u/AdditionalOne6031

** A quick personal note before you read: Personal stories are not truly important; in fact, the "madwoman of the house" (as the mystic Teresa of Ávila called the mind) loves to tell stories to itself, using them to create the character, the ego, in the illusion of this theatrical play we call life. However, having made this clear, I must share that I am an "experiencer" myself. I have lived through experiences very similar to those of Margaret and Daniel in the movie, and my own life journey has led me to the intimate union I describe below. I deeply respect everyone's unique path and different views. I am definitely not here to impose mine or preach any kind of dogma. Finally, I want to clarify that I am neither a Christian nor a Buddhist. I am deeply passionate about mystics, such as Marguerite Porete, who was executed by the Inquisition, and so many others who were persecuted, like Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart. I am passionate about Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and the teachings of modern masters like Eckhart Tolle, among many others... But I do not follow anyone, nor am I any of these things. I'm nobody and nothing. If any term used in this post does not resonate with you, just throw it in the trash. Do not let my words prevent you from seeing where they are pointing. This is simply my personal vision, my lived experience, and my heartfelt analysis of the film. If your experience is different, please tell me about it. For me, it will be highly valuable to listen to you and exchange views. I truly welcome respectful dialogue from all perspectives. Thank you for reading... **

Let’s dive straight into the analysis. But first, a quick warning for those who haven't seen the movie yet: there may be spoilers ahead. Let's go!

Recently someone asked me a very interesting question: what did you get from "Disclosure Day"?

For me, Disclosure Day was, and is, a fascinating film. I discovered Reddit after seeing it in theaters, I am passionate about the movie, and I have made several posts about it. As I said in one of them, Spielberg's Disclosure Day is both a work made for "experiencers" and a trigger for the spiritual awakening of anyone open to watching it.

Beyond the phenomenology surrounding these experiences and how each person lives them, I value that the film chooses a POSITIVE APPROACH. This has generated much controversy. Spielberg certainly focuses on the positive aspect of these experiences and does so, rightly, for a very simple reason. He does it because why focus on the negative if there is also much positive? There are all kinds of entities, angels and demons, coexisting among ourselves, but demons will never lead you to look within yourself and, in the SILENCE, listen.

Spielberg is also helping us DISCERN these contact experiences, as there are entities of darkness that disguise themselves as beings of light, exactly as the Scripture warns: "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). We live in a world where light is put as darkness and darkness as light, where bitter is called sweet and sweet is called bitter, exactly as the prophet Isaiah warned: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20).

EMPATHY is a central issue in the movie, and it shows us how noise, whether media, political, religious, or in short, mental noise, prevents and blocks us from connecting with our true SELF. It prevents us from connecting with LOVE in capital letters, with the One who is Love itself, call it God, the All, however you prefer, and ultimately, from connecting with others. When we clean out this NOISE OF THE MIND, the anomalous gifts manifested by the characters, like telepathy, cease to be mere sci-fi anomalies or superpowers. They reveal themselves as the ultimate evolution of human empathy breaking through. Once the noise is gone, we finally begin to truly read, feel, and perceive one another.

It is Here and Now, in the SILENCE beyond the NOISE of the "madwoman of the house," as Teresa of Ávila called the mind, and especially beyond institutional and religious noise, where our true Self is revealed to us. This points to the very same reality Buddhism describes regarding the control of the restless "monkey mind" leaping from thought to thought, or the untamed elephant blindly driven by its impulses - an inner mastery that drives us toward calm abiding and higher insight. In Silence we realize that we are One with LOVE, God, the All, the Infinite Light, as each prefers to call it, and with every creature. In a SILENCE that Speaks, in a deep SILENCE where words are unnecessary, in a SILENCE of Love. In that SILENCE, our most intimate Self tells us, like the Alien at the end of the movie DISCLOSURE DAY: LISTEN! This "Listen" is an inner call to connect with the deepest part of our Being, where lover and Beloved are One. Just like the core contemplative traditions throughout history, it reminds us that within attentive listening, all artificial separations collapse.

This inner disconnection is perfectly mirrored in the convent scene. When Jane seeks refuge, Sister Maura tells her that she didn't leave the convent because she lost her faith in God, but because she lost her faith in people, in humanity. Sister Maura reminds her that the existence of extraterrestrial life doesn't displace the Divine, asking an essential question: "Does God love only us?" She invites Jane to expand her faith, yet Jane remains trapped in her own NOISE OF THE MIND.

I made another post about the scene with Jane clutching the crucifix. Jane Blankenship is a former novice and the girlfriend of the co-protagonist, Daniel Kellner. Understanding this scene, the one with the girl clutching the crucifix, is understanding that experiencing INTIMATE UNION with LOVE in capital letters, with God, with the All, with the One who is LOVE itself, is not the same as being part of a religion. It is understanding that in a union where the soul and God become one, there is no distance and no need for institutional intermediaries or symbols. They always were ONE.

That is what Jane still fails to understand, and that is why she fails and is possessed. While Jane's fear, dogma, and resistance lead to her deep fragmentation and possession, Margaret’s ultimate surrender demonstrates the opposite: true faith doesn't break under the weight of the infinite; it expands. True divinity is found within us, not in external symbols or rituals, not in religion. There is no duality or separation.

Furthermore, the film invites us all, "experiencers" or not, to be seeds of a new world, first fruits of a New Earth, as Margaret and Daniel, leaving behind fear, misunderstanding, and division, and embracing the All in which We Are ONE.

Finally, another of the many things the movie shows us is that the experience escapes any control. And honestly, this is my personal experience, take it or leave it, and that of many mystics who are much more qualified than I am. The spiritual path is found in the day-to-day, in each precise and precious moment of our lives. It is not about lighting incense, adopting a certain meditation posture, and achieving calm abiding. That is neither good nor bad, but sometimes it is just part of the ego's spiritual show. The same applies to everything related to entities, beings, realities, etc.

True spiritual life is found in every seemingly simple and seemingly boring moment of your ordinary life. There is a traditional Zen Buddhist proverb that goes: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." Teresa of Ávila used to say that God is among the pots and pans. Brother Lawrence said he found God while flipping an omelet in the frying pan. Present moment, wonderful moment. But the mind loves to flee toward the past, toward the future, continuously ruminating on thoughts and emotions (which are nothing but manifestations of thoughts in the body), escaping from the here and now.

Observe this process. What you truly are lies beyond what "the madwoman of the house" projects.

As I said before, life is not about living extraordinary experiences, it is about living ordinary life in an extraordinary way. That is when the magic truly happens, but people trapped in the mind's special effects do not know what they are missing. It is right here and now where the most incredible experiences take place. As Jesus beautifully warned us in his Sermon on the Mount: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34).

Wishing you all reading this post the very best.

**FINAL NOTE:** I want to clarify that Spanish is my native language, and I rely on an online translator to convert my thoughts into English. I understand this can sometimes make my tone sound way more blunt than I ever intended. My goal is just to share a perspective, never to diminish anyone's experiences. I am simply raising questions. Thank you for your understanding! And again, as the Alien says in "Disclosure Day": "Listen!". Where? Within.

Moving past mental idols and rigid constructs into the pure spaciousness of Divine Love...

"The madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by Teresa of Ávila) always believes she holds the correct doctrine and clings to it, even though paradoxically she is completely empty of God, which is to say, empty of LOVE. For God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know God (1 John 4:8).

That is why, as John of the Cross used to say, recalling what was expressly warned by the Lord in Matthew 25:31-46: "In the evening of our lives, we shall be examined on love." We are not examined on our beliefs, but on Love. Everything else consists of sectarian labels that separate us from God. The madwoman of the house feels right at home in an exclusive club to which she belongs (the club of her beliefs), but she is empty of God. For this very reason, Jesus Himself was unequivocal in Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven."

The common and absurd narrative of comparing, for instance, our relationship with God to a serial killer trying to cover up his crimes by helping an old lady cross the street... is a profound mental trap. Such moral blackmail belongs strictly to the madwoman of the house who seeks to buy her salvation or avoid punishment, not to the soul enamored with God. Love translates into works, yes, but it is not a transaction. Real Love, in capital letters, is not a calculation of isolated "good deeds"; it is a state of consciousness. The madwoman does not understand Matthew 25:31-46, because she does not know God.

Likewise, we can recall what was said by Jesus Himself in John 13:35 when He warns: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is talking about being filled with Love, which means being filled with God. He is not talking about performing little deeds to pay for our sins and buy our salvation; Jesus is talking about the mystical union with God.

