the shakti of Magdalen, rises up the spine, she enters into the sacred marriage. This is the ancient hieros gamos: the union of the royal bridegroom and the bride, God and the soul.
Here in the heart the soul meets Christ, the Shiva-tattva, who descends from the stars through the crown chakra, to unite with a rising current of planetary energy from the mother. The up-pointed triangular flame of ground-energy interpenetrates the down-pointed triangle of solar-force, thus forming the Star of David. These united triangles also form the ancient yogic symbol of the heart chakra.
Mother Earth and Father Sky meet in the center of the human form. That is the purpose of our incarnation, to unite spirit and matter in a new creation. The diamond radiance that gushes from their union transforms the old duality of flesh and spirit into one substance: the substance of Glory.
In the Hebrew Bible, this glorified self-luminous energy is called kavoth. When he came down from his vision on Mount Sinai, Moses glowed with it. Christian mystics called it “the Taboric splendor,” for on Mount Tabor the three disciples saw Jesus clothed in the same divine light.
Was it his body or his soul? Both. And in this radiance, he prefigured our own transformation, the physiology of enlightenment.
This glory is the stuff of the resurrection body that Paul described in First Corinthians. It is also the subtle bliss-body of the Buddha, the sambhoga-kaya.
We do not need to wait for death to inhabit such a radiant body. Right now we can begin the shamanic and yogic practices to transform mind, breath, and flesh into one vibrant new substance, both human and divine. This is why we teach meditation and the healing breath.
The glory of the resurrection body lies dormant in our flesh. Physical body is the external trellis on which the subtle flower grows, twining round the spine and vegus nerve.
With the opening of the fountain in our hearts, conscious energy blossoms into form. Spirit flows into matter. The breath the Holy Spirit infuses our physiology, raising the vibration of every atom. The Holy Spirit is prana-shakti.
Biblical languages, both Hebrew and Greek, use the same word for “breath” and “spirit” (Ruach in Hebrew, Pneuma in Greek). Adam (Adamah means “dust” in Hebrew) did not become a “living person” until God breathed the divine breath into his body. This is a Biblical pun: the word for “living person” is nashamah, which also refers to breath, individualized. Yogic practices such as meditation and the Sudarshan Kriya breathe this same divine breath into us, dissolving the difference between matter and spirit.
A new energy is born in us. This ecstatic energy is like the sap in a stem that, once awakened by the Springtime of the touch of the master, makes the blossom appear. When this inner alchemy becomes conscious, and the transmutation begins, the soul is driven by an unquenchable passion for the infinite.
Some people imagine that there is a conflict between seva, service to society, and sadhana, inner spiritual practice. But this is a meaningless distinction, since you are of vastly greater service the more you infuse the divine glory and radiate it on earth.
Jesus invited us all to infuse our physical form with spiritual radiance. In the Gospel of John he said, “I have come to bring you life, and more abundantly… what I give will become a wellspring inside you, pouring out eternal life.” In the Gospel of Matthew he taught that “the inner eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is one, your whole body will be filled with light.” The inner eye is the witness, pure consciousness, the silent atman beyond thought. From the atmic splendor, light pours into matter and transforms human physiology. Jesus as “Word made flesh” saw no distinction between spirit and matter.
Like the Buddha, Jesus did not come to be worshiped. He came as our Elder Brother to teach the Yogic/Shamanic processes that will transform his siblings into beings of glory just like him. At this moment in our history, the time is ripe for this evolutionary leap, raising humanity’s collective vibration. Many feel the quickening.
Therefore, the greatest service one could perform for humanity is the practice of meditation, awakening the heart and opening its fountain of glory. For it is not the imposition of a political or economic system that will transform the earth, but the quickening of our energy vibration.
Economic and political changes are the outward effects of inward transformation. If there is no inward transformation, the imposition of external systems will be futile, and even when they are beneficent, people will resist them. The political system that works is one that reflects the level of the peoples’ consciousness.
In American society, the craving for wealth, sensation, and financial power is a misdirected quest for what we truly want. What we truly want is the stream of glory that flows from the fountain of the heart.
The radiance of the heart is our inheritance, our true abundance. When we find it, craving dissolves in gratitude: this is the solution to our political problems.
When we turn our outward search 180 degrees, and point our attention within, we can embrace the very lack we feel at our core. We can hug our emptiness as an intentional spiritual practice. That silent empty place of lack can become the womb of glory. It is the silence where the master plants the seed of meditation, the bija mantra. With regular cultivation, that seed becomes a flower of glory.
Lift up your hollowness like a sacred cup. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said. Blessed are the empty, for they shall be filled.
We look for the one who is looking. When we see the truth, the wine steward will come to us as our very own Self, filling the grail of the heart with sparkling vintage.
Establishing contentment in the heart, we simplify our lives, reducing wants to needs, until the most ordinary things become sacramental. This is the real economy.
Then, just to take a breath is to sip the sweetest nectar. To behold a wildflower is to stand before the emperor’s throne. Merely to be present is to own the stars. To walk on earth is to dwell in heaven.
Your body is the most beautiful garment ever woven. Sit down gracefully, stand up mindfully, walk lovingly with bare feet on wet grass. This is the royal Way. Gaze into each others eyes: this is incalculable wealth.
