Don't Underestimate Your Birth

The Savior was pure silence.
Then he put on flesh, like yours.
To touch the Christ, look deep
into your body.
Underestimating your glory
is the only sin.
Now drink up the rest of this day:
bask in yourself and squander the kingdom!
A fountain of something like starlight
will rise up your spine,
spilling over, showering the world
with burning seeds of wonder,
gold as the stuff in Mary's womb...

The 2nd Century Gnostic, Valentinus, defined the Virgin Mother of God as “mystical eternal silence.” St. Hesychius of Jerusalem called this mystery, “The heart’s silence, unbroken by any thought.” Inward silence is the untainted virgin who dwells at the center of your soul. Resting there, you give birth to Light.

Of this archetypal event, St. Bonaventure wrote, "You too must become a Mary if you would give birth to the Light of God's Son in your soul." The 12th century mystic, Meister Eckhart, said, "The birth which happened two thousand years ago is meaningless until it happens in me."

There is a spacious silence in the depths of your awareness. This silent space is untouched, unsullied by any thought, sense impression, memory or desire. This is the space of meditation. When your mind is full of thoughts, and you become frustrated because, "I am having too many thoughts!" how do you know that you are thinking? There must be a witness who sees your thoughts. But the witness cannot be a thought. The witness is pure silence. Behind all your thoughts, the silence just watches. The witness is pure awareness. She is the Virgin.

We call her “Ever” Virgin because the witness is timeless. Thinking creates time. Past and future are nothing but thoughts. When thought is silent, time is not. The silence of pure awareness is eternity.

Christian mystics speak of the "divine darkness." This all-mothering dark is the "formless void" of Genesis 1, "the deep" where the Word of creation is born. St. Paul wrote: "The same God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts..." So the inner Virgin is not only a Mystery of contemplative prayer, but a cosmic Mystery. When we touch her silence, we have touched the source of creation.

It is good to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, or the birth of Buddha at the full moon of May: but please do not underestimate your own birth. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God, shining in the face of Christ, is born this very moment in the center of your soul!