We must die to the tiny self, to the ego created by the madwoman that separates us from God. We must surrender into the arms of the Beloved, be consumed by His fire, and be reborn in God and for God. That is precisely what Nicodemus (John 3:3) failed to understand about being born again. Jesus prays in John 17:21 that we may be filled with God, so that we may be One with God, just as the Father and He are One. That is only possible by embodying LOVE.

What is LOVE? LOVE is not a collection of little deeds performed empty of God, stemming from belief, from separation, rather than from intimate union. As John of the Cross sharply warned: "Any other work or labor, if it is not in the love of God and for God, is worth nothing before Him... to the soul that truly loves God, it does not matter whether it performs many or few works, but to perform them all for love." Let us yearn for and seek the ultimate union with our Lord. The madwoman calls sin and transgression what is simply separation from God. The name and the label do not bind you to God; the name and the label are repugnant to the Lord. They are merely stories that the madwoman tells herself to feed the character (the ego). That is why Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:2: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

But again, what is LOVE? The LOVE Jesus speaks of is not a sentimental operation of the mind, it is not a mere emotion; LOVE is God Himself, because God is LOVE (1 John 4:8). It is the very same warning with which Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:16-18: "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit." The "fruits" of the Sermon on the Mount are not moral deeds calculated to avoid hell; they are the natural manifestation of a healthy tree (a soul united with God). A thornbush (the ego created by the madwoman of the house) cannot manufacture grapes of pure love; just as a goat cannot be a sheep, no matter how much it disguises itself as a sheep by adopting doctrines and beliefs that are not actually of God and only empty it of God.

The all-too-common argument about merely "believing in God to have eternal life" is just another legal trick of the madwoman of the house. The Lord responds definitively and incontestably through James 2:19. James exposes with brutal irony that simple intellectual or theological assent to "believing" saves no one, delivering a devastating phrase: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" In other words, even the demons possess the mental doctrine that God exists or that Jesus is the Savior, yet they are empty of Love and mystical union. For a mystic, "believing in Him" does not mean accepting a dogma or holding a belief; it means "dwelling in Him," merging into His frequency, which is Love. Therefore, whoever clings to the law separates themselves from Christ and becomes empty of Him, as we are sharply warned in Galatians 5:4: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.""

Why reducing our relationship with the Divine to a transaction empties us of Christ...

"The madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by Teresa of Ávila) always believes she holds the correct doctrine and clings to it, even though paradoxically she is completely empty of God, which is to say, empty of LOVE. For God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know God (1 John 4:8).

That is why, as John of the Cross used to say, recalling what was expressly warned by the Lord in Matthew 25:31-46: "In the evening of our lives, we shall be examined on love." We are not examined on our beliefs, but on Love. Everything else consists of sectarian labels that separate us from God. The madwoman of the house feels right at home in an exclusive club to which she belongs (the club of her beliefs), but she is empty of God. For this very reason, Jesus Himself was unequivocal in Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven."

The common and absurd narrative of comparing, for instance, our relationship with God to a serial killer trying to cover up his crimes by helping an old lady cross the street... is a profound mental trap. Such moral blackmail belongs strictly to the madwoman of the house who seeks to buy her salvation or avoid punishment, not to the soul enamored with God. Love translates into works, yes, but it is not a transaction. Real Love, in capital letters, is not a calculation of isolated "good deeds"; it is a state of consciousness. The madwoman does not understand Matthew 25:31-46, because she does not know God.

Likewise, we can recall what was said by Jesus Himself in John 13:35 when He warns: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is talking about being filled with Love, which means being filled with God. He is not talking about performing little deeds to pay for our sins and buy our salvation; Jesus is talking about the mystical union with God.

We must die to the tiny self, to the ego created by the madwoman that separates us from God. We must surrender into the arms of the Beloved, be consumed by His fire, and be reborn in God and for God. That is precisely what Nicodemus (John 3:3) failed to understand about being born again. Jesus prays in John 17:21 that we may be filled with God, so that we may be One with God, just as the Father and He are One. That is only possible by embodying LOVE.

What is LOVE? LOVE is not a collection of little deeds performed empty of God, stemming from belief, from separation, rather than from intimate union. As John of the Cross sharply warned: "Any other work or labor, if it is not in the love of God and for God, is worth nothing before Him... to the soul that truly loves God, it does not matter whether it performs many or few works, but to perform them all for love." Let us yearn for and seek the ultimate union with our Lord. The madwoman calls sin and transgression what is simply separation from God. The name and the label do not bind you to God; the name and the label are repugnant to the Lord. They are merely stories that the madwoman tells herself to feed the character (the ego). That is why Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:2: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

But again, what is LOVE? The LOVE Jesus speaks of is not a sentimental operation of the mind, it is not a mere emotion; LOVE is God Himself, because God is LOVE (1 John 4:8). It is the very same warning with which Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:16-18: "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit." The "fruits" of the Sermon on the Mount are not moral deeds calculated to avoid hell; they are the natural manifestation of a healthy tree (a soul united with God). A thornbush (the ego created by the madwoman of the house) cannot manufacture grapes of pure love; just as a goat cannot be a sheep, no matter how much it disguises itself as a sheep by adopting doctrines and beliefs that are not actually of God and only empty it of God.

The all-too-common argument about merely "believing in God to have eternal life" is just another legal trick of the madwoman of the house. The Lord responds definitively and incontestably through James 2:19. James exposes with brutal irony that simple intellectual or theological assent to "believing" saves no one, delivering a devastating phrase: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" In other words, even the demons possess the mental doctrine that God exists or that Jesus is the Savior, yet they are empty of Love and mystical union. For a mystic, "believing in Him" does not mean accepting a dogma or holding a belief; it means "dwelling in Him," merging into His frequency, which is Love. Therefore, whoever clings to the law separates themselves from Christ and becomes empty of Him, as we are sharply warned in Galatians 5:4: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

How "the madwoman of the house" uses doctrine to fuel the ego and enforce the illusion of separation...

"The madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by Teresa of Ávila) always believes she holds the correct doctrine and clings to it, even though paradoxically she is completely empty of God, which is to say, empty of LOVE. For God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know God (1 John 4:8).

That is why, as John of the Cross used to say, recalling what was expressly warned by the Lord in Matthew 25:31-46: "In the evening of our lives, we shall be examined on love." We are not examined on our beliefs, but on Love. Everything else consists of sectarian labels that separate us from God. The madwoman of the house feels right at home in an exclusive club to which she belongs (the club of her beliefs), but she is empty of God. For this very reason, Jesus Himself was unequivocal in Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven."

The common and absurd narrative of comparing, for instance, our relationship with God to a serial killer trying to cover up his crimes by helping an old lady cross the street... is a profound mental trap. Such moral blackmail belongs strictly to the madwoman of the house who seeks to buy her salvation or avoid punishment, not to the soul enamored with God. Love translates into works, yes, but it is not a transaction. Real Love, in capital letters, is not a calculation of isolated "good deeds"; it is a state of consciousness. The madwoman does not understand Matthew 25:31-46, because she does not know God.

Likewise, we can recall what was said by Jesus Himself in John 13:35 when He warns: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is talking about being filled with Love, which means being filled with God. He is not talking about performing little deeds to pay for our sins and buy our salvation; Jesus is talking about the mystical union with God.

We must die to the tiny self, to the ego created by the madwoman that separates us from God. We must surrender into the arms of the Beloved, be consumed by His fire, and be reborn in God and for God. That is precisely what Nicodemus (John 3:3) failed to understand about being born again. Jesus prays in John 17:21 that we may be filled with God, so that we may be One with God, just as the Father and He are One. That is only possible by embodying LOVE.

What is LOVE? LOVE is not a collection of little deeds performed empty of God, stemming from belief, from separation, rather than from intimate union. As John of the Cross sharply warned: "Any other work or labor, if it is not in the love of God and for God, is worth nothing before Him... to the soul that truly loves God, it does not matter whether it performs many or few works, but to perform them all for love." Let us yearn for and seek the ultimate union with our Lord. The madwoman calls sin and transgression what is simply separation from God. The name and the label do not bind you to God; the name and the label are repugnant to the Lord. They are merely stories that the madwoman tells herself to feed the character (the ego). That is why Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:2: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

But again, what is LOVE? The LOVE Jesus speaks of is not a sentimental operation of the mind, it is not a mere emotion; LOVE is God Himself, because God is LOVE (1 John 4:8). It is the very same warning with which Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:16-18: "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit... A good tree cannot bear bad fruit." The "fruits" of the Sermon on the Mount are not moral deeds calculated to avoid hell; they are the natural manifestation of a healthy tree (a soul united with God). A thornbush (the ego created by the madwoman of the house) cannot manufacture grapes of pure love; just as a goat cannot be a sheep, no matter how much it disguises itself as a sheep by adopting doctrines and beliefs that are not actually of God and only empty it of God.

