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Article by Agnes Hidveghy - Where the Ways Meet

Anagni Cathedral: Universum

It is written: In Paradise, where we all come, there is a well from which flows a river Watering the garden; from there it is divided into four streams (Genesis 2.10).

These waters stream into the world and make the land fruitful. They also carry us out of the Garden of Eden into life. They flush us continuously into the world of appearances, into the world of duality. Our attention is caught by these streams and directed outwards; through them we are fixed on all that we call life. Life possesses us fully and keeps us busy without any breaks. We are caught in the stream of time, in the process of life. Our human structure binds us in four different ways: we are dependent on our own bodily processes, on our emotional patterns of reacting, on our mental concepts and on the impulses that are either given or not given to us.

These four streams - or as the cosmological Astrology calls them, the four elements - we remain stuck in the frame of the given structures. These structures form a dense network in us and confine us within the limits of the identity they compose. Spiritual traditions have developed ways - methods - for freeing our soul of this identification with the process of living and leading us on to our way back home.

What have we been sent here to the planet earth for? Is there a mission we are to carry out?

The "Hymn of the Pearl" (known also as the "Hymn of the Robe of Glory") that comes from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas has the most beautiful formulation of our human task that I have come across. This extract is from the letter of the father, mother and brother to their son in Egypt (original text in Syrian):

43. "Awake, rise from your sleep,
and listen to the words of our letter!
44. Remember that you are a son of kings,
consider the slavery, and whom you are serving.
45. Remember the pearl for which you set out to Egypt!
46. Think of the glorious Robe,
and remember your splendid Toga,
47. which you are to wear and adorn yourself with,
as your name is mentioned in the book of Heroes,
48. and together with your Brother,
our grand vizier, you shall be heir of our Kingdom!"

Being and Becoming

The Sufis say that creation happens in a single moment, in a wink of an eye, in another dimension, beyond time - in eternity. With our consciousness caught by the concept of the linear time we can not comprehend it. This eternal NOW is manifested in every moment in time. It is possible for us to realise it by becoming aware of it, when we are able to be conscious in the present moment. This is the deeper meaning of the concept consciousness: TO BE CONSCIOUS.

What IS exists in a higher dimension in the eternal now and it can only be experienced and described in time with "one thing after another". The Garden of Eden, with its four streams that flow from it, is in us; this picture describes our own reality. This story IS our own tale as we find ourselves here today; timeless and in the time, simultaneously. With "you" in the Hymn is meant every human being in creation.

In the different spiritual traditions the reality of us HUMAN BEINGS is presented in diverse stories and pictures. All these descriptions originate from the same experience. They describe the same reality. Those who experience this reality can recognise it in its different "disguises".

The Sufis say: "There are as many ways in the creation as there are human beings. But there is only one Way".

Freedom and Intention

Globalisation is in accordance with the spirit of the new time - the spirit of the Age of Aquarius. The borders - which both protect and hinder - are melting down. This means that religions and spiritual traditions can no more direct and help the seekers within a protected framework. All the various Ways are open and available for all people. Every person can search for his own Way and build it up out of the available offers with the help of the "do it yourself" method. Our time bestows us freedom perhaps not seen before on this planet. Nobody - no Guru, no teacher, no priest, no psychologist - can take our responsibility from our own shoulders. We are now all grown-ups.

This freedom gives us possibilities which we can not value enough. This freedom has also dangers built in it. Weather we can use the possibilities or go astray in the jungle of different formulations and practices is dependent only on one thing - our intention. Are we clear enough in our intention?

The decisive question is to know what my intention is. Can I hear the intention of my heart clearly enough? Am I brave enough to follow this intention of my heart unconditionally as the only direction to be followed? Can I trust it and at the same time use the plain common sense?

How do we find our Way back to the lost Paradise? With the help of the remembrance that belongs to the essence of our soul we are searching for this Way. Is there a Way "back"? By the entrance stands a Cherubim with a fiery sword in hand guarding the "three of knowledge of good and bad". This tree is at the same time the Tree of Life. But there is only one tree in the centre of the Paradise. The "first" had made it possible for us to get on the Way, the "second" waits for us at the end of the Way.

Turning (Metanoia)

...And the four streams flush us every moment further away through the entanglements in which we are stuck in life: love, survival, health, obligations, needs and expectations from ourselves and the world, enjoyments and disappointments occupy us constantly.

We have our luggage fully loaded with heavy equipment: we drag memories of all kinds with us. In the luggage we have packed our needs, imaginations, expectations and concepts. This luggage forms the resistance that gets caught in the streams and with which we get carried away.

All spiritual practices include dissolving the contents of this luggage. We can not just "let it go" as our identity is tied to it. An analysis of dreams can for example lead to becoming free from the patterns of the past. Zen "zasen" (sitting) has the same aim. The prayer of the heart keeps the conditioned reactions from getting further nourishment. In Christianity this process is called salvation.

We come from silence. In the silence all Ways come together again. In silence we flow again into the one stream, into the place where we were in the beginning, before the separation of the four streams. "The beginning" IS in eternity, all the time.

Agnes Hidveghy