Christmas at Niscience, 2018 (a thank you letter to everyone, for everything)

Marcella summarized the Christmas-tide this year with “Wow!” We concur!

The Christmas-tide talks reflected the penance walk on honesty. We opened our
hearts to the reverence of Mary, to the Light of the Jesus One. The talks inspired a lot
of marking and tracing. Walker’s talk title summarizes one theme: “Seeing True.”

Orese opened the holy tide with a Niscience perspective on the traditional
“3 Mary’s,” as the personal, traditional and cosmic Mary. In the Niscience chapel, as
our ​temenos, ​we contemplated Mary as Panagia Platytera: Mary all holy, spacious,
cosmic. The tone of the holy tide was set with Ann Ree’s words, “One must lay down
his life for his friends, and lift up his soul for God.” Orese underscored Ann Ree’s
powerful words, returning Christianity to the Coeur of Jesus’ teachings: “Man is not
a natural sinner; he just needs to know the Law and to live it.” Mary, the mother of
Jesus, is a traditional figure, yet also a very personal help in time of need, and a
Being of limitless Light. She is both immanence and transcendence, God in the
material and God as a composite body of souls in the Inner Kingdom. Inner and
outer, all is God, Omnipresent. As Walker emphasized, “Trust the intuitive
instinctual. . . Let things come to you. Receive them.” As we united in gratitude for
instruction, Orese closed with Ann Ree’s words, “Men resist the very ideas that are
solutions to their imbalances.” (Almighty God, pour down upon us Thy Grace, that
we may see Thy face, and know Thine Omnipresence, in all Souls, all situations. OM.)

Mirell, in “Preparing the Heart,” spoke of how the heart can soften, open and expand,
and thus see more clearly the Image of God in the other. She captured emotions in
the wake of “fight or flight” responses to ​perceived​ danger: like storm clouds, fear
and depression (rather than protecting us) cloud our vision, blocking our awareness
of the Image of God in another. The courage to suffer, to lay down one’s life for the
other, stitches up the divided heart, opens one to the precious joy, of the Sunlight of
the Image of God in the other. (One pictures the cages of Milov’s sculpture softening,
the children stepping forth, free to walk together, to venture forth, to share.)

Hadan’s talk, on “The Ninth Commandment,” opened with the yantra, for the
children: pouring the water of confession into the bowl of honesty. His talk revealed
the tender beauty, and the power, of one essential ancient Law of Moses. Where
there is no false witness, neither to ourselves nor to the other, the walls come down.
The cages soften. Truth is one; truth unites. Hadan’s discussion of “post-modern”
thought, in political and scientific rhetoric, highlights the “esse” power of the
contrast: recognizing the Constancy of God, as Truth. Grounded in the knowing of
God, as the Truth, the Law, one is ​motivated​ to seek for understanding, of the laws of
the spiritual and phenomenal worlds. To love God as Truth is to love Omnipresence.
To love God opens the possibility, to be one with the One, in love with the All. In
discussing the rhetoric of “post modern” relativism, Hadan underscores Ann Ree’s
words: “Men resist the very ideas that are the solutions to their imbalances.”
As another instance of the miracles of Niscience interwoven talks, Reah Janise spoke
of reverence, and the power of reverence, to bring forth good fruits in the real of
everyday life: “Archetypal Providence.” Reverence, in all aspects of life, opens our
sight to the Divine Image, and blesses our friendships, our prospering.

In “Openness and Holy Vulnerability,” Matthew outlined the delicate balance of trust
and insulation. When we have the best interest of the other at heart, we can speak
openly of our thoughts and feelings. As in Alexander Milov’s yantra sculpture, the
little child in each of us is longing to reach out, through the cages of division and
separation (“ego”), to share love and trust with the other. Matthew completed the
instruction, with a focus on insulation. We must be at once permeable to Light ​and
insulated from the dark. Insulation has discernment of what to share. “Holy
vulnerability” is not a neutral field, is not about being mixed up in others’ emotions.
Through discernment, we remain true to ourselves, “not losing sight of who we are
as ministers.” Through times when another is walled off, we love. Matthew
underscored the significance of holy vulnerability: ​“