The all-too-common argument about merely "believing in God to have eternal life" is just another legal trick of the madwoman of the house. The Lord responds definitively and incontestably through James 2:19. James exposes with brutal irony that simple intellectual or theological assent to "believing" saves no one, delivering a devastating phrase: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" In other words, even the demons possess the mental doctrine that God exists or that Jesus is the Savior, yet they are empty of Love and mystical union. For a mystic, "believing in Him" does not mean accepting a dogma or holding a belief; it means "dwelling in Him," merging into His frequency, which is Love. Therefore, whoever clings to the law separates themselves from Christ and becomes empty of Him, as we are sharply warned in Galatians 5:4: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you meet Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to meet Christ and believe you have met Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: "The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos", written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me, YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If "you think", "you" have met Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you meet Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to meet Christ and believe you have met Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: "The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos", written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me, YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If "you think", "you" have met Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you meet Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to meet Christ and believe you have met Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: "The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos", written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If "you think", "you" have met Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you meet Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to meet Christ and believe you have met Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: "The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos", written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If "you think", "you" have met Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you meet Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to meet Christ and believe you have met Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: "The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos", written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If "you think", "you" have met Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you find Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to find Christ and believe you have found Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: \*The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos\*, written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If you think you have found Christ, finish with Him.

The Zen Buddhist master Linji Yixuan famously said that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you must finish with Him. The exact same can be said of Christ: If you find Christ, finish with Him.

If you think that "you", "by your own merit and effort", are doing something successfully to meet Christ, beyond surrendering into the arms of the Beloved, then, of course, obviously, you remain trapped in the prison of the madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). You remain foolishly playing the spiritual role of a seeker, which is nothing more than spiritual ego, just a trick of the mind. But you have not really found Him, neither met nor embraced Him.

If you strive to find Christ and believe you have found Him, I am sorry to tell you that your effort leads to absolutely nothing. That is exactly what "The Experience of the Presence of God" is not but the opposite; that is just the madwoman of the house playing at being spiritual, and that is not what this is about. That is precisely why Silence is so important: to listen beyond the noise of the mind.

When you are nothing and no one, as the mystic of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, used to say, you are touched by Grace. If we want Grace to touch us, there is no other way than this humility of the heart. Because the experience of God happens, essentially, by Grace and without effort, effortlessly, and then there is no more separation between the lover and the Beloved. As Saint Augustine said, "grace always precedes merit".

Do not label yourself as anything. God, who sees into the depths of hearts, knows who you are. That should be enough for you.

That is how the Lord knew his beloved son, Bernardo de Hoyos, during his mystical marriage. Jesus gave him a ring and said to him: "From this day on, you shall call and sign yourself as Bernardo de Jesús. For just as I told my spouse, Saint Teresa: you are Bernardo de Jesús, and I am Jesús de Bernardo." (Source: *The Life of the Venerable and Angelic Youth, Father Bernard Francis de Hoyos*, written by his spiritual director, Father Juan de Loyola, S.J.).

I love this prayer because it beautifully symbolizes exactly what I mean in this post: "Lord Jesus, You who are meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours."

At first glance, it might seem like a mere vocal prayer, and it is, but it happens, as Teresa of Ávila beautifully explains, that by Grace, God, the All, the One who is LOVE itself (I don't care what name the madwoman gives Him), leads us from vocal prayer to contemplation, and finally to union. So be it, then.

And if you allow me a prayer of my own: God prevent me from finding You; find me YOU!

Note:

I do not "believe" anything.

Belief is a mental construct, an attachment to an idea. I am not spreading a philosophy or using tools to convince anyone through this post. I am talking about a direct experience that happens strictly by Grace, without any human effort or merit. As I quoted Saint Augustine before: grace always precedes merit. It is not about a belief; it is about what remains when all beliefs are stripped away.

Also, when I speak of non-separation, it does not mean that the tiny ego claims to be "God", that would be the ultimate spiritual egoism. It means the exact opposite: the total death of the character, the complete surrender of the "I" into the burning fire of His LOVE, so that only He remains. It is the living reality of Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

We could indeed be going in circles if we look at this through the lens of theology and conceptual definitions, but I am pointing in another direction: to the Silence where the conceptual mind completely dissolves.

I respect the faith and the devotion to the beliefs of everyone, but my invitation in this post is to go beyond them. Thank you for this exchange, and blessings on your journey.

Finally, the scene where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus comes to me just now while writing this... They were only able to recognize Him when, by Grace, their hearts were touched. The conceptual mind cannot bring us into the silent spaciousness of Being.

Remember: If you think you have found Christ, finish with Him.

After reading this, you might think I have no idea what I am talking about. And effectively, you are right, I have no idea. And I don’t even care to have one.

We are usually so focused on "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). We trust too much in it, but, precisely, the mind is what will pull us away from God. God is not something that can be trapped or understood by the mind, because God is not a "something" nor a "someone". God is pure Being: "I Am that I Am" (Exodus 3:14). God is the loving and infinite Presence that we discover in the Silence of Stillness. Silence is the key. Because, as Rumi beautifully wrote, "Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation." It speaks without the need for words, because the silence I am talking about is a Silence in capital letters, a Silence of LOVE.

The mind is a very useful tool in conventional life if we are the ones using it and not the other way around. But it is good for little else.

People like to talk about evidence, and perhaps it seems to you that there is no evidence for what I am telling you. But the truth is, the evidence of the mystics is the direct experience of God. To experience God directly, not by hearsay, not secondhand, you must go beyond the mind and its stories. You decide.

If we want real evidence, we should go beyond the thoughts and emotions the mind enjoys ruminating on while feeding the persona (the spiritual ego).

I believe it was Rumi who said that when the pen reached LOVE, it split in two. The conceptual mind is of no use to us when it comes to embracing and experiencing, in every breath of life, that there is no distance or separation between the lover and the Beloved, between us and the One who is LOVE itself.

And this is something that must be lived in daily life, in everyday life, in every moment. Some retreat to a monastery or the countryside, and that is fine, as long as they do not forget that the true retreat is mental; that is, we retreat and detach from the mind, we go beyond the mind. And this is lived and experienced in our daily life.

Whoever believes in Jesus but does not put His teachings into practice does not truly believe in Him. But the truth is, Jesus never really spoke about mere belief; believing in Him will not save you, as they say in certain Christian circles. Not surprisingly, the mystic John of the Cross, recalling what Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 25:41-46, tells us: "In the evening of our lives, we will be examined on LOVE."

Jesus Himself also points out that, precisely by this, everyone will know that you are My disciples, by the LOVE you have for one another (John 13:35).

The Lord wants us to be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (John 17:21). That is what He truly wants. Believing or not believing is not important at all. In fact, as I always like to say, there is a curious paradox: many who claim to believe in Jesus and label themselves as Christians are not truly His disciples; meanwhile, some who do not even believe in Him actually are.

It is one thing to be a Christian and quite another to be one of The Way. The Lord, who knows hearts, knows who are His and who are not.

Don't believe me, just do it. Surrender into the arms of the Beloved and be consumed in the Fire of His LOVE. That's the death of the character, and you are reborn as one with God.

You may, however, still be convinced of the role that belief plays in all this, and say: "Very well, Jesus emphasized Love, as is completely necessary; but He did instruct morality and beliefs on its own: 'I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6); and again He says, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me' (John 10:27)."

Precisely, whoever does not surrender and die to themselves, to the tiny self, to the ego created by "the madwoman of the house," cannot be reborn as One with "I Am that I Am," with God. Only by dying to the character do we discover the reality behind the scenes.

Only then do we discover LOVE in capital letters; only then do we truly know God and transform our lives.

It is not belief; it is experience. It is surrendering to the One who is LOVE itself, dying consumed in the fire of His LOVE, and being reborn One with Him, being One with Him. That is why Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. That is the Truth that Jesus embodied. That is the Way. That is the Life He offers us—He Himself, which is eternal life.

Jesus did not seek to make Christians (a label, by the way, popularized by pagans in Antioch much later). Instead, He wanted us to unite with the All, with God, with the One who is LOVE itself, and to be One, just as the Father and He are One.

The Lord knows who His sheep are and who are not, far beyond labels and beliefs. Today more than ever, in a world with so much mental noise but so little direct experience of God, the sheep are being silently separated from the goats, the wheat from the chaff... They are not separated by labels; they are separated by the sword of LOVE. A sword that cuts you and separates you from everything that is not truly you. Because you are One in God and with God.

But you might still question: what about all those texts, Magisterium, and Doctrine? Do you sacrifice them for the sake of direct experience? Won't what comes out of that be purely subjective?

