On Non-Dualism...Unitive Being
Forgive me for falling back on a wisdom post from “From Centering Prayer Retreat,” as part of In A Spacious Place done by Cynthia Bourgeault . I find it so beautifully true and close to the heart of our study of Saint Theresa… Dualistic consciousness cannot experience unitive being. As long as you want to hang on to the experience/experiencer dualism and revel in all these experiences, this is where you will be stopped. No matter how good it feels, you will be stuck at the illuminative level (between purgative and unitive). The illuminative stage is characterized by a contented ego that has wonderful mysterious unitive experiences. But you are having experiences. You can go further than this dualistic consciousness which can have unitive experiences but cannot be unitive consciousness. You don’t need to stop at the illuminative. You can move right through it to the place where you suspend the subject/object dualism, become unitive being and then flow back into the personal fro