sacrifice and receptivity

[Guest guest]

Toni, all,

Ton, you write,

" An understanding of what sacrifice really means would mean a reading

of Scripture or perhaps Jung. Max Zeller, I think was quoting Jung

(if my notes are correct) from CW 11: " The requirement of

individuation is sacrifice. Sacrifice presupposes consciousness for

unconscious self sacrifice is merely an accident, not a moral act. "

Sacrifice means making sacred. "

My comment here will echo your own views, I'm sure, Toni. Reading

about sacrifice might help us comprehend what it entails, but it is

actually sacrificing something which allows us to understand it.

(I'm certainly no expert at sacrifice. It's been forced on me as my

fate at times. So, these experiences have had a dual import, on one

hand, the difficulty and necessity of making a sacrifice is

understood by me and is clear enough. On the other hand I don't like

real difficulty and won't often march through the necessary fire

willingly. So, it's hard.)

Sacrifice may be characterized in simple terms: to sacrifice all that

is not one's true purpose. And, then, to be this purpose, but not

identified with it. (The sacrifice of identification is very

difficult.)

The work on the Shadow is sacrificial. It is very often true that

one's own purpose is hidden there, or at least the first steps are

hidden there. Other times, and this is often the case, the hidden

purpose is obvious, but, one has to ask their Heart, " what is it

necessary for me to do right now? " This is shadow work too, for even

this obvious purpose is covered up, veiled.

How hard it is for me to give up all the distracting passions! ...all

the competing priorities, none of which support my purpose! ...all

the things I am passionate about and would say about, 'I love them,'

yet, none of them are the single purpose I cannot love wholly unless

all the other stuff is sacrificed.

I know this is true, but, I do not easily sacrifice.

***

The echo for me is of the feminine too: purpose is to be received

before it can penetrate one's life. Even more essentially feminine:

*longing*, the longing that magnifies.

The women mystics and poets speak of it without compromise, to be

this longing...

Mirabai:

Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,

kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.

If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,

I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.

If we could reach Him through nothing but berries and wild nuts

then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!

If we could reach him by munching lettuce and dry leaves

then the goats would surely get to the Holy One before us!

If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,

I would have adored a granite mountain years ago.

Ruth Gendler:

Longing studies archeology. She is at home in the future as well as

the past. She collects mirrors and antique necklaces. The lamps in

her living room have embroidered shades, silk with beaded fringes.

She takes long walks in the early autumn evening when everything

looks dark green and purple and brown and deep blue, and the windows

of the little houses shine yellow from the lights inside.

Longing speaks the language of dreams. She is a dancer and an

actress. She knows tides and currents and pirates. She has swum in

all the oceans, and traveled to places that the rest of us have only

visited in our sleep.

Although I have met Longing many times, it is not easy to describe

her appearance. She dresses herself with an awareness of where she is

going and who will be there. It is more than the costumes though.

Even the gossip columnist who notices everything could not quite

remember Longing's height or the color of her sea-filled eyes. if you

must see her, invite her to a concert. She is especially fond of the

music of stringed instruments.

St. of Avila:

One sees nothing, either within or without, but while seeing nothing

the soul understands quite clearly who it is and where it is and

sometimes even what he means to tell it. How and by what means it

understands it does not know, but so it is, and while this is

happening it cannot fail to know it.

Alma Luz Villanueva:

Settle for

Settle for nothing

Settle for nothing less

Settle for nothing less than

Settle for nothing

less than the

object of your

desire

Desire. The weight of. The weight of our

desire. Then laugh, cry, but laugh

more than you cry, and when you hold

the world in your hands, love Her.

Rabi'a:

In love, nothing exists between breast and Breast.

Speech is born out of longing,

True description from the real taste.

The one who tastes, knows;

The one who explains, lies.

How can you describe the true form of Something

In whose presence you are blotted out?

And in whose being you still exist?

And who lives as a sign for your journey?

***

so very difficult yet right there too.

regards,