(continued from yesterday)
This desert may initially seem barren, dull, and colorless, but eventually our perceptions start to change. The ammas teach us to sit in the desert, and soon we begin to see the sharp contrasts and the individuality of the desert landscape. The desert eventually becomes "home": the place and quality of life we come to prefer.
Our desert experience provides the space for emptiness and contrast where our values, beliefs, and passions are revealed and refined. Here we empty ourselves of our own obstacles to God. In the space of this emptiness, we encounter the enormity of God's presence. Yet our heart may feel frightened and overwhelmed in the encounter.
The ammas teach us that the desert is the place where we are forced to live with our questions along with the ambiguities and paradoxes of our life. The void begins to have depth and meaning. We hear whispers of a rich yet quiet life. We begin to perceive the subtleties of our spiritual path and we initiate an inward repatterning toward our truest self. What we believed was stillborn begins to show faint signs of life.
(to be continued)
+ pax