"Instead of escaping the messy human condition by going to the monastery, I actually discovered the full human condition. What I discovered was that the divine transcendence I was seeking was not found outside the human, but was found precisely by going more deeply into it and embracing it fully. In this talk I would like to share these insights about integrating our human journey toward emotional maturity into the spiritual journey of awakening to the transcendent dimension. I would like to share a bit about how this process has been working in my own life, giving practical pointers about how to live this out in concrete ways in daily life. Rather than trying to deny and destroy the vulnerable humanity I found in myself and those I lived with in community, I have found that by embracing it, by fearlessly accepting all the dark and painful places within myself and others, I could actually discover that unconditional openness that was at my heart’s deepest center, that place within that never grabs on to the ‘pleasant’, that never pushes away the ‘unpleasant’, but is simply and beautifully and unconditionally present to whatever shows up in experience.
When we practice embracing what seems vulnerable and ‘unacceptable’ within us, this very embracing touches that consciousness which is essential to who we are. It helps point us toward pure being itself, ‘the Ground of being’ within us all at our own heart’s center."
- Francis Fran Bennett
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