The Prayer of the Heart

1. The Prayer of the Heart RCUI Online

2. The Way of the Heart KETHER Crown BINAH Intelligence CHOKMAH Wisdom GEBURAH Strength CHESED Mercy TIPHERETH Beauty HOD Splendor NETZACH Victory YESOD Foundation MALKUTH Kingdom

3. Gratitude • We are all grateful to those who have pointed the way. For this presentation, I would like to acknowledge several wonderful fonts from which many of these ideas flow: • Grand Master Julie Scott and the Ancient Mystery Schools • Karen Wark, Ph.D. (abd) • Eugene Ludwig, OFM, Cap., Th.D. • Peter Kingsley, Ph.D. • David Steindl-Rast, OSB, Ph.D. • George Maloney, SJ, Ph.D. • Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D.

4. To Begin the Journey • Metanoia: • A life of service according the Law of AMRA, active love of all • Ethical life • Fundamental orientation toward the Divine/the Cosmic • Daily Meditation • Know Thyself: a fair degree of Mastery of Life • Lived understanding of “As above, so Below”: all is an emanation of the Divine, including us, but this is not often realized. • Not obsessed with technicalities • Under the auspices of the Rose+Cross: • The Desire for Cosmic Union, Reintegration personally • The Desire to bring about Apocatastasis, Tikkun Olam, the Great Restoration

5. The Human Person • Three Centers. “Three Brained” (Gurdjieff): • The Intellectual Center • Thinking, Analyzing, usually exclusively binary (either/or) • The Moving Center (understanding spirituality encoded in movement and gesture) • The instinctive center: involuntary system • The voluntary center: 5 senses, movement, rhythm • The Emotional Center • The Heart Center (at Heart or Solar Plexus) • Not the celebration of my “individual passions and emotions” • Apatheia: powerful and in control, no longer subject to the Passions • The Heart: an organ for the perception of Divine purpose and beauty • When the heart and spiritual nervous system are purified, they can “feel” the cosmic order, burn with it without being consumed. Perceive and hold “both/and.”

6. Presence • When all three centers are active and in balance, we are “present” wakeful. • Living unconsciously in only one center (usually the Intellectual in the West) is called the state of spiritual sleep. • When we are active and balanced in all three, we are “at home.”

7. The Levels of Being Spirit condenses to Psychic Force then to Energy and Matter The Cosmic Unity, Unmanifest, Whole Intellegible World (Greek) Chesed (Hebrew), The Covenant Faerie (Celtic) Imaginal World (Sufi & Theosophical) “The Kingdom of Heaven” (Christian) The Manifest World

8. The Human Role in the Cosmos • We are body-soul-spirit, so are microcosms of all being, of the whole. We are Logoi. • The “Names of God” the Archetypes or Divine Energies, are manifested in the multiplicity of the Cosmos. • When we are “present,” the Heart perceives the Cosmic order, active in the Imaginal and Manifest Worlds at the same time. It does this by participating in the pattern (logos) because it is also the pattern. • We can make manifest the Divine Name encoded in ourselves, and in other beings, to nourish the Cosmos and continue the progress of Reintegration.

9. Freedom and Surrender • True Freedom: To be who we truly are, not what we appear to be. The viewpoint of the Acorn (Maurice Nicholl). • The sacrifice of the lower self to manifest the higher self • To die before you die • Inner surrender: being totally present at all times. • Inner surrender in presence manifests as outward fearless action. To know and do the right thing at the right time no matter what. • Choice Freedom is transformed into Spontaneity Freedom • “Do not reserve a place in your heart for God: become all God” (Eckhart)

10. Human Destiny Fulfilled • When we are truly free and “Praos,” as our Higher Self, transformed from an Individual (idios) into a Person (Per-sonare): • The Heart perceives the Cosmic Patterns everywhere, at all times, in spontaneous connection with the Cosmic. • We are truly Original, because we are one with the Origin of all. • The Psychic Force and the Spiritual Force are released to nourish and aid in reintegrating the manifest cosmos. • The ultimate goal of humanity, to be the Logos of the Cosmos, and to bring about the Great Restoration, will be accomplished.

11. Steps on the Path • “Ora”: Daily Meditation • “Labora”: Work, usually rhythmic (e.g., garden work, folding clothes, etc.), done mindfully, awake and present • Incubation • Chanting of Vowel Sounds or other Sacred Chant • Lectio Divina: • Method One • Method Two • The Prayer of the Heart

12. Incubation • Ancient Practice of many of the Mystery Schools • May have originated in the Houses of Life of Egypt • Practiced by the Pythagoreans, Parmenides, Empedocles, probably the Sophists • The Source of all of their teachings and Wisdom • Used for healing, wisdom, spirituality

13. Sacred Chant • Combines the two elements that brought about the manifestation of all: Word and Sound manifesting the Light. • Vowel Sounds • Other Sacred Chant: Rosicrucian, or from your own spiritual traditions

14. The Rosicrucian Chant Ad Rosam per Crucem To the Rose through the Cross Ad Crucem per Rosam To the Cross through the Rose In ea in eis gemmatus Through these, I shall arise resurgam! Adorned with them. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis Not to us, O Lord, not to us, Sed gloriae soli Nominis Tui. But to the sole glory of Thy Name.

15. The Four Levels of Sacred Texts • Widespread in World Spiritualities, in Alexandria Origen had 3 levels; Kabbalah and later mystics see 4. • Literal: Exegesis of what the text says • Analogical or Allegorical: how the text can represent other stories, events. • Tropological or Moral: What the text says about how to live, individually and collectively. • Anagogic or Unitive: Not only seeing the cosmic perspective of the text, but co-creating this into manifestation, in union with the Imaginal and Mundane worlds.

16. Lectio Divina: Method One • Useful for the focusing and training of the Imagination (the faculty for accessing the Imaginal World) • 1: Read a passage from a Sacred Work, slowly and preferably aloud • 2: Peacefully allow your intellect, emotions, memories, imagination to work with the text, noting what emerges for you (hermeneutics, not exegesis). • 3: From this, allow prayer based on 2 to spontaneously emerge. • Silent theoria (contemplation), letting go of all thoughts, feelings, etc.

17. Lectio Divina: Method Two • Useful as training for the Prayer of the Heart • Select a short passage from a Sacred Text • With rhythmic breathing, take one word, or short phrase at a time, and breathe it in and out, staying with it as long as feels right. • Without trying to analyze, simply observe what thoughts, feelings, memories arise.

18. Prayer of the Heart • Widespread among most spiritual paths, for example: • Zikr (Dhikr) – The Divine Names (Sufi Islam) • Jesus Prayer (Christian) • The Divine Names (Kabbalah Jewish) • “Allah-u-Abha” (Baha’i) • Mantras with Japa Mala beads (Buddhist) • Name of God with Japa Mala beads (Hinduism)

19. Prayer of the Heart • Begin with the Overall Exercise • When completed, bring the consciousness back to the Heart Center (where you perceive it to be) • Begin interiorly repeating a Divine Name or Sacred word or short phrase. • If a Name or single word, breathe it in and out. • If a phrase, breathe in one part, and breathe out the other. • Continue for as long as planned at first. • Practice this while working, in motion, etc. • Eventually, “pray without ceasing.”