The first problem here would be agreeing on which texts faithfully transmit the Way to follow. There will always be someone who comes along with a text they believe is more genuine or authentic. This happens a lot in Christian circles, especially following the discovery of texts that were previously silenced, such as the Gospel of Thomas, which has been documented since the second century. But focusing on the texts or looking for more texts or collections of sayings is exactly how "the madwoman of the house" keeps us entertained. Personally, I am not interested in all this conceptual, doctrinal information, nor in exploring ancient manuscripts that supposedly bring us closer.

Even Scripture itself warns against this trap of legalism and mental attachment to rules. As Paul radically stated in Galatians 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." The tools we already have and people usually accept are more than enough to point to the only thing that matters: the direct, living experience of non-separation right Here and Now.

I’m not coming from a Christian perspective, nor am I interested in textual validation. My point is to use the widely accepted narrative to point toward a lived reality: non-duality and radical love. This isn’t about texts; it’s about shifting our consciousness beyond labels. Jesus knew it, and He didn't write anything. Men later thought, used by the madwoman, that they could be wiser than Jesus.

When in the post I use quotes and authors, I do it to point you toward the non-dual truth of no separation, but they are all unimportant, just like the texts, the doctrine... If in the end we do not have a direct experience of God, of the One who is LOVE itself, of the All, we can throw all texts into the trash, even those that seem the most reliable or sacred.

Jesus, One in the Father's Love, wants the same for us. He cares little for recording His exact words. Even words can be manipulated and misunderstood by the madwoman. If He had cared, He would have left it in writing, and He did not. The mind confuses us and we get lost in its stories, which are not where Jesus points: Being.

You might fear that this direct experience is something purely subjective, but the paradox is exactly the opposite. What is subjective is the unceasing chatter and the flood of emotions that the madwoman of the house loves to wallow in to sustain the illusion of separation. The direct experience of God is not a personal feeling; it is an absolute catharsis where the character ceases to exist entirely. It is terrifying to die to what you believe you are, but that fear is not yours; it is the madwoman resisting with all her might to lose control and power over you. Go beyond. Surrender, yield, die consumed in LOVE, and be reborn One with pure Being, not as an individual with opinions of its own (controlled by the mind), but as an instrument of the All, of God, as you wish to call it.

Final Note:

That is precisely what needs to be done: to set aside earthly labels and concepts. Beliefs. And embrace the direct experience of God’s presence, which is not something mental, it is not a mental exercise. It is not a cognitive or sentimental operation. A beautiful way to enter this experience is through Silence: a Silence of thoughts, concepts, labels, and all that chatter and stories that the madwoman loves so much. A mental Silence. A mental retreat, not a physical one.

And embrace that experience in every moment of our lives, just like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, for example, who found God while turning a little omelet in his frying pan. Or like the mystic Teresa of Ávila, who found God among the pots and pans. Again, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:4, if you cling to the law, you are alienated from Christ; you fall away from grace.

I don’t usually recommend books, but there is a short work that beautifully exemplifies what we are talking about here. It is The Practice of the Presence of God by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

If you truly surrender to God, you will be consumed in the burning fire of His LOVE and reborn as one with the I Am that I Am. Being.

After reading this, you might think I have no idea what I am talking about. And effectively, you are right, I have no idea. And I don’t even care to have one.

We are usually so focused on "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). We trust too much in it, but, precisely, the mind is what will pull us away from God. God is not something that can be trapped or understood by the mind, because God is not a "something" nor a "someone". God is pure Being: "I Am that I Am" (Exodus 3:14). God is the loving and infinite Presence that we discover in the Silence of Stillness. Silence is the key. Because, as Rumi beautifully wrote, "Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation." It speaks without the need for words, because the silence I am talking about is a Silence in capital letters, a Silence of LOVE.

The mind is a very useful tool in conventional life if we are the ones using it and not the other way around. But it is good for little else.

People like to talk about evidence, and perhaps it seems to you that there is no evidence for what I am telling you. But the truth is, the evidence of the mystics is the direct experience of God. To experience God directly, not by hearsay, not secondhand, you must go beyond the mind and its stories. You decide.

If we want real evidence, we should go beyond the thoughts and emotions the mind enjoys ruminating on while feeding the persona (the spiritual ego).

I believe it was Rumi who said that when the pen reached LOVE, it split in two. The conceptual mind is of no use to us when it comes to embracing and experiencing, in every breath of life, that there is no distance or separation between the lover and the Beloved, between us and the One who is LOVE itself.

And this is something that must be lived in daily life, in everyday life, in every moment. Some retreat to a monastery or the countryside, and that is fine, as long as they do not forget that the true retreat is mental; that is, we retreat and detach from the mind, we go beyond the mind. And this is lived and experienced in our daily life.

Whoever believes in Jesus but does not put His teachings into practice does not truly believe in Him. But the truth is, Jesus never really spoke about mere belief; believing in Him will not save you, as they say in certain Christian circles. Not surprisingly, the mystic John of the Cross, recalling what Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 25:41-46, tells us: "In the evening of our lives, we will be examined on LOVE."

Jesus Himself also points out that, precisely by this, everyone will know that you are My disciples, by the LOVE you have for one another (John 13:35).

The Lord wants us to be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (John 17:21). That is what He truly wants. Believing or not believing is not important at all. In fact, as I always like to say, there is a curious paradox: many who claim to believe in Jesus and label themselves as Christians are not truly His disciples; meanwhile, some who do not even believe in Him actually are.

It is one thing to be a Christian and quite another to be one of The Way. The Lord, who knows hearts, knows who are His and who are not.

Don't believe me, just do it. Surrender into the arms of the Beloved and be consumed in the Fire of His LOVE. That's the death of the character, and you are reborn as one with God.

You may, however, still be convinced of the role that belief plays in all this, and say: "Very well, Jesus emphasized Love, as is completely necessary; but He did instruct morality and beliefs on its own: 'I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6); and again He says, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me' (John 10:27)."

Precisely, whoever does not surrender and die to themselves, to the tiny self, to the ego created by "the madwoman of the house," cannot be reborn as One with "I Am that I Am," with God. Only by dying to the character do we discover the reality behind the scenes.

Only then do we discover LOVE in capital letters; only then do we truly know God and transform our lives.

It is not belief; it is experience. It is surrendering to the One who is LOVE itself, dying consumed in the fire of His LOVE, and being reborn One with Him, being One with Him. That is why Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. That is the Truth that Jesus embodied. That is the Way. That is the Life He offers us—He Himself, which is eternal life.

Jesus did not seek to make Christians (a label, by the way, popularized by pagans in Antioch much later). Instead, He wanted us to unite with the All, with God, with the One who is LOVE itself, and to be One, just as the Father and He are One.

The Lord knows who His sheep are and who are not, far beyond labels and beliefs. Today more than ever, in a world with so much mental noise but so little direct experience of God, the sheep are being silently separated from the goats, the wheat from the chaff... They are not separated by labels; they are separated by the sword of LOVE. A sword that cuts you and separates you from everything that is not truly you. Because you are One in God and with God.

But you might still question: what about all those texts, Magisterium, and Doctrine? Do you sacrifice them for the sake of direct experience? Won't what comes out of that be purely subjective?

The first problem here would be agreeing on which texts faithfully transmit the Way to follow. There will always be someone who comes along with a text they believe is more genuine or authentic. This happens a lot in Christian circles, especially following the discovery of texts that were previously silenced, such as the Gospel of Thomas, which has been documented since the second century. But focusing on the texts or looking for more texts or collections of sayings is exactly how "the madwoman of the house" keeps us entertained. Personally, I am not interested in all this conceptual, doctrinal information, nor in exploring ancient manuscripts that supposedly bring us closer.

Even Scripture itself warns against this trap of legalism and mental attachment to rules. As Paul radically stated in Galatians 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." The tools we already have and people usually accept are more than enough to point to the only thing that matters: the direct, living experience of non-separation right Here and Now.

I’m not coming from a Christian perspective, nor am I interested in textual validation. My point is to use the widely accepted narrative to point toward a lived reality: non-duality and radical love. This isn’t about texts; it’s about shifting our consciousness beyond labels. Jesus knew it, and He didn't write anything. Men later thought, used by the madwoman, that they could be wiser than Jesus.

When in the post I use quotes and authors, I do it to point you toward the non-dual truth of no separation, but they are all unimportant, just like the texts, the doctrine... If in the end we do not have a direct experience of God, of the One who is LOVE itself, of the All, we can throw all texts into the trash, even those that seem the most reliable or sacred.

