We often reference a Divine Being as a reality we believe in and sometimes have even felt directly. You may have experienced moments where you actually know this is not only a profound truth, but a Presence you are in contact with. Quite often, you can experience this when out in nature or in a sacred space. You experience that connection with something greater, something loving, something that feels like the ground of everything, the source of all that is. Something that feels here, now, close and eternal, all at once.
We humans have the capacity to be aware and to perceive this Presence. We have the possibility of knowing this Presence, we often call the Divine. And as we experience this transcendence, we discover the mysteries of how this Presence is both knowable and unknowable. How this Presence is both the essence of absence and emptiness and the richness of fullness and embodiment. How this Presence is pristine awareness itself or the dynamic movement and energy underlying everything. While these are universal ways the Divine or reality can be known and experienced, it can also be intimate and personal knowing in our individual and collective lives.
In the Diamond Approach, we use a spiritual practice of inquiry to explore our direct experience. In simple and easy steps, we befriend our experience and inner world to gently explore what is happening here and now. There is the invitation that in our individual lives the Divine will meet us. And in this meeting, there is an illumination and a guidance to discover all that separates us from the transformative power and holding of this loving and steadfast Presence. We explore how we can be liberated from the emotional patterns or core beliefs that constrict our being. And there is much from our lived experience that has wounded and constricted us!
Inquiry brings us into greater contact with not only the Divine, but with our own souls. It is here that Presence can work its creative alchemy, as it impacts and imbues us with many of its qualities. Whether it’s a loving sweetness or a rising strength. A mountain like confidence or a sharp clarity. A soft compassion or a deep emptying. We have the capacity to know the Divine in all these ways and more. Presence meets us with such amazing attunement as we go on the journey of discovery together. This journey brings a freedom to Be and an opening and unfoldment of our souls. As our souls live fully in this world, we come to realize that love permeates all and includes all. It embraces even our turning away from such preciousness.
Sheryl Lyndes Stowman
5/30/2023