As usual, Theophile came to spend a moment with his friend Abel,at the end of the afternoon, at a time when the heat is less intense.
Theophile the Elder (teasingly):
– From our previous discussions I gathered that age had you turn more and more towards mysticism. You keep talking about love and surrender…
Abel (laughing):
– There was a time when I considered mystics as emotional devotees and when I’d rather refer to knowledge than to mysticism, but since then, I’ve given up on researching in that direction – or research has given up on me, I guess!
I’ve always wanted to understand the laws that govern both the universe and the human beings, but something was always wanting. I must admit that I shun the intellect and its meanderings. Reason will justify about anything! But we shan’t go over it again, as I’ve been repeating the same things for about thirty years now.
The Elder – Reading Christian and Sufi mystic literature had me think of you. They both refer to extinguishment, which the Sufis call ‘fana’ whereas the Christians call it ‘annihilation’. So they aspire to making way for God within themselves by extinguishing the self. They also intensely care for feeling the inner Presence at every moment in their daily lives.
Abel – Isn’t that being rather radical or over religious?
The Elder – What matters is what the researchers have realized during their lives. Some of them became all love. Remember Ma Ananda Moyi. We met her in India, in the 1970s.
Abel – She is a Hindu, and the context was very particular.
The Elder – Some of the mystics are Taoists and others follow different ways, but they all described similar states of the soul. The only difference was in the way they expressed it, depending on their own times and cultures.
Abel shook his head dubiously.
The Elder (amused):
– Are you back to your old habits of doubting everything?
Abel – Anyway, it’s all the same. One must die to one’s self in order to be reborn to the Divine within the self. Isn’t it?
The Elder – I quite agree, provided it is all done with love.
Abel – Personally, I find that before ‘dying to it’ we have to go through a very long, a far too long agony.
The Elder – That is the reason why most transformations happen during deep meditations or while you are sleeping.
Abel (humorously)/
– Then I must really be changing since I sleep quite a lot and whenever I’m not meditating. At least, these are moments when I don’t resist anymore and when my mind is finally at rest.
The Elder – I have to insist again upon love. With love, everything will run smoothly. That is the reason why we connect ourselves with past or present great Beings. To us they are like spiritual mothers. They love us and they will accompany us all along our spiritual journey.
Abel – I feel they are souls’ couriers. They make our path smooth and remove the barriers we meet. Recently, I had the feeling that there were moments when they were carrying me.
The Elder – Such moments are moments of grace!
Abel – Are such moments – when I can feel an impulse which makes my heart rise up – what you call ‘a prayer’?
For a response, Theophile’s voice became a whisper mentioning their favorite mystic, Jeanne Guyon:
“Prayer is an overflow of the heart in God’s Presence. It is an oration.”
Silence…
“Prayer is nothing but the warmth of love that will melt and dissolve the soul, then take it away and take it up to God.”
Silence…
“God’s Presence melts the hardness of the soul.”
Silence…
“We must stop being, in order to let the Word be within ourselves, in order to let It live within us.”
Silence…
Both men settle within that silence which naturally carries them into a deep meditation.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Sharing views with Abel