Jesus, One in the Father's Love, wants the same for us. He cares little for recording His exact words. Even words can be manipulated and misunderstood by the madwoman. If He had cared, He would have left it in writing, and He did not. The mind confuses us and we get lost in its stories, which are not where Jesus points: Being.

You might fear that this direct experience is something purely subjective, but the paradox is exactly the opposite. What is subjective is the unceasing chatter and the flood of emotions that the madwoman of the house loves to wallow in to sustain the illusion of separation. The direct experience of God is not a personal feeling; it is an absolute catharsis where the character ceases to exist entirely. It is terrifying to die to what you believe you are, but that fear is not yours; it is the madwoman resisting with all her might to lose control and power over you. Go beyond. Surrender, yield, die consumed in LOVE, and be reborn One with pure Being, not as an individual with opinions of its own (controlled by the mind), but as an instrument of the All, of God, as you wish to call it.

Final Note:

That is precisely what needs to be done: to set aside earthly labels and concepts. Beliefs. And embrace the direct experience of God’s presence, which is not something mental, it is not a mental exercise. It is not a cognitive or sentimental operation. A beautiful way to enter this experience is through Silence: a Silence of thoughts, concepts, labels, and all that chatter and stories that the madwoman loves so much. A mental Silence. A mental retreat, not a physical one.

And embrace that experience in every moment of our lives, just like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, for example, who found God while turning a little omelet in his frying pan. Or like the mystic Teresa of Ávila, who found God among the pots and pans. Again, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:4, if you cling to the law, you are alienated from Christ; you fall away from grace.

I don’t usually recommend books, but there is a short work that beautifully exemplifies what we are talking about here. It is The Practice of the Presence of God by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

If you truly surrender to God, you will be consumed in the burning fire of His LOVE and reborn as one with the I Am that I Am. Being.

After reading this, you might think I have no idea what I am talking about. And effectively, you are right, I have no idea. And I don’t even care to have one.

We are usually so focused on "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). We trust too much in it, but, precisely, the mind is what will pull us away from God. God is not something that can be trapped or understood by the mind, because God is not a "something" nor a "someone". God is pure Being: "I Am that I Am" (Exodus 3:14). God is the loving and infinite Presence that we discover in the Silence of Stillness. Silence is the key. Because, as Rumi beautifully wrote, "Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation." It speaks without the need for words, because the silence I am talking about is a Silence in capital letters, a Silence of LOVE.

The mind is a very useful tool in conventional life if we are the ones using it and not the other way around. But it is good for little else.

People like to talk about evidence, and perhaps it seems to you that there is no evidence for what I am telling you. But the truth is, the evidence of the mystics is the direct experience of God. To experience God directly, not by hearsay, not secondhand, you must go beyond the mind and its stories. You decide.

If we want real evidence, we should go beyond the thoughts and emotions the mind enjoys ruminating on while feeding the persona (the spiritual ego).

I believe it was Rumi who said that when the pen reached LOVE, it split in two. The conceptual mind is of no use to us when it comes to embracing and experiencing, in every breath of life, that there is no distance or separation between the lover and the Beloved, between us and the One who is LOVE itself.

And this is something that must be lived in daily life, in everyday life, in every moment. Some retreat to a monastery or the countryside, and that is fine, as long as they do not forget that the true retreat is mental; that is, we retreat and detach from the mind, we go beyond the mind. And this is lived and experienced in our daily life.

Whoever believes in Jesus but does not put His teachings into practice does not truly believe in Him. But the truth is, Jesus never really spoke about mere belief; believing in Him will not save you, as they say in certain Christian circles. Not surprisingly, the mystic John of the Cross, recalling what Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 25:41-46, tells us: "In the evening of our lives, we will be examined on LOVE."

Jesus Himself also points out that, precisely by this, everyone will know that you are My disciples, by the LOVE you have for one another (John 13:35).

The Lord wants us to be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (John 17:21). That is what He truly wants. Believing or not believing is not important at all. In fact, as I always like to say, there is a curious paradox: many who claim to believe in Jesus and label themselves as Christians are not truly His disciples; meanwhile, some who do not even believe in Him actually are.

It is one thing to be a Christian and quite another to be one of The Way. The Lord, who knows hearts, knows who are His and who are not.

Don't believe me, just do it. Surrender into the arms of the Beloved and be consumed in the Fire of His LOVE. That's the death of the character, and you are reborn as one with God.

You may, however, still be convinced of the role that belief plays in all this, and say: "Very well, Jesus emphasized Love, as is completely necessary; but He did instruct morality and beliefs on its own: 'I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6); and again He says, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me' (John 10:27)."

Precisely, whoever does not surrender and die to themselves, to the tiny self, to the ego created by "the madwoman of the house," cannot be reborn as One with "I Am that I Am," with God. Only by dying to the character do we discover the reality behind the scenes.

Only then do we discover LOVE in capital letters; only then do we truly know God and transform our lives.

It is not belief; it is experience. It is surrendering to the One who is LOVE itself, dying consumed in the fire of His LOVE, and being reborn One with Him, being One with Him. That is why Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. That is the Truth that Jesus embodied. That is the Way. That is the Life He offers us—He Himself, which is eternal life.

Jesus did not seek to make Christians (a label, by the way, popularized by pagans in Antioch much later). Instead, He wanted us to unite with the All, with God, with the One who is LOVE itself, and to be One, just as the Father and He are One.

The Lord knows who His sheep are and who are not, far beyond labels and beliefs. Today more than ever, in a world with so much mental noise but so little direct experience of God, the sheep are being silently separated from the goats, the wheat from the chaff... They are not separated by labels; they are separated by the sword of LOVE. A sword that cuts you and separates you from everything that is not truly you. Because you are One in God and with God.

But you might still question: what about all those texts, Magisterium, and Doctrine? Do you sacrifice them for the sake of direct experience? Won't what comes out of that be purely subjective?

The first problem here would be agreeing on which texts faithfully transmit the Way to follow. There will always be someone who comes along with a text they believe is more genuine or authentic. This happens a lot in Christian circles, especially following the discovery of texts that were previously silenced, such as the Gospel of Thomas, which has been documented since the second century. But focusing on the texts or looking for more texts or collections of sayings is exactly how "the madwoman of the house" keeps us entertained. Personally, I am not interested in all this conceptual, doctrinal information, nor in exploring ancient manuscripts that supposedly bring us closer.

Even Scripture itself warns against this trap of legalism and mental attachment to rules. As Paul radically stated in Galatians 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." The tools we already have and people usually accept are more than enough to point to the only thing that matters: the direct, living experience of non-separation right Here and Now.

I’m not coming from a Christian perspective, nor am I interested in textual validation. My point is to use the widely accepted narrative to point toward a lived reality: non-duality and radical love. This isn’t about texts; it’s about shifting our consciousness beyond labels. Jesus knew it, and He didn't write anything. Men later thought, used by the madwoman, that they could be wiser than Jesus.

When in the post I use quotes and authors, I do it to point you toward the non-dual truth of no separation, but they are all unimportant, just like the texts, the doctrine... If in the end we do not have a direct experience of God, of the One who is LOVE itself, of the All, we can throw all texts into the trash, even those that seem the most reliable or sacred.

Jesus, One in the Father's Love, wants the same for us. He cares little for recording His exact words. Even words can be manipulated and misunderstood by the madwoman. If He had cared, He would have left it in writing, and He did not. The mind confuses us and we get lost in its stories, which are not where Jesus points: Being.

You might fear that this direct experience is something purely subjective, but the paradox is exactly the opposite. What is subjective is the unceasing chatter and the flood of emotions that the madwoman of the house loves to wallow in to sustain the illusion of separation. The direct experience of God is not a personal feeling; it is an absolute catharsis where the character ceases to exist entirely. It is terrifying to die to what you believe you are, but that fear is not yours; it is the madwoman resisting with all her might to lose control and power over you. Go beyond. Surrender, yield, die consumed in LOVE, and be reborn One with pure Being, not as an individual with opinions of its own (controlled by the mind), but as an instrument of the All, of God, as you wish to call it.

Final Note:

That is precisely what needs to be done: to set aside earthly labels and concepts. Beliefs. And embrace the direct experience of God’s presence, which is not something mental, it is not a mental exercise. It is not a cognitive or sentimental operation. A beautiful way to enter this experience is through Silence: a Silence of thoughts, concepts, labels, and all that chatter and stories that the madwoman loves so much. A mental Silence. A mental retreat, not a physical one.

And embrace that experience in every moment of our lives, just like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, for example, who found God while turning a little omelet in his frying pan. Or like the mystic Teresa of Ávila, who found God among the pots and pans. Again, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:4, if you cling to the law, you are alienated from Christ; you fall away from grace.

