Grace as Alignment

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I have never felt that the traditional understanding of Grace quite captures the profundity of it. Both Christianity and theistic Hinduism describe Grace descending from above, or from the blessing of another: the saint, the savior, or the avatar. This is a nice description of "blessing," but a blessing is only temporary and external. Grace is innate. The juice of Being, the marrow of breathing, Grace flows ceaselessly, never withheld by the Divine. We just need to get out of its way, and settle effortlessly into alignment. God rewards alignment.

Grace is the power that percolates through the still axis of every harmony, spilling from divine Consciousness into the center of the galaxy, overflowing to the sun, to the earth, and from the earth into my body. Here, Grace is the radiance of my heart center: it illuminates every cell of my flesh and sets my atoms spinning.

Grace is not super-natural, it is natural. The grand alignment of the universal and particular happens spontaneously when I accept myself as I Am, this moment, without the slightest added effort to be anything more. Then gracious creativity breathes inspiration, the exhalation of the stars through the bones of matter. Grace does not descend, it wells up like a tear from within, from the silence at the core of harmony, which can never be known by the mind. Grace has nothing to do with thinking or believing. The first condition for Grace is an intellect stunned by wonder.

Grace and forgiveness are one. For-give means "give before." What is needed pours out in the instant before doing. So by Grace, actions arises not from anxious effort, but from stillness.

The irony is, I activate this power by allowing my heart to bestow it on others. The final alignment that completes the circuit of dynamic Grace is my relationship with you. When I embrace you just as you are in this moment, without needing you to be anything more, I allow the circle of God's plenitude to overflow. As the universe accepts me, I accept the other, without judgment. This is what Jesus meant in the Lord's Prayer when he said, "Forgive us, AS we forgive others." So much of Jesus' teaching hinges on that sacred little word, "as."

Comments

Mystic Meandering said…
Hi Fred, I'm a little confused by your meaning of Grace in your posts this morning. In my experience Grace is innate, as you say, just as God is our innate Nature. It just is. But you seem to be saying that it is given to us as a "reward" for "right" behavior, or if we somehow "align" ourselves in some "correct" way to a seemingly separate God/Divine figure that we believe is out there somewhere external to us, which sounds like the old Christian paradigm of grace. Grace just is, like Love just is. And all there is, is Grace and Love. *We* do not have to *earn* it, or "align" with it, or do anything except to become *aware* of its existence/presence within us. It is Grace/Love ItSelf, when acknowledged that brings everything into "alignment"/congruency within us.
At least that's my humble experience... :)
Namaste
6/09/2014 2:46 PM
AKL said…
I totally agree. I too am saying that nothing is necessary for us to do. It what we DO that gets in the way. Very few people actually experience Grace. It is rather useless as a mere concept: but as an experience, it is nectar.
We we get in our own way, and that is mis-alignment. As the Guru says, 'Grace is always poured out, but it is not always received.' If our cup is turned away, the wine steward's outpouring does not fill it. But this outpouring streams from within, not from above. So God is always pouring out grace at every moment, but it is up to us to empty the cup and turn it toward the center. Peace.
6/09/2014 4:38 PM
Mystic Meandering said…
"Grace is always being poured out but it is not always received..." Yes, I can hear that... So it's like staying open and "tuned in" if you will, which you call "alignment." I get the image of one of those big microwave dishes that is always open and receptive - receiving the signals from the cosmos that are always there... :) Thanks!
6/09/2014 6:54 PM
AKL said…
You are a wondrous cup.
6/09/2014 11:47 PM
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