Walk into love

I had to pull this snippet out of Cynthia Bourgeault's Heart of Centering Prayer talk with Boston College. Someone in the audience asked whether there is a relationship between the state of consciousness induced by a substance (e.g. peyote) compared to that of contemplation.

Bourgeault brings up Ken Wilbur's teaching on distinguishing between states and stages and notes that:

[The] states may look alike ... but the stages are going to be completely different. Because as we approach centering prayer, we're approaching it not to have a blissful experience ... it's the gentle laying down of self, the humble work, the not asking for visions. ...

So to come to prayer in humility ... in the genuine willingness to be given nothing, but to give because it's the divine nature to give and we have that in us. ...

So ... forget your intoxication with states. We don't get enlightened by swooping up to some high state ... we get enlightened by realizing that everything, every instant of divinity, every power of the fire of the divine heart is right here, right now. Nothing missing. We simply have to put our feet on the ground and walk into love. 

Or as the author of The Cloud of Unknowing writes:

Lift your heart up to the Lord with a gentle stirring of love, desiring him for his own sake and not for his gifts.

I have realized that for me, the desire for the "blissful experience" was the ego, wanting to fix my hurts on my own. Time to let go!