Today, as promised, Theophile the Elder and his friend Jeanne are helping Theophile the Younger in his approach of the Advanced Practice.
The Elder – Hello Theo! Here is Jeanne, a long-standing dear friend of mine. She has accepted to speak to you about the Advanced Practice seen through the Christian tradition, which is her own path. Listen carefully. May her words inspire you in your quest.
Addressing Jeanne:
– Jeanne, I’d like you to tell us about prayer.
– You are welcome! You see, Theo, the prayer, or oration, means the heart is being offered to God. This inner exercise in love allows our walking in God’s presence. The idea of praying is to focus on God, deep in our heart, all our senses as well as our mind being turned inwards to help us interiorize.
Theo. – Just like our meditation then!
Jeanne – For Christians, meditation means reflecting Jesus’ words in their minds. It is a reflection of such sacred words on the soul.
Theo. – Could you give me a concrete example?
Jeanne – Certainly! Just like the word ‘yoga’, the word ‘religion’ means ‘being linked’. It represents our link with God. The ‘Our Father’ prayer is our prayer to God. It allows us to enter into communion with God who is within us, deep in our hearts.
Theo. – What do you do when you pray?
Jeanne – I start with a profound act of worship and submission to God. The eyes of my body close down whereas the eyes of my soul open up. The soul is constricted within, caring only for God’s presence. It is in line with the moment when we say: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” – Heaven being within us of course.
Theo. – What happens next?
Jeanne – Nothing and everything.
Theo. – What of the rest of the prayer?
– You can say it or not, Jeanne says quietly. She remains silent for a while. Then, in a soft voice, she whispers:
“At last the Word flows, the ‘living faith’ of His Presence provides …”
She keeps quiet again. Theo can barely keep his eyes open. His heart is aspirating him.
Jeanne – You see, Theo, when one is blessed with God’s presence, the soul begins to have a taste of silence and rest. That is the Advanced Practice.
– It is the same approach as Saint John of the Cross’s one, or Therese of Lisieux’s and Therese of Avila’s, adds Theophile the Elder. It is a Christian Way, through the heart.
Jeanne – Absolutely! That prayer about simplicity is a continuous one. Over the years, it becomes softer, easier to say. The soul recognizes the path to God. Love gets purer and purer. We only want to be what He wants us to be:
“Remain united with Him,
Wait for Him patiently
So that you life may grow
and be renewed.”
Theo. – This is what we call surrendering to our Inner Master, to the Presence.
Jeanne emerges from her silence and confirms:
– Surrender is the key to your inner self, the key to perfection. It means self-stripping, self-emptying in order to let God guide your life. It requires faith. Here, faith is the consequence, rather than the postulate. Everything has been put in the hands of the Lord, our thoughts, our acts, even our spirituality. We consider that everything is God’s and that He is the doer.
In a somewhat provoking way, Theo states:
– That is what Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita recommended a long time ago. He acted as a charioteer for his friend and disciple Arjuna. Lord Krishna would never act directly, but only through Arjuna and through all the protagonists in that famous battle.
Jeanne smiles and gives a mysterious reply:
– My young Theo, I do know that episode since I was there.
Such a reply does leave Theo stunned and skeptical.
Pretending to ignore the young man’s reaction, Jeanne goes on:
– Did not he say to Arjuna, “You will find me within your heart”, which is exactly what Jesus will tell his disciples, later? They both claimed “I am the Way, I am the Path”.
So, that can be claimed by anyone who has merged with God, leaving all that inner place to the Divine.
Theo. – The idea of that sort of annihilation still makes me a little uncomfortable.
Jeanne – Every tradition has its own vocabulary, but it comes to the same. The “I” must disappear when God is invited. The Sufis speak of ‘Fana’, meaning extinction. They even say ‘Fana al Fana’, extinction in extinguishment. But you will deal later with that approach, when Theophile the Elder thinks the moment has come. In your raja-yoga tradition, you call it dissolving into God, ‘laya-avasta’. The concept is still the same: God is the charioteer, inside as well as outside.
“Leave the past to oblivion.
Leave the future to providence.
Give the present to God.”
After a short silent moment, Theo insists again:
– The Elder has not yet told me about that aspect of the practice, but the idea of seeing my self disappear seems painful to me, not really an attractive one, and I feel there is a reluctance I cannot really explain.
Jeanne – It is because you must look at the Divine, not at the extinction of the self. The process is based on love, and when in love, you can see nothing but the Beloved.
Theo. – Do you mean to tell me that being conscious of ourselves makes us suffer, whereas when we love we can’t feel the suffering any more?
Jeanne – You can still feel it, but it does not affect you. Everything, either good, less good or bad, comes from the Lord. It is all received in the same way.
Theo. – I am rather inclined to what is well and good!
Jeanne – Everybody is. But life on Earth is about daylight and darkness. We totally accept it, thus transcending duality in order to enter God’s kingdom, the Realm of Unity.
Theo. – The Elder told me that suffering is more psychological, emotional, whereas pain is objective and is there only to inform us about circumstances so that we can remedy to what causes the pain. Taking into account what you have just told me, I have decided to better practice my daily cleaning and avoid all useless suffering as best as possible.
Jeanne keeps quiet. Theo is not ready yet.
We all go through that phase, she thinks. First we see the events in our lives as positive or negative, instead of going far beyond it, supported by trust and faith. It takes time and requires a consciousness the young man has not acquired yet.
Theo continues his line of reasoning:
– It is true that the more we like God, the less we think of our selves and the more we can purify ourselves. That is the way we become subtler. So, why should we suffer?
Jeanne – When you take physical exercise, it’s always rather painful at the beginning, due to the efforts you make. It is the same with any spiritual practice you may try. Conversely, when you approach the Advanced Practice, the soul’s job mainly consists in doing nothing, in resting quietly deep in your heart, contemplating the Divine. Then equanimity will settle within you. The Taoists would call it a ‘benevolent neutrality’, all being equal, they say, and nothing being able to affect the ‘median vacuum’ in your heart.
The three friends keep silent and absorbed in the lived silence. They are wrapped in a mantle of grace. Words have found their limits; it is now time for rest, time for the inner peace.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation