Imagine, Entering Into Joy

Following is one of my favorite passage meditations; I often read, reflect and meditate upon this passage before I go to bed as it has an incredible stillness within the words that seep into my senses and bring a quiet serenity and grounding. I suggest reading it aloud, slowly, giving attention to each phrase, soaking it up, then closing your eyes and repeating the phrase to your innermost recesses.

When the passage refers to "he made us" or "his word", I replace those with the feminine "she" or "her" to enhance my connection, but even then I am not relating to a 'being' per se -- rather, I am resonating with an incomprehensible infinite source of creativity and creation that is within me, within all of us, and woven into the tiniest thread of our universal tapestry.

You can also listen to this passage as read by Eknath Easwaran.

Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, along with all our busy thoughts about earth, sea, and air;

if the very world should stop, and the mind cease thinking about itself, go beyond itself, and be quite still;

if all the fantasies that appear in dreams and imagination should cease, and there be no speech, no sign:

Imagine if all things that are perishable grew still – for if we listen they are saying, We did not make ourselves; he made us who abides forever – imagine, then, that they should say this and fall silent, listening to the very voice of him who made them and not to that of his creation;

so that we should hear not his word through the tongues of men, nor the voice of angels, nor the clouds' thunder, nor any symbol, but the very Self which in these things we love, and go beyond ourselves to attain a flash of that eternal wisdom which abides above all things:

And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sights and sounds but this one vision which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy; so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless.

~ Saint Augustine