I don’t usually recommend books, but there is a short work that beautifully exemplifies what we are talking about here. It is The Practice of the Presence of God by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

If you truly surrender to God, you will be consumed in the burning fire of His LOVE and reborn as one with the I Am that I Am. Being.

After reading this, you might think I have no idea what I am talking about. And effectively, you are right, I have no idea. And I don’t even care to have one.

We are usually so focused on "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila). We trust too much in it, but, precisely, the mind is what will pull us away from God. God is not something that can be trapped or understood by the mind, because God is not a "something" nor a "someone". God is pure Being: "I Am that I Am" (Exodus 3:14). God is the loving and infinite Presence that we discover in the Silence of Stillness. Silence is the key. Because, as Rumi beautifully wrote, "Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation." It speaks without the need for words, because the silence I am talking about is a Silence in capital letters, a Silence of LOVE.

The mind is a very useful tool in conventional life if we are the ones using it and not the other way around. But it is good for little else.

People like to talk about evidence, and perhaps it seems to you that there is no evidence for what I am telling you. But the truth is, the evidence of the mystics is the direct experience of God. To experience God directly, not by hearsay, not secondhand, you must go beyond the mind and its stories. You decide.

If we want real evidence, we should go beyond the thoughts and emotions the mind enjoys ruminating on while feeding the persona (the spiritual ego).

I believe it was Rumi who said that when the pen reached LOVE, it split in two. The conceptual mind is of no use to us when it comes to embracing and experiencing, in every breath of life, that there is no distance or separation between the lover and the Beloved, between us and the One who is LOVE itself.

And this is something that must be lived in daily life, in everyday life, in every moment. Some retreat to a monastery or the countryside, and that is fine, as long as they do not forget that the true retreat is mental; that is, we retreat and detach from the mind, we go beyond the mind. And this is lived and experienced in our daily life.

Whoever believes in Jesus but does not put His teachings into practice does not truly believe in Him. But the truth is, Jesus never really spoke about mere belief; believing in Him will not save you, as they say in certain Christian circles. Not surprisingly, the mystic John of the Cross, recalling what Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 25:41-46, tells us: "In the evening of our lives, we will be examined on LOVE."

Jesus Himself also points out that, precisely by this, everyone will know that you are My disciples, by the LOVE you have for one another (John 13:35).

The Lord wants us to be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (John 17:21). That is what He truly wants. Believing or not believing is not important at all. In fact, as I always like to say, there is a curious paradox: many who claim to believe in Jesus and label themselves as Christians are not truly His disciples; meanwhile, some who do not even believe in Him actually are.

It is one thing to be a Christian and quite another to be one of The Way. The Lord, who knows hearts, knows who are His and who are not.

Don't believe me, just do it. Surrender into the arms of the Beloved and be consumed in the Fire of His LOVE. That's the death of the character, and you are reborn as one with God.

You may, however, still be convinced of the role that belief plays in all this, and say: "Very well, Jesus emphasized Love, as is completely necessary; but He did instruct morality and beliefs on its own: 'I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6); and again He says, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me' (John 10:27)."

Precisely, whoever does not surrender and die to themselves, to the tiny self, to the ego created by "the madwoman of the house," cannot be reborn as One with "I Am that I Am," with God. Only by dying to the character do we discover the reality behind the scenes.

Only then do we discover LOVE in capital letters; only then do we truly know God and transform our lives.

It is not belief; it is experience. It is surrendering to the One who is LOVE itself, dying consumed in the fire of His LOVE, and being reborn One with Him, being One with Him. That is why Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. That is the Truth that Jesus embodied. That is the Way. That is the Life He offers us—He Himself, which is eternal life.

Jesus did not seek to make Christians (a label, by the way, popularized by pagans in Antioch much later). Instead, He wanted us to unite with the All, with God, with the One who is LOVE itself, and to be One, just as the Father and He are One.

The Lord knows who His sheep are and who are not, far beyond labels and beliefs. Today more than ever, in a world with so much mental noise but so little direct experience of God, the sheep are being silently separated from the goats, the wheat from the chaff... They are not separated by labels; they are separated by the sword of LOVE. A sword that cuts you and separates you from everything that is not truly you. Because you are One in God and with God.

But you might still question: what about all those texts, Magisterium, and Doctrine? Do you sacrifice them for the sake of direct experience? Won't what comes out of that be purely subjective?

The first problem here would be agreeing on which texts faithfully transmit the Way to follow. There will always be someone who comes along with a text they believe is more genuine or authentic. This happens a lot in Christian circles, especially following the discovery of texts that were previously silenced, such as the Gospel of Thomas, which has been documented since the second century. But focusing on the texts or looking for more texts or collections of sayings is exactly how "the madwoman of the house" keeps us entertained. Personally, I am not interested in all this conceptual, doctrinal information, nor in exploring ancient manuscripts that supposedly bring us closer.

Even Scripture itself warns against this trap of legalism and mental attachment to rules. As Paul radically stated in Galatians 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." The tools we already have and people usually accept are more than enough to point to the only thing that matters: the direct, living experience of non-separation right Here and Now.

I’m not coming from a Christian perspective, nor am I interested in textual validation. My point is to use the widely accepted narrative to point toward a lived reality: non-duality and radical love. This isn’t about texts; it’s about shifting our consciousness beyond labels. Jesus knew it, and He didn't write anything. Men later thought, used by the madwoman, that they could be wiser than Jesus.

When in the post I use quotes and authors, I do it to point you toward the non-dual truth of no separation, but they are all unimportant, just like the texts, the doctrine... If in the end we do not have a direct experience of God, of the One who is LOVE itself, of the All, we can throw all texts into the trash—even those that seem the most reliable or sacred.

Jesus, One in the Father's Love, wants the same for us. He cares little for recording His exact words. Even words can be manipulated and misunderstood by the madwoman. If He had cared, He would have left it in writing, and He did not. The mind confuses us and we get lost in its stories, which are not where Jesus points: Being.

You might fear that this direct experience is something purely subjective, but the paradox is exactly the opposite. What is subjective is the unceasing chatter and the flood of emotions that the madwoman of the house loves to wallow in to sustain the illusion of separation. The direct experience of God is not a personal feeling; it is an absolute catharsis where the character ceases to exist entirely. It is terrifying to die to what you believe you are, but that fear is not yours; it is the madwoman resisting with all her might to lose control and power over you. Go beyond. Surrender, yield, die consumed in LOVE, and be reborn One with pure Being, not as an individual with opinions of its own (controlled by the mind), but as an instrument of the All, of God, as you wish to call it.

Final Note:

That is precisely what needs to be done: to set aside earthly labels and concepts. Beliefs. And embrace the direct experience of God’s presence, which is not something mental, it is not a mental exercise. It is not a cognitive or sentimental operation. A beautiful way to enter this experience is through Silence: a Silence of thoughts, concepts, labels, and all that chatter and stories that the madwoman loves so much. A mental Silence. A mental retreat, not a physical one.

And embrace that experience in every moment of our lives, just like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, for example, who found God while turning a little omelet in his frying pan. Or like the mystic Teresa of Ávila, who found God among the pots and pans. Again, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:4, if you cling to the law, you are alienated from Christ; you fall away from grace.

I don’t usually recommend books, but there is a short work that beautifully exemplifies what we are talking about here. It is The Practice of the Presence of God by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

If you truly surrender to God, you will be consumed in the burning fire of His LOVE and reborn as one with the I Am that I Am. Being.

The mind cannot help you free yourself from the prison created by the mind itself.

The madwoman of the house (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila) loves stories, including the one about awakening, the one about enlightenment, etc., and with these stories, she feeds the character (the ego, and especially the spiritual ego). That is how she keeps us imprisoned.

We must listen in that space of Stillness, beyond mental noise, in the Silence, a Silence that speaks but where words are not needed, in a Silence of LOVE. Listen!

Mystics on the spiritual path, one of the first things they have to detach from, and have to let go of, is the idea (or ideas) they have of God.

As the mystic Meister Eckhart reminded us: "I pray to God to rid me of God."

Precisely, that is the crux of the matter: God is not "something", God is not a "what" nor even a "who" in the human sense. If we define It, we limit It.

For me, personally, God is not a static being sitting on the clouds, observing how good or bad we are or appear to be, but Loving Existence itself Here and Now. Pure Being.

God is not something to "believe" in as if It were a character or a historical fact, but a LOVING REALITY that is experienced when you silence "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila).

In Silence, in the spaciousness of Stillness, Here and Now, you realize God is the All, the Loving Source from which all life, consciousness, and the energy of the universe spring.

God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know the One who is LOVE itself, that is, God.

All is that LOVE emerging in Silence from Stillness.

