Jose Tirado on Divine Attention
Transcript of Jose Tirado on Divine Attention
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On Divine Attention
Jose Tirado
There is a principle which is pure, placed in the
human
mind, which in different places and ages hath had
different
names. It is, however, pure and proceeds from God.It
is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion
nor
excluded from any, where the heart stands in
perfect sincerity.
In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what
nation soever, they become brethren.
John Woolman,
"Considerations on Keeping Negroes," 1746
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After thou seest thy thoughts and the temptation,
do not
think but submit, and then power comes. Stand still
in the
Light and submit to it ... and when temptations and
troubles
appear, sink down in that which is pure, and all
will behushed and fly away. And earthly reason will tell
you what
ye shall lose. Hearken not to that, but stand still in
the
Light.
George Fox, Epistle 10
Be still and know I am God.
Psalms 46:10
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Recently I have been revisiting my interest in
Quaker spirituality. The reason for this is simply
that, though a Buddhist priest of the Jodo Shinshu
tradition, I remain intrigued by a special connection
and some extraordinary similarities between these
two ostensibly divergent faiths. I remember the
times when I lived in communities without anyBuddhist temple nearby and I gladly attended the
Quaker services because I felt here was a connection
to the deepest feeling I received in Buddhism that
has led me through several of its grand traditions.
Actually, this feeling has little to do with forms of
any kind, thus I have felt equally at home in Muslimmosques, Hindu temples and the rich Orthodox
Christian churches. All retain that feeling I speak of
and all possess the power to draw me inward and to
hold me in that warm embrace of silence that forces
me to become more attentive to who I really am.
It is this aspect of silence, and its importance to
what I believe the true beginning of spirituality,
attention, that has been engaging me of late and
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might be of some relevance to those journeying on
the Fourth Way.
In the Quaker tradition, silence is the heart of
church services and a place of unique, and
powerful, spiritual practice. When, in the midst of a
deep quiet a testimony begins, a beautiful and
moving, spontaneous sermon often greets us.
These are neither rehearsed nor written and yet Ihave heard on occasion some of the most inspiring
talks emanating as it were, from Spirit itself, from
the most ordinary of people.
As most Fourth Way students recognize, the
proprioception, or sensing exercises have a powerbeyond the limitations of the bodily area focused
upon, or the articulateness (or not) of the exercise.
Conducted in silence, they seem to energize the
practitioner in spiritually powerful ways. We move
away from the practices revitalized, energized in
our Being, creating for many, the first feeling of
truly being alive.
In Lost Christianity, Jacob Needleman, he a noted
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Fourth Way practitioner, relates the story of Father
Sylvan who speaks eloquently for the vitalizing
power of deep attention to oneself and emotions as a
necessary precursor to developing true Christian
feeling. It is only in development of this attention in
us that we begin the creation of a soul, from
which only then are we able to be Christians in more
than name only.
In Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism, the main
practice is deep hearing or monpo, or and is
related to hearing the Light (monko) of Amida,
both characterized by a deepening of faith in Amida
Buddha, whose very Name refers to Infinite Light
and Infinite Life. We return again and again tohearing the Light of Amida shine in our deepest
beings, offering us rest in the Pure Land that exists
not only in the Time beyond Time after our death,
but in the ever-present Time of the Present, a now in
which the working of his vows extends even to the
weakest sinner. This we receive as a gift of faith
through the power of his Name, Namo Amida
Butsu.
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gap between the dark vastnesses from which I
once arose and to which we all return. I say dark
only insofar as it is unrevealed to us completely. For
example, how many of us remember the period
before we were born? Yet we may rest assured that
that phase, that period existed, as surely as we now
know we exist in the present, and that that Time will
continue after we are gone. That time, that state,
existed in some great Mysterious past. Then wecome, shining our own reflections of Divinity so
weakly in the face of what we arose from and what
we must inevitably return to. And yet that little
shine of ours is the stuff of our awareness, the realm
of our civilization, the grand container of all
humanitys dreams and Time-bound culture. We aremerely a fluttering, fiery gap between the numinal
darkness that contains, as a womb, the Creation of
all.
Into this gap that is our life, what can we offer but
silent, humble recognition of the vastness of the
unimaginable before us and acknowledgement of
the unknowable vastness before I was? In this
time, in which we see our whole Life, we may
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enter those moments of luminous awareness,
stretching into a present that we sense is much
greater than the linear present in which we normally
live. What is this moment but an intimation of those
two grand bookends that enclose this little life of
mine? We, who are but little flickers of light
bookended by eternity have a choice: to burn with
radiant depth, or to sparkle a bit and then dissolve
back into those depths from which we originated,and to which we must all return. It is our
attentiveness to this Life, this gap between the Great
Timelssness that gives birth and that Great
Timelessness which receives us once again, that
determines if we truly become. And can there be
any more noble goal than to truly become?
What do we see in those moments of attention but
the luminous vibrancy of atomic energy bouncing in
embodied, pulsating forms we call Life, solid but for
a few infinitesimally tiny moments, we call a human
life? It is in these moments that we are made greater
than we normally are for we join both those dark
ends into this radiant, linear middle. But arent I a
collection of atoms that never die, merely changing
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form and returning into the womb of nascence I
once arose from? Into those moments, I am given a
vista beyond any previously imaginable with eyes
still attached to believing these 80 or so years as the
sum of my life. And from this vista, I am, if I am
attentive enough, given a chance to Be and to
witness all Being in its multifarious diversity.
Though perhaps counterintuitive, therefore I canlove more, not less, the greater my distance is to
the observed, whether that be an emotion or a child.
For when my nervous attachments are removed, my
habitual reactions and less-than-enlightened way of
relating are abandoned; I am open to this newer,
and higher view. For then I see, even more clearly,the terrible fragility of humanity, the delicate
softness of Being itself and allow the automatic
outpouring of compassionate concern for the
vulnerable beings we all truly are to flow out from
me. I think this is what is truly meant by the
Buddhist non-attachment, for the more I can see
the bigger picture, the more tenderly I regard the
objects of my vision and the more ready I am to
forgive or understand, despite the inevitable
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intrusions of habit.
The deep, indeed, Divine Attention I pay to the
inner movements of my interior life, to those Divine
moments I give my self over to, directs me to a
higher awareness that seems to be far beyond
myself, grander and quite set apart from the day-to-
day personality I call my waking self. At such times
I notice that the insight attained is really a gift,nothing that appears to come from me, but appears
to come from outside of me, granting me a vision of
things as they really are, enabling me to take in the
entire range of Creation at once, teaching me to see,
so to speak, with Gods eyes.
Jose Tirado