Sometimes the only place for recovering religious junkies to go is the desert, far from the somewhat maddening crowd of religious and spiritual discussion, the marketplace of conceptual takes on Ultimate Reality.
Many of us have been so over-stimulated by religious or spiritual thought that we have to pull back from the psycho-spiritual games that are commonly played out in their respective worlds. Yes one can have too much truth, or at least too much perceived truth. Our poor wee brains eventually go into shutdown mode in order to maintain our sanity.
This I believe, is the reason that so many religious and spiritual seekers eventually put the shutters up and move on into a more normal state of being, a place where the confused dust of inner turmoil can settle once more on the journey home.
Playing our theological and esoteric mind games, our ping-pong matches of Socratic discussion can be great fun for a while, but eventually the soul screams, ‘No more!’.
Strange as it may seem, it’s at this point that we are closest to finding the One who lies behind our psycho-spiritual desire. Yet, we are gently asked to take a detox journey, one far from the hustle and bustle of established religion and East-West gurus.
Our destination is the desert, that inner place of aloneness where all true Friends of Divine Love have pitched their camp at one time or another. Here the discussion and arguments are stilled with only God and our inner Self for travelling companions. Thankfully Divine Love doesn’t bombard us with a multitude of words nor indeed Bible verses. Those days are over. No, we have been led into the wilderness where nothing gets in the way of true communion except the dregs and remnants of our previous take on reality.
As we lie there, shattered and contemplating the healing touch of atheism, or at least that of agnosticism, we sense a gentle Presence wrapping itself around us, One initially without words, One content to just be in the company of burnt-out humanity, the scorched soul of religious and spiritual war games.
This desert, this place without the outer support structures of certainty and belief, is strangely our closest port of call to the Transcendence that we call God. For here, bereft of our religious drug of attack and defence, we lie open to the gaze of One who fills All in All. We are seen for who we are; human beings who really haven’t a clue about what makes us tick or indeed what makes the Divine tick.
Here man shall not live by words alone but by every Breath of Spirit that wafts around our tortured Self, the battered victim of the religious quest and its salesmen, the spiritual experts. To be honest such experts are as screwed up as the next man; they only disguise it with their beatific smiles and got it together body language.
Here we get a chance to touch base with Source, to let our Transcendent Parent come within, in the overwhelming glory of Immanence. Here in the desert our life changes, for time and eternity, whatever that is. When the desert has done its thing in the river of Divine purpose, it releases us back into the crazy world of man, even that wackiest of worlds, the hearts and minds of our fellow seekers and believers, those caught up in the psycho-spiritual twister of belief.
Divine Love isn’t afraid of deserts.
Are we?
Yes, I am coming to realise that Divine Love is perfectly at home with the silence and stillness of deserts. Jesus himself sought refuge and solace in the desert wilderness from the religious establishments. Deserts could well be one of those places where we hear the gentle whispers of Divine Love the clearest.
I just sent you an anguished Facebook message before reading this email. A sojourn in the desert looks very attractive right now!
Irene, I’ve dwelt in the desert for a few years now, and I’d say go and do likewise 😉 We all need space from the madding crowd and the noise.
Agreed Debra. Space is essential to our sanity and there’s nowhere as crowded as the psychic space known as organized religion.
Hi Jimmy.
Yes I reckon that Yeshua carried his desert experience around with him for the rest of his short time on earth, even when in the midst of the multitudes!
Blessings
Dylan
Yes, Dylan, that is true. Yeshua most definitely carried his desert experience around with him even in the midst of multitudes. And like what you wrote in your post, we too come face to face with our humanity and vulnerability in the aloneness of the desert experience, where we would realise we are completely accepted and embraced just as we are by the Presence of Divine Love, who is in us and with us all this while.
Peace be with you
Jimmy
We are as afraid of the desert as we are abandonment. We’re afraid of ending up in hell as well as other mythical pseudospiritual punishments.
Indeed redsoprano. We fear the stripping process of the desert, believing that it will take our life rather than its target of ego control.
🙂 Dylan
i was skimming through d blog .. read the first 2 lines … could not stop reading till the very end .. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by Altanai.
You are most welcome.
🙂 Dylan
Good word, my brother! Peace!
AMEN such truth & put so beautifully. Thank you.
As a fellow desert sojourner I’ll be looking for you here 🙂 beautifully written – deeply appreciated… thank-you!
Echoes of Henri Nouwen’s book “Beloved,” having just read it today and found the beginnings of an answer to my angst/anxiety/frustration/hunger/confusion: solitude and alone-ness with the filler and healer and stillness of my soul. Suddenly my divided heart sees an outlet, my over-stimulated spirit, a way of rest. And so I will seek a desert place. Thank you for your words. Beautiful. Timely. Good.
Unconditional Love (the essence of the Divine) seeks relationship with all. Sadly, too many are not satisfied with that. The Fire Jesus sought to bring can be life giving to those who desire healing and wholeness above all else, and pain and suffering to those who attempt to force the divine into their own conditional model of human justice(and justification).
thank you again, friend…. your words reaffirm my journey and renew my confidence in Divine Love. I had stopped the diet of scripture for the Peace of the Light a long time ago….. I realized it was not drawing me deeper into Love. I did not realize that it was the source of my insanity, but after reading your words above, I have no doubt. I am content now…. floating on this eternal sea of Love.
Thanks Tom. Thinking of you at this difficult time, when all space-time games fade into insignificance.
Your friend
Dylan
Beautiful!!! Have been meditating a lot on this latley…
Thanks Florian. Good to hear from you!
Dylan
Congratulations on writing the place I reached within the past couple days, fleeing the constant arguing of theology by my surrounding people and most of the online version of christendom. Thank you for this post, it gave me hope that I’m making the right move.