Mystics on the spiritual path, one of the first things they have to detach from, and have to let go of, is the idea (or ideas) they have of God.

As the mystic Meister Eckhart reminded us: "I pray to God to rid me of God."

Precisely, that is the crux of the matter: God is not "something", God is not a "what" nor even a "who" in the human sense. If we define It, we limit It.

For me, personally, God is not a static being sitting on the clouds, observing how good or bad we are or appear to be, but Loving Existence itself Here and Now. Pure Being.

God is not something to "believe" in as if It were a character or a historical fact, but a LOVING REALITY that is experienced when you silence "the madwoman of the house" (as the mind was called by the mystic Teresa of Ávila).

In Silence, in the spaciousness of Stillness, Here and Now, you realize God is the All, the Loving Source from which all life, consciousness, and the energy of the universe spring.

God is LOVE, and whoever does not know LOVE does not know the One who is LOVE itself, that is, God.

All is that LOVE emerging in Silence from Stillness.

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, during a vacation at my grandparents' house in Andalusia (Spain), while playing with my cousin (she was two years younger), we ran into a neighbor (a fairly old man) who was coming out of his house.

I did most of the talking because my cousin was very shy. We chatted with this man, and he gave us some pencils as a gift and a message for our grandfather.

Later, while talking to the family, I mentioned that we had seen the neighbor and that he had given us a gift; he had also sent his regards to our grandfather (who, by the way, was a "medium"; I come from a spiritist family that goes back generations).

The look on our family members' faces was a picture, because it turned out the man was dead. He had passed away recently.

The family didn't say it openly, or at least they tried to keep us from noticing, but I was always very sharp for my age and I found out everything.

This is one of many stories I could tell from my childhood. As I grew up, others emerged... Truth be told, back then I didn't think much of it; to me, it wasn't extraordinary that it had happened, but during my lifetime, having lived through these phenomena since I was a kid, has led me to a realization.

I have realized that these stories are just mere and simple stories and what's more important: spiritual life is not about having extraordinary experiences or abilities, but about living the ordinary things of daily life in an extraordinary way. That is when the magic truly happens, but people trapped in the mind's special effects do not know what they are missing. It is right here and now where the most incredible experiences take place. Here and Now... As Jesus beautifully warned us in his Sermon on the Mount: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34).

I insist, truth be told, not then, but also nor here and now, I think much of these so-called experiences; to me, it wasn't extraordinary that it had happened and it is not now. So, if something apparently extraordinary happens I just went on with my life. Sometimes even I don't realize something extraordinary is happening, because for me it is as it is... If a deceased person apparently appears, or an alien, no matter what happens, what does it matter? Nothing really extraordinary is actually happening.

Real magic is not about the "phenomenon", the special effects, the gossip, or the astral details; it's about something simpler and less publicized, yet much more powerful, which many people miss: it is simply about silencing the mind, dismantling the illusion of the ego, and returning to the origin, that is to say, to pure Being, to Presence Here and Now, to the All, to the One who is LOVE itself... Otherwise, "the madwoman of the house" (as the mystic Teresa of Ávila used to call the mind) will take those stories (paranormal, supernatural, and sometimes preternatural) and use them to feed the ego (the ego of being the psychic, the contactee, the special one, the distinct one, etc.).

The mind loves the noise of being a medium, a clairvoyant, a spiritual warrior, etc. In this way she keeps us imprisoned in the trap of the character (the ego) and in the play of doing instead of non-doing and just being (which is, by the way, how we step out of the play).

This trap also applies to those who have been traumatically abducted or mistreated by these phenomena. The mind can easily turn that traumatic story into another way to feed the ego. The ego works both ways, moving up or down; it loves grand, spectacular stories, but it also thrives on tragic, miserable ones. It loves being the "chosen hero" just as much as it loves being the "ultimate victim". As long as the story makes the character feel unique, rare, or distinct from the rest, the prison remains open.

\\\*Please note something here if you have been traumatically abducted or mistreated: I say this with the utmost respect and deep empathy for anyone who has suffered. By no means do I want to downplay or dismiss the pain of those who have had terrifying or traumatic experiences. My heart goes out to anyone dealing with that weight. I am simply proposing a perspective to help prevent further suffering and to find a way out of the trauma, by recognizing how the mind anchors us to that painful identity. Eckhart Tolle calls this the "pain-body" (introduced in chapter 2 of his book The Power of Now), which is an accumulation of past emotional suffering that takes over the mind to feed on more negativity. To deal with the pain-body, Tolle explains that we must observe the negative feeling directly within us without turning it into a narrative. Sustained conscious attention breaks the identification with the pain-body, severing its link to our thought patterns so it can no longer control our thinking. The light of your awareness transmutes that suffering into presence, just as fire converts everything into itself. It's better if you anchor yourself in consciousness, beyond the mind, or in other words, rest in the presence here and now with the One who is LOVE itself, the All, the Source... So you will see how these traumatic experiences do not return, and those that already occurred are healed. If anyone wants to go deeper into this matter, or if the moderators deem it appropriate, we could address this issue more thoroughly from Presence in another post.\\\*

We would do well to question all these so-called experiences that the madwoman claims to be beneficial for us, and silence the mind, so we could anchor ourselves in Being. Consider again that it is not about anything else but breaking the illusion of the ego to return to the origin.

Record this within: we are nothing of what the mind (the "madwoman of the house" that Teresa of Ávila used to talk about) wants us to believe. Anyone connected to the Source would want the same for us, that same Union, that same liberation from the prison of the mind. Take, for example, the so-called spiritual guides. Do they lead you to a direct experience of God, the All, the Source, or do they feed the character and, ultimately, prolong your time in prison? Everyone should ask themselves questions like this. In the Awareness of the All we are ONE, in the mind there's only separation.

The Source, the All, does not need our skills, faculties, or effort. It does not need us to manage anything. It only needs our surrender. When the ego dissolves in Silence, there is no special one having extraordinary experiences, there is only the One. But as long as we look at what comes out of the silence to build new stories, we are missing the Silence itself and we are lost (inside the prison, in the character).

That is why what I realized and want to share with you in this post: it is much better to approach these so-called experiences from consciousness, and not from the mind.

Here and now, live every moment of your life in an extraordinary way.

As Teresa of Ávila literally wrote in chapter 5 of her work \\\*The Book of the Foundations\\\*, reminding us that the divine is found in the most mundane tasks: "God walks among the pots and pans" (Dios anda entre las cazuelas y los pucheros).

As Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection famously shared in his fourth letter within \\\*The Practice of the Presence of God\\\*, practicing the continuous presence of God through ordinary chores: "I find God when flipping an omelet in my frying pan".

As Meister Eckhart literally wrote in his \\\*Counsels on Discernment\\\* (Counsel 12), explaining that the divine only operates in the immediate present: "God is a God of the present. He takes and receives you as he finds you, not what you have been, but what you are now", and as he proclaimed in his German sermons regarding the ultimate truth of time: "There exists only the present instant, a Now which always and without end is itself new."

As the Advaita Vedanta master Nisargadatta Maharaj stated in his dialogues compiled in \\\*Prior to Consciousness\\\*, pointing out that our real identity stands completely untouched outside of the mind's theater: "You are not the world, nor even the consciousness which witnesses the world. You are that which is prior to all experience."

And as Eckhart Tolle teaches today in chapter 3 of \\\*The Power of Now\\\*, dismantling the illusions of the mind that pull us away from life: "The present moment is all you ever have. There is no life outside of this Now."

To conclude, I would like to leave you with a profound prayer that perfectly sums up this path of deconstructing the mind and the character (the ego). It is inspired by Meister Eckhart’s teachings on Abgeschiedenheit (spiritual detachment):

"Lord, deliver me from what I am not."

Only when we are completely stripped of all the stories, masks, and identities created by the mad woman of the house (the mind) can we return to our true origin and realize Who we truly are.

\\\*\\\*\\\*

Note 1: I want to clarify that Spanish is my native language, and I rely on an online translator to convert my thoughts into English. I understand this can sometimes make my tone sound way more blunt than I ever intended. My goal is just to share a perspective, never to diminish anyone's experiences. I am simply raising questions. Thank you for your understanding! And as the Mystics, and by the way also the Alien says in "Disclosure Day": "Listen!". Where? Within.

Note 2: Personal stories are not truly important; in fact, as I said before the "madwoman of the house" (as the mystic Teresa of Ávila called the mind) loves to tell stories to itself, using them to create the character, the ego, in the illusion of this theatrical play we call life. However, since what I say shocks some people and leads them to make erroneous assumptions, I must share that I am an "experiencer" myself. I have lived through the experiences in this post, and for instance other experiences very similar to those of Margaret and Daniel in Disclosure Day, but my own life journey has led me to the intimate union I describe below. I deeply respect everyone's unique path and different views. I am definitely not here to impose mine or preach any kind of dogma.

Finally, I want to clarify that I am neither a Christian nor a Buddhist. I am deeply passionate about mystics, such as Marguerite Porete, who was executed by the Inquisition, and so many others who were persecuted, like Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart. I am passionate about Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and the teachings of modern masters like Eckhart Tolle, among many others... But I do not follow anyone, nor am I any of these things. I'm nobody and nothing.

If any term used in my posts does not resonate with you, just throw it in the trash. Do not let my words prevent you from seeing where they are pointing. I simply post my personal vision, my lived experience, and how I see things. If your experience is different, please tell me about it. For me, it will be highly valuable to listen to you and exchange views. I truly welcome respectful dialogue from all perspectives. Thank you for reading.

Note 3: Life and existence cannot be locked inside a cage of paper as the conceptual mind pretends. If you have read the post, you will see that I specifically do not defend these extraordinary experiences with spirits, and even less so channeling spirits or seeking external entities, as this distracts the mind in the illusion of separation and feeds the ego.

These experiences happen simply because time and death are illusions, and there is no real separation between the "living" and the "dead."

When the mind enters the Stillness of the Now, you are not chasing ghosts or picking up a floating shell of a leftover pain-body. That's what many psychics and mediums see. You are really contacting the pure, formless essence of that person, their indestructible Being. Whether they are bound, as many believe, to the cycle of reincarnation, or lost in the world of form, matters not; their eternal reality is untouched and alive right now. It is a direct recognition where consciousness meets itself within the vastness of the Unmanifested. Labeling this sacred, spontaneous connection as a "demon", as many do, is just the terrified ego projecting its own religious conditioning onto the Infinite.

For those locked in dogma: this is not spiritism or psychic parlor tricks. As I said before, I'm not talking about chasing ghosts or picking up a floating shell of a leftover pain-body, as many psychics and mediums do. This direct recognition I'm talking about, of the formless essence, is the core teaching of non-duality shared by modern teachers like Ram Dass (in his final teachings on pure Loving Awareness), and Eckhart Tolle.

Furthermore, this reality is not alien to Christianity; it aligns completely with the historical Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart, who famously declared that "there is a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor no created thing can touch." The truth of this space is known through direct realization, not theological limitations.

\\\*\\\*\\\*

Questions:

To open up an honest reflection and debate in the comments, I leave you with some open thoughts:

Have your paranormal experiences, contacts, or astral travels actually helped you dissolve your ego? Or are you using them to build a new character as a "chosen one", "special person", or "spiritual warrior"? If the phenomenon pulls you away from daily life, it is not liberation, it is just another distraction of the mind?

For those who have suffered traumatic or terrifying encounters: is it possible that the mind is keeping you trapped in the identity of the "ultimate victim", replaying the narrative over and over? How can we step into the Silence of the Now to find a safe space where that traumatic character can finally rest and heal?

Why are we so obsessed with the astral gossip, the specific details of the phenomena, and messages from guides, when in the end all of that belongs to the theater of the mind? Are we capable of dropping the need to be "the contactee" or "the psychic" to simply hold the Silence of the Now where we are nobody special?

If tomorrow all your abilities, visions, and contacts disappeared, and you were left only with the ordinary routine of your daily life, would you feel you have lost your spirituality? If the answer is yes, it is because you are still trapped in the special effects of the mind. Who are you truly when the phenomenon turns off?

El mensaje no dual de Jesús...

Una cosa es ser parte del «Camino» y seguir a Jesús, el Nazareno, y otra muy distinta ser cristiano y no seguirlo. La paradoja reside en que muchos que se dicen cristianos ni siguen a Jesús ni pertenecen verdaderamente al Camino. Mientras tanto, otros que ni siquiera se consideran cristianos, sean ateos, agnósticos, budistas o pertenezcan o no a alguna religión, sí forman parte del Camino y lo siguen.

Jesús mismo dijo que sus discípulos serían reconocidos por el amor que se tienen unos a otros (Juan 13:35), no por las etiquetas que se pongan (cristianos, católicos, etc.). «La loca de la casa» (como la mística Teresa de Ávila llamaba a la mente) adora las etiquetas, usándolas para alimentar al personaje (el ego) en esta obra de teatro e ilusión de separación que erróneamente llamamos vida. Esto es lo que Eckhart Tolle describe como el ego conceptual, una ficción disfuncional creada por la mente no observada que confunde su propio ruido mental con la realidad del Ser. Sin embargo, lo que verdaderamente somos trasciende la mente y sus etiquetas, que nos dividen y nos alejan de nuestro Ser Verdadero. Como resuenan las Escrituras, ya no hay judío ni gentil, esclavo ni libre, porque todos somos uno (Gálatas 3:28), y Cristo es todo y está en todos (Colosenses 3:11).

Somos, aquí y ahora, uno con Dios, el Todo, con Aquel que es AMOR mismo, como tú deseas llamarlo, y con todas sus criaturas. En la silenciosa amplitud de la quietud interior, estamos llamados a rendirnos y a aquietar nuestra mente, pues debemos vaciarnos de todo lo que no sea Dios para reconocer que Él es Dios (Salmo 46:10 / Vulgata 45:11). Como oró el místico Maestro Eckhart: «Le ruego a Dios que me libre de Dios», instándonos a despojarnos de nuestras ideas limitadas, ídolos mentales y construcciones humanas. La Realidad Divina no es un objeto que se pueda poseer, sino el espacio puro que queda cuando la persona que nos perturba se silencia y dejamos que los pensamientos y las emociones se desvanezcan como hojas secas. Como Tolle nos recuerda con frecuencia, no somos los pensamientos fugaces ni las emociones pasajeras; somos el vasto y silencioso trasfondo de la Conciencia en el que surgen y se disuelven. Más allá de las posibles manipulaciones de las estructuras humanas y los dogmas escritos, estas palabras simplemente señalan lo que el corazón ya sabe por experiencia directa: somos uno con y en Aquel que es AMOR mismo, lo que significa con el Padre, tal como lo fue Jesús. En verdad, no hay separación ni distancia entre el amante y el Amado; en verdad, nunca la hubo. Esta unión absoluta queda perfectamente plasmada en los Diarios Íntimos del Beato Bernardo de Hoyos, recogidos en la biografía escrita por su director espiritual, el Padre Juan de Loyola, cuando el Señor le declaró íntimamente: «De ahora en adelante, tú eres Bernardo de Jesús y yo soy Jesús de Bernardo». Recuerda, somos uno con y en Aquel que es AMOR mismo... Precisamente, como bien señala el místico Juan de la Cruz, recordando lo que Jesús dijo en Mateo 25:31-46: «Al atardecer de la vida, seremos juzgados por el AMOR».

Es AMOR; Nada más importa.

Dios es AMOR, y quien no conoce el AMOR no conoce a Dios (1 Juan 4:8).

Si queremos ser uno con Él, así como Él es uno con el Padre (Juan 17:21), debemos ser uno con el AMOR. Como señala Tolle, el Amor verdadero solo puede florecer en la Presencia absoluta del Ahora, donde las ilusiones de la mente sobre el pasado y el futuro se desmoronan.

En la inmensidad de la Presencia, Aquí y Ahora, te das cuenta de que el AMOR es la verdadera frecuencia de Dios. No te pierdas en el juego de las ilusiones. Despierta a la inmensidad de quien eres, afiánzate en el Ahora y deja que el fuego del Amor consuma todo temor. Como dice Eckhart Tolle: «El amor es un estado del Ser. Tu amor no está fuera; está en lo profundo de ti. Nunca lo perderás, y él no puede abandonarte».

Nota: Las iglesias, como instituciones creadas por la loca de la casa, han intentado silenciar a todos aquellos que tuvieron una experiencia directa con Él. Como le sucedió a la mística Margarita Porete, autora de El espejo de las almas sencillas, quien fue quemada en la hoguera por los devotos miembros de la Inquisición. Su única «herejía» fue recordarnos que el alma debe disolver su propio carácter y voluntad para fundirse completamente en el océano del Amor Divino, donde ya no existe separación alguna. Y como les sucedió a tantos místicos perseguidos y silenciados, como Maestro Eckhart. Esto nos recuerda, como advierte el santo de la mansedumbre Francisco de Sales en su Introducción a la vida devota, que «uno puede ser muy devoto y, sin embargo, muy malvado». Debemos mantener la confianza en el AMOR, que está profundamente dentro de nosotros, más allá de la mente y la ilusión de la separación.