Inner  Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

 

Inner Work


For the week of June 18, 2007

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The Sacred Dance of Emptiness

Perhaps the following will make little sense or seem out of reach, but it is in fact quite practical. It does, however, require an exploratory attitude, a drive toward the sacred, and a willingness to attempt the seemingly impossible. Through repeated exploration of the deepest realms within you, you can learn the sacred dance of emptiness. And its essential simplicity as well as the utter joy it brings may astonish you.

The sacred emptiness of our individual spirit enjoys a kinship with the Great Emptiness of the Sacred One. But what emptiness, why emptiness? We can distinguish at least three forms of emptiness: emotional, the individual spirit, and the Divine emptiness.

We fear emotional emptiness, which rejects our lack. Like loneliness and ennui, emotional emptiness stands in self-centeredness hoping to escape the abyss of not having what we want, the abyss of not being full. Emotional emptiness is paradoxically full of self. Without the self-centeredness, the emotional abyss evaporates.

Spiritual emptiness means collecting all our scattered urges and desires into the one overriding need for the sacred. We empty ourselves of ourselves, of all but our immediate need for the Divine. This true emptiness creates space for the higher to fill us.

As for the Divine emptiness, out of That the universe continuously comes into being. Only the blank slate of emptiness could allow the primordial creative acts of the One Source. Will itself, the essential nature of the Sacred Source, is empty of all substance, even empty of energy. But both our will and the Divine Will do act on and through substance. Furthermore, the One Who chooses imparts qualities such as love in the act of choosing.

How does this matter to us? In our deepest inner work, wherein we move toward the Divine, that movement must pass through our individual emptiness. We seek, by emptying ourselves, heart and soul, to open to the Holy in Its emptiness. Through mutual attraction, our individual emptiness can touch the Great Emptiness. A kind of sacred dance of emptiness conjoins two infinities: our inner infinity and the Sacred Infinite.

How can we empty ourselves? We prepare by deep relaxation and full presence. Aware of the thoughts, emotions, and sensations continuously moving through our nervous system, we let them all be as they are. But instead of being moved along with them, we direct our entire interest and attention elsewhere, into the stillness beneath all our perceptual clutter. We shift our focus from the content of experience into the silent context of consciousness.

Now even within conscious stillness, our self-centered urges and passions remain just beneath the surface. So in those moments, we intentionally gather all our heart’s desires, subsuming them into an all-encompassing passion for the Divine, for immediate connection, for completion, for true service. These acts of gathering and subsuming our desires empty our heart as we inwardly reach toward the Great Emptiness. Repeating this again and again, we move ever closer to the Sacred, tasting the confluence of our individual emptiness with the Great Sacred Emptiness, the abode of the Divine.

For this week, practice the joyous sacred dance of emptiness.


     

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