Holistic Peer Counseling Class #2

Handout 2.6
In 1998, I was separated from my husband and we were mutually considering divorce.
Our relationship at that point had lasted 12 years and was the longest and most
intimate relationship I had experienced outside of my family of origin. I found myself
having to reconstruct parts of my personality and needing to find reassurance that I
was not being abandoned by the Divine. I struggled a great deal with grief and anger and
fear as everyone does in such transitions. By co-incidence I read a Sufi article in a
Parabola magazine whose introductory quote I reproduce with slight changes below. It
inspired me to create my own "Pledge to the Path of the Heart" which is also below. It
may not work for you but, as with all of my written theory or suggestions; take what works
for you and leave the rest. Perhaps you will write your own pledge that suits your
situations and beliefs. - with love- Teri D. Ciacchi

Text on Saints by Al-Junayd 9
th
Century C.E. ( slightly revised)
"A person centered in her own Immanence ( Saint ); hath no fear, because
fear is the expectation either of some future calamity or the eventual loss of
some o object of desire; whereas the Immanent person (Saint), is the "Being of
Time" (residing in the Eternal Present/Presence); she has no future from which
she should fear anything and, as she has no fear so she has no hope since
hope is the expectation either of gaining an object of desire or of being
relieved from a misfortune, and this belongs to the future; nor does she grieve,
because grief arises from the rigor of time, and how should she feel grief who
dwells in the Radiance of Satisfaction and the Garden of Concord"

Pledge to the Path of the Heart
Everything is the Divine. All things I love are my Divine Beloved. I am one with the
Divine. I am one with all parts of my Beloved.
Separation from the Divine is an illusion, a persistent pattern which can be dissolved
and dispersed through concentration on the sensation of connection and Oneness
with the Divine.
There can be no loss of the Divine Beloved. A person centered in their connection to
their own Immanence ( inner sense of Divinity), and present in the Here & Now
cannot also be experiencing grief or loss of Love.
I choose Love and inner Peace over Loss and isolation. All those I now Love or have
ever Loved are with me and cannot be lost to me. Everyone and everything I love is
within me: whole and alive to me through the palpable sensation of love and open-
heartedness I feel in this moment or resurrected and present in my world through the
beauty of Memory.
I choose for my life to be about Love and Loving and vow to stay open hearted to the
best of my ability at all times. I will chose love over fear whenever possible. I will
choose connection and Immanence whenever possible.
I will stay on this path, which I have freely chosen and align with my highest will,
whether those I love acknowledge this path or not.
So Mote it Be- TerraFire 10/98