I was honored to attend a silent retreat with Dorothy at Harmony Lake Ranch a few Augusts ago. She is one of those teachers--quiet, unassuming, doesnt say a whole lot. But when she does...she is one of Adyashantis stable of thoroughbred teachers. After she read this poem to us the closing day of the retreat, I had one of the most powerful dreams ever. Beware... Here is the poem. A little long for FB, but so worth it. The Invitation - by Dorothy S. Hunt When God comes in your house it is only by your invitation, but even your invitation is Gods, for she has always been landlady and tenant, windows and walls, the fire in your hearth and the cold wind blowing at your door. At first, her visits seem so welcome. She brings tea and cookies and loves you so sweetly inside your own heart. You keep inviting her back by your prayers and meditations, imagining youve found the one you always wanted who will hold you on her endless lap an take away your pain forever. But…pretty soon, she starts arriving unexpectedly, at odd hours of the day and night, and every time she comes, she takes something away – a pretty picture here, a bookcase there, maybe even some trash you are happy to be rid of in your basement. But at some point, it occurs to you she intends to move in completely. And now the mind starts backing up; Perhaps you could come back another day, after Ive worked on my house, after Ive bought nicer furniture, after Ive finished my fight with evil, after Ive planted a peace garden. But you must know that if you invite God in, sooner or later she will set up house, and when she does, beware; for she tosses out every single thing she does not need, which, in the case of the personality, is every single thing you thought you were. Every thought and cherished belief she just throws out on the garbage heap; and that might be fine if she replaced them, but she never replaces those sacred thoughts; she utterly destroys them. She strips the coverings off the walls, and peels the paper from the window glass, opens the doors to invite in the wind, and every creature you wanted kept out. Sometimes she cleans your house gently, dismantling it room by room. But now, more often, she just comes in with a torch, and you feel in your gut the fire burn in the center of your separate comfort, and you watch the contents of your house melt and turn to ash, and the roof blow off. And just when you think there is nothing more that she could take, she opens the ground beneath the barely intact shell of your house, and all the levels of your being fall into the space that has no name, and you are left alone in all the world, without a map, without a path, without a point of view. And at this point, all you are inside your house is simply What is looking out. Nothings left but what is looking, yet everything you see is you, Now your life turns inside out. Your body is the world of being looking out of just What Is. And you know yourself as creator of your dreams your dreams of mountains and rivers, calm seas and storm clouds, crashes of lightning and spacecraft, beautiful babies asleep at the breasts, joyful dancing and puppies at play, Springs new blossoms, and the threat of Winters war. And strange as it seems to the mind of your memory, you enjoy each dance of yourself, even the pains you hoped to be rid of, you experience fully without regret, for everywhere your eye may look, all it sees is infinite love displaying itself in creation And, just to be completely honest, there are times you might be tempted to rebuild your house of concepts, for the mind just loves to think; but the fire of Truth resides within you now, where it always lived before you knew, and it keeps revealing, moment to moment, what is false and what is true. So what can be said about what happens when God takes over your house? She laughs and simply sips her tea, washes her dishes and sleeps when its time, then goes to find another house where there has been an invitation, an invitation to come in from the deep, deep love of Herself.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:10:15 +0000