Mystical Practices to Heal and Transform the World
Can Praying Change the World?
Mystical Activism: Part Four
To heal and change the world through mystical activism, we need ways to purposefully and directly move from our ordinary consciousness to non-ordinary mystical consciousness. This includes the awakened state in harmonic cocreation and wisdom and the unitive state of oneness that was Jesus’ plan for transforming the world.
Jesus said, “I pray, Abba, that they may be one as you and I are one, so the world may be one” (John 17:21-23). He was not talking here about the oneness we experience in a fleeting, beautiful moment of awakening. Nor is he speaking of a powerful peak experience that changes our life forever. Those are wonderful and can lead us to what he was aiming at. Rather, he was speaking of unity consciousness. This is not only experiencing oneness but being oneness. This means that we see everything from a nondual way of seeing. Jesus said, “If your eye sees oneness (“is single”), your whole body is full of light” (Matt. 6:22.)
Most of us maybe feel that we are not quite to that place yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have an impact on the world! Spiritual practices are the ways by which we help move ourselves further in that direction.
There are practices that help transform our own consciousness and deepen into oneness, and there are practices that intentionally seek to transmit out to the world the energy of love and healing that are more intentional forms of mystical activism. Both are instrumental in changing the world. We need to do both in order to heal and transform the world.
What are practices?
Now a word about the word “practices.” I don’t like that word. It makes me think of being a kid and the necessity, in my parents’ viewpoint, of “practicing” the piano.” It was boring, no fun, and hard work! That isn’t how I would describe my prayer and meditation time or my WeSpace groups.
Also, the word “practice” implies this is something one does in order to get to something else that is the real thing. That has nothing to do with spiritual “practice” since mystical practice is in itself “the real thing!” Moving into the direct experience of God and the enchanted, mysterious world is an end in itself.
However, I have been unable to find a better word than “practice,” so here goes. Simply put, a spiritual practice is something you do on a regular basis that draws you deeper into who you really are. It helps you move into the awareness and experience of full reality by connecting you with your divine self, with others, and with all things.
Practices keep us from just thinking about these wonderful possibilities but encourage us to actively participate in the energetic transformation of the consciousness of the world through spiritual practices such as Whole-Body Mystical Awakening that further move us into this consciousness, awareness, and oneness.
Teaming with Other Traditions
Other traditions use other forms of practice and might use different words in speaking of the divine or ultimate reality. They may name what we call union with God with words such as spiritual enlightenment, self-realization, awakening, spiritual illumination, or non-duality. Regardless of its spiritual tradition or framework and practices, any group that functions in mystical activism can intentionally radiate that oneness to the whole planet. Jesus says that will make a difference in the world (John 17:21). I believe this probably works best through more integral, non-dogmatic forms of spiritual consciousness. Exclusionary and dogmatic forms of anything lack the spiritual power to bring about inner transformation in the individual, the collective, or the world.
Together, with transformed consciousness, we change the world.
Our first step is to move from putting our self center stage and move more into the flow of our shared identity. Transcendence comes from the natural progression in moving from I to “We,” then to Everyone, and ultimately to Everything. The New Testament calls this “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” with Christ being the Christian symbol for Everything. You know you are transforming when you are awakening from the illusion of separation and are starting to realize the unity with all that exists.
In the Integral Christian Network, we do this in communion with others on the same journey. We find that this movement first into the “We” is vital and empowering. The shared energy and consciousness of the WeSpace helps us move more easily into this transcendent space beyond ourselves, between and among one another. We are energetically helping one another transform our consciousness, individually and collectively.
Being in a WeSpace community like this also gives us the companionship of empowerment we so often crave. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin describe this longing to find these others, “There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.”
OUR PRACTICES
We have found that moving through the four centers of spiritual knowing in our practice is a more integrated and holistic path into awakened and unitive consciousness. We can do this alone or with others, and practicing in such a way opens up a comprehensive and endless array of spiritual resources for our own nurture and the healing of the world.
To illustrate all of this, I want to share some of the practices from each center in this article and the next that we have found helpful in our groups that lead us to mystical activism.
Activism from Our Hearts
We most often begin and end our WeSpace meditative prayer time by actually entering the center of spiritual knowing we call the heart. Doing this makes us more likely to connect with the dynamic field of God’s heart this way, rather than just thinking about it. For those new to this, we encourage them to begin by tapping down from their head to their heart. Then cross their hands and arms on their chest and think of someone they love. This usually puts most of us in touch with an inner flow of love from deep with our hearts.
We find a felt energy field is created between the group members, our companions in empowerment. At one point, when a woman touched him, Jesus said, “I felt the power go out of me” (Luke 8:46). We get our word “dynamite” from the Greek word power there. This is a dynamic, experienced power that many in the group can sense and feel. We believe this vibrant web of spiritual heart energy is a major factor in how Jesus operated and how we function also. It is transforming and what heals and changes both us and the world.
At this time, we may also become aware of God’s mother fatherly presence, the Living Jesus, other spiritual guides, and the great cloud of witness that surround us. This is all an astonishing flow of heart energy swirling in and around us. We sit quietly and soak it up. This is often a time to receive healing and transformation within and among ourselves in the heart space of loving connection, though we are also contributing and giving into that flow.
We carry this energy of love and bliss to the feet, womb, and head center of spiritual knowing in the other parts of our practice. After that, we return to end with the heart space.
At this final heart space visit, we also move out to one another, sending heart love and healing energy to the others in our group. Often images, words, or intuitions arise from within us that seem directed at another group member or the whole group, which we share after the meditative prayer time has ended.
Then we begin our most intentional mystical activism. We take the harmony, unity, and power of this field of love that has been generated during our practice and send it out to the whole world. We sit quietly while each of us transmits this energy field out to those people and places that come to our mind. We usually end with what we call a “geyser of love.” The geyser called “Old Faithful” in Yellowstone National Park is an image of flow, power, and rivers of living water that we find is a metaphor for what we experience. We reach down with our hands, gathering the love flowing around, raise our hands up in the air, and like a geyser, send this out to the whole world. We connect with the heart centers of all other sentient beings in the universe.
This is one way that we do it in our WeSpace groups, though even amongst those, it can look a little different. There are lots of ways we can engage in the mystical activism of becoming transmitters of heart love and healing to the world.
We find this is all easier and more powerful in a group. But it all starts with any practice that has the intention to share from our hearts the love and healing that God wishes to bring into the world more fully. The radiant center of love and bliss in all of our hearts is an inexhaustible source of the deep surge of love, embracing all.
We may even begin to sense that the world is not only out there but in each of our hearts, too, as it is in God’s heart. Then we can embrace the mystery of Rumi’s words, “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”