Jose Tirado on Divine Attention

7/28/2019 Jose Tirado on Divine Attention

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On Divine Attention

Jose Tirado

There is a principle which is pure, placed in the

human

mind, which in different places and ages hath had

different

names. It is, however, pure and proceeds from God.It

is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion

nor

excluded from any, where the heart stands in

perfect sincerity.

In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what

nation soever, they become brethren.

John Woolman,

"Considerations on Keeping Negroes," 1746


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After thou seest thy thoughts and the temptation,

do not

think but submit, and then power comes. Stand still

in the

Light and submit to it ... and when temptations and

troubles

appear, sink down in that which is pure, and all

will behushed and fly away. And earthly reason will tell

you what

ye shall lose. Hearken not to that, but stand still in

the

Light.

George Fox, Epistle 10

Be still and know I am God.

Psalms 46:10


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Recently I have been revisiting my interest in

Quaker spirituality. The reason for this is simply

that, though a Buddhist priest of the Jodo Shinshu

tradition, I remain intrigued by a special connection

and some extraordinary similarities between these

two ostensibly divergent faiths. I remember the

times when I lived in communities without anyBuddhist temple nearby and I gladly attended the

Quaker services because I felt here was a connection

to the deepest feeling I received in Buddhism that

has led me through several of its grand traditions.

Actually, this feeling has little to do with forms of

any kind, thus I have felt equally at home in Muslimmosques, Hindu temples and the rich Orthodox

Christian churches. All retain that feeling I speak of

and all possess the power to draw me inward and to

hold me in that warm embrace of silence that forces

me to become more attentive to who I really am.

It is this aspect of silence, and its importance to

what I believe the true beginning of spirituality,

attention, that has been engaging me of late and


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might be of some relevance to those journeying on

the Fourth Way.

In the Quaker tradition, silence is the heart of

church services and a place of unique, and

powerful, spiritual practice. When, in the midst of a

deep quiet a testimony begins, a beautiful and

moving, spontaneous sermon often greets us.

These are neither rehearsed nor written and yet Ihave heard on occasion some of the most inspiring

talks emanating as it were, from Spirit itself, from

the most ordinary of people.

As most Fourth Way students recognize, the

proprioception, or sensing exercises have a powerbeyond the limitations of the bodily area focused

upon, or the articulateness (or not) of the exercise.

Conducted in silence, they seem to energize the

practitioner in spiritually powerful ways. We move

away from the practices revitalized, energized in

our Being, creating for many, the first feeling of

truly being alive.

In Lost Christianity, Jacob Needleman, he a noted


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Fourth Way practitioner, relates the story of Father

Sylvan who speaks eloquently for the vitalizing

power of deep attention to oneself and emotions as a

necessary precursor to developing true Christian

feeling. It is only in development of this attention in

us that we begin the creation of a soul, from

which only then are we able to be Christians in more

than name only.

In Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism, the main

practice is deep hearing or monpo, or and is

related to hearing the Light (monko) of Amida,

both characterized by a deepening of faith in Amida

Buddha, whose very Name refers to Infinite Light

and Infinite Life. We return again and again tohearing the Light of Amida shine in our deepest

beings, offering us rest in the Pure Land that exists

not only in the Time beyond Time after our death,

but in the ever-present Time of the Present, a now in

which the working of his vows extends even to the

weakest sinner. This we receive as a gift of faith

through the power of his Name, Namo Amida

Butsu.


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gap between the dark vastnesses from which I

once arose and to which we all return. I say dark

only insofar as it is unrevealed to us completely. For

example, how many of us remember the period

before we were born? Yet we may rest assured that

that phase, that period existed, as surely as we now

know we exist in the present, and that that Time will

continue after we are gone. That time, that state,

existed in some great Mysterious past. Then wecome, shining our own reflections of Divinity so

weakly in the face of what we arose from and what

we must inevitably return to. And yet that little

shine of ours is the stuff of our awareness, the realm

of our civilization, the grand container of all

humanitys dreams and Time-bound culture. We aremerely a fluttering, fiery gap between the numinal

darkness that contains, as a womb, the Creation of

all.

Into this gap that is our life, what can we offer but

silent, humble recognition of the vastness of the

unimaginable before us and acknowledgement of

the unknowable vastness before I was? In this

time, in which we see our whole Life, we may


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enter those moments of luminous awareness,

stretching into a present that we sense is much

greater than the linear present in which we normally

live. What is this moment but an intimation of those

two grand bookends that enclose this little life of

mine? We, who are but little flickers of light

bookended by eternity have a choice: to burn with

radiant depth, or to sparkle a bit and then dissolve

back into those depths from which we originated,and to which we must all return. It is our

attentiveness to this Life, this gap between the Great

Timelssness that gives birth and that Great

Timelessness which receives us once again, that

determines if we truly become. And can there be

any more noble goal than to truly become?

What do we see in those moments of attention but

the luminous vibrancy of atomic energy bouncing in

embodied, pulsating forms we call Life, solid but for

a few infinitesimally tiny moments, we call a human

life? It is in these moments that we are made greater

than we normally are for we join both those dark

ends into this radiant, linear middle. But arent I a

collection of atoms that never die, merely changing


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form and returning into the womb of nascence I

once arose from? Into those moments, I am given a

vista beyond any previously imaginable with eyes

still attached to believing these 80 or so years as the

sum of my life. And from this vista, I am, if I am

attentive enough, given a chance to Be and to

witness all Being in its multifarious diversity.

Though perhaps counterintuitive, therefore I canlove more, not less, the greater my distance is to

the observed, whether that be an emotion or a child.

For when my nervous attachments are removed, my

habitual reactions and less-than-enlightened way of

relating are abandoned; I am open to this newer,

and higher view. For then I see, even more clearly,the terrible fragility of humanity, the delicate

softness of Being itself and allow the automatic

outpouring of compassionate concern for the

vulnerable beings we all truly are to flow out from

me. I think this is what is truly meant by the

Buddhist non-attachment, for the more I can see

the bigger picture, the more tenderly I regard the

objects of my vision and the more ready I am to

forgive or understand, despite the inevitable


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intrusions of habit.

The deep, indeed, Divine Attention I pay to the

inner movements of my interior life, to those Divine

moments I give my self over to, directs me to a

higher awareness that seems to be far beyond

myself, grander and quite set apart from the day-to-

day personality I call my waking self. At such times

I notice that the insight attained is really a gift,nothing that appears to come from me, but appears

to come from outside of me, granting me a vision of

things as they really are, enabling me to take in the

entire range of Creation at once, teaching me to see,

so to speak, with Gods eyes.

Jose Tirado

Jose Tirado on Divine Attention

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