This is where you begin to put your contemplative practice into action.
You will reach a ceiling when exploring the mysteries with your mind alone: This is where gnosis steps in and aids the disciple. So many paradoxes and difficulties will become clear to you through the intuitive faculties of your heart, and all the puzzle pieces will fall into place, once you have access to higher guidance.
“The Kingdom of Heaven Is Within You”
All the answers to your questioning heart are right there inside you!
I offer here my methodology, which may work for you or you can develop your own:
You will need open-ended time with uninterrupted quiet.
Have a journal near you and a working pen.
Begin centering prayer, or any method for quieting the mind and body.
At some point once centered, enter into the Cave of the Heart.
One might envision this as a physical Temple, or Inner Sanctum,
into which one actually descends physically.
Envision the body actually entering this sacred space.
Begin to cultivate a receptive attitude of prayer in the Heart space.
Visualise a purification ritual, if you wish.
Generate a FEELING OF DEVOTION IN THE HEART:
GRATITUDE, FAITH, BLISS, PEACE.
Let these feelings flow from you as an offering of incense to the Lord.
Invoke ALIGNMENT with your higher self, your personal guides, and your spiritual masters (name them), Jesus Christ (Yeshua), and the Angelic Messengers, or Heavenly Host. This is a very important step.
One is asking to align one’s vessel to receive these vibrations, these messages.
I often envision a doorway through which I go out into a forest scene to seek
my master, Jesus Christ (Yeshua), and enter into an enclosed space with other disciples.
Let visualizations vary according to need. Follow your intuition; it is very simple.
When you feel ready and receptive, open your eyes
and gently open your journal to a blank page.
Wait.
Listen.
Wait.
Listen.
In the silence a message may come.
It is rather akin to waiting for your eyes to become accustomed to
the dark: your spiritual ear becomes accustomed to the silence.
Write down what you “hear”. As you write, the message will flow out of your pen, phrase by phrase.
Don’t be discouraged if at first you only catch one word or phrase.
Practice opens the gates of communication incrementally.
Try not to insert yourself into the process. Let it flow.
Don’t ask questions. Just trust that you will receive what you are meant
to receive. Your trust and faith like an incense rises.
Let the ego take a nap during this time. Don’t rouse
the ego.
After practicing and getting good at listening to the still, small voice,
you can begin to ask questions you may have, and thus enter into a dialogue.
But don’t at first. JUST LISTEN.
This is comparable to the same process an artist goes through when “downloading” an artistic vision, a poem, or anything creative.
Here is an excerpt from my journal concerning this process
as I was learning to become adept at listening:
February 28, 2002:
“Discipline the heart through listening practice–
the heart has its ear to the universe and knows the
true sound of My Voice. It is soft and barely perceptible,
but leads the Way to the doorways within. Be near, always near to Me
in thought, ear, feeling, and heart, for guidance is at hand….
…My child, you are most precious to Me.
The voice in the silence lies on the verge of being inaudible.
Make it audible, I pray you.
Carry the voices of the ethers into your heart and distill them.
Remember, your heart is the ear. The ear which is open shall hear.
Magnify the almost inaudible, so that it is once again audible
as it was in the heavens to all souls incarnate.
The incarnate soul must hear the songs of the silence.
The silence must resound with the vestiges of Spirit,
as it was in what is called the “Big Bang.”
There is no true silence, just a continuum of vibrations
towards the most subtle. The more subtle the vibration,
the more beautiful it is, because it lies so close to silence,
which is holy and which exists only in God’s presence.
The closer to silence is the vibration, then, the closer to God
it lies in bearing its truth, its witness to the holiness of the universe.
Search the subtle vibration–explore its range; use the
so-called “silence” to conjure the dreams of the soul’s relationship
to God.
There is much uncertainty here–hence the need for purity–
purity of heart refines it as an instrument of listening:
the purer the heart, the closer to silence is its range of audibility.
Cast out uncertainties, therefore, and hear Me truly,
and truly I will speak to thee.
Go in peace and hear Me roar!”
Blessings of the silence be with you…
