Although throughout history the monastery has been identified by an enclosed, physically defined plot of land, administered by a particular sect within a particular spiritual tradition, the contemporary monastery has no walls. The contemporary monastery is a mental and emotional and spiritual perception, or structure, available to anyone, anywhere, regardless of faith, religion or spiritual maturity, though such maturity generally accompanies those drawn to the monastic path of happiness. The contemporary monastic consciousness is the “flowering” on earth of the seeds planted over a four thousand years period by holy men and women in every spiritual and religious discipline, as well as the natural result of– the next for– the obvious limitations of scientific materialism.
Those who practice the monastic discipline– recognizing the spirit of happiness and the happiness of spirit in themselves and others, and recognizing all the ground they walk upon as holy ground, and understanding all the actions they engage as simply means to enjoy the Divine Presence in the moment– those who practice such discipline inherit the highest form of power and authority available to any human on earth. Just as importantly, such practioners also inherit the grace by which to exercise such power and authority in service to others. Although the expressions of divine happiness which monks and nuns offer might have uncountable variations around the world, the spirit of happiness is the same, and it is recognizable, one to another, immediately and without fail. Although happiness itself is Absolute, Complete, and Infinitely, Eternally, Dynamically Still, Unformed yet Full, gently Blissful, the expressions of happiness are artful, with beginnings, middles and ends, progressive, unfolding, paradoxical. Happiness is life itself. Words can point, but cannot contain.
In truth, we are all monks and nuns, all brothers and sisters, here in the sacred institution of modernity. The nations are simply rooms within the same house. The different faiths are lamps which light the rooms. That we have brothers and sisters in all the rooms, seeing by different lamps, does not diminish the fact that we are one house, one family, and the house if the Lord’s, Krishna, Allah’s, Jehovah’s, the Buddha Mind, and we are His (Her) children. This is so simple, so obvious, yet to live our lives this way is a revolutionary commitment.
The revolution is at hand. The spiritual awakening across the globe is reflected in the spontaneously growing commitment to the wider view, the higher life, the joyful presence which the monastic discipline incorporates. Without a conscious connection to Heart Mountain Monastery, and yet with a conscious commitment to the heart’s great ascension, millions of people the world around have joined in the power and authority which only love can grant. We see these others as brothers and sisters, just as they recognize us, near and far, openly or not.
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