There are times in our inner lives when we must dwell in a lonely place. A lonely place is unfrequented and remote. You dwell there without companions and without comforts. Inner Lent takes place in a lonely place. The reward of spending time in your lonely place is a clear inner strength of purpose and direction.
It's the middle of the Season of Lent and the time of the Inner Year when we can reflect on our personal need for or connection with the 40 days in the wilderness or desert. Immediately following the Baptism in the River Jordan, Christ is taken by the "Spirit" to this lonely place to fast for 40 days. Following the 40 days, the Devil comes and tempts Him three times.
The Baptism is the moment when the Christ enters Jesus of Nazareth. The Cosmic Christ incarnates within a human being. Following the Baptism, the incarnated Cosmic Christ must spend time in isolation contemplating the experience of human existence and the challenges of earthly limitations of space, weight, time, boundaries, hungers and desires.
The forty days of Lent is a time for you to contemplate the relationship of your divine purpose to the limitations of your personal existence. Inner Lent is not a simple gesture of denial, it is a profound and enriching time of self-exploration and self-awareness that occurs in a lonely place.
Lonely is the right word. When we reach a new inner level of development, meaning or purpose, we are different and "strange" even to ourselves. Our inner place of solitude is where we can adjust, adapt and engage with our new self.
What is your lonely place? The Gospels refer to either desert or wilderness. In the Inner Lent program, I have asked the participants to imagine their own experience of both inner landscapes.
The wilderness is untamed vegetation. There is a feeling of too much. Some find this environment overwhelming and others love the intensity and complexity of wild life. In the wilderness there is no distant horizon. Everything is close and demanding.
The desert is a place of vast emptiness. The horizon is faraway and endless. There is no shelter from the sun. The day is hot and long, the night cold and long. There is no distraction. Is this a safe environment for your soul?
How do you feel about these two environments? Neither the desert or the wilderness offers a path. Can you find your own inner direction? Do you have your own inner resources? How do you awaken to and strengthen your spiritual destiny in your inner isolation and your inner harsh environment?
Do you create a clearing in your wilderness? How do you do this?
Do you find an oasis in your desert? What does it provide for you?
When you reach a new stage of inner development, how can you give yourself time to meditate on how it changes your life? Each of us finds our Baptism when the Spirit comes into our lives and we are no longer our ordinary selves. It requires us to fast from our daily realities and overcome our temptations for external comfort, safety and personal power.
Inner Lent is the yearly season of attention to our renewed purpose. Whether you find yourself in a wilderness or a desert, hold fast to your Inner Divinity.
Please share your experience of dwelling in your lonely place? You will be inspiring others with your openness.
Hi Lynn, this is a very timely post for me to read (and for everyone else too, I'm sure!). I do feel like I'm out in the wilderness at the moment - despite having a loving husband and 2 wonderful small children. I feel very alone; and somewhat disconnected from not only life on Earth, but also Spirit. I take people through Regression, and usually I feel a real intuitive connection to the client and the Spirit world, but everything seems far removed at the moment - even though, my clients gain what they need, I am unhappy with the standard of my own work. Even though I know this is the path I have chosen; I wonder if I should even be doing this work if I can't facilitate to my own standards; and I feel so very lost; bewildered and sad. I do not know who to turn to and as I feel that I have no connection inside; I feel hollow; I do not know what to do next. Practise my Inner Lent, I guess....thank you
ReplyDeleteI've just re-read Lynn's post and am curious to note that I used the term "wilderness" but in re-reading realise in my mind's eye I am in an area that looks more like a desert.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting way to conceive of lent- on the inside. I grew up practicing forms of lent on the outside- giving up things. The place inside of me feels both like wilderness and desert. There is a cutting and hacking away of wild things, trying to find a path, but also an appreciation of all of the life and textures growing as I move them aside, sometimes harshly, sometimes gently. And there is also a coolness to my desert as the sun begins to set, a stillness where I can orient my vision to the sun, but there is also a starkness as well. And the paths feel vast and many. I believe this lent, my thoughts will be directed toward discerning the subtleties of both inner places, attempting to find the terrible beauty, and also, the small shining path through and out.
ReplyDeleteA thank you to Naomi, whose comment help breathe in me this poem:
ReplyDeleteInner Lent
In the small of the desert cup,
dimpled in the yellow sift of stone
and rock, verbena blooms like
a ghost or a breath, grounded,
yet billowing with wind and temper.
It hovers over its shadows,
it shrinks into the small of
its own bud. It knows its roots and the
full extent of its leaves.-
its beauty
and vulnerability.
-Gina Marie Mammano V.
sorry,
ReplyDeletei am inable to express my soul in english, i am italian, but i have a little contribution: in the homepage of my website look the video "Untrodden sands" a preyer in the desert, in english, italian and french...
www.gentleway.it
un saluto e un abbraccio
laura
Floating in the Dead Sea is what served the purpose of a lonely place, if one were to call it that, for me. What I found there, though, was not loneliness at all. The truth is, I found that a peace and a serenity that continues to nourish me more than 25 years later. I know that the Spirit and I are one. Whereas the umbilical cord connecting us to the mother in the womb must be cut at birth, once the umbilical cord with God is created through conscious awareness, it continues to provide Supply throughout Eternity.
ReplyDeleteEveryone,
ReplyDeleteI love these comments. They are thoughtful and beautiful.
I didn't make one very critical distinction in my post - Lent is about contemplating the earthly, not the spiritual. After a personal rite of Baptism, we go to the lonely place of earthly incarnation. It is not a time or a place of spiritual connection or there would be know need for temptation. In our task to bring forth, manifest our divine task into earthly reality we are deeply alone and not all one. In our separateness we struggle with freedom and love. Christ did not spend forty days contemplating and seeking spirit. He needed to come into and penetrate the mysteries of earthly life. We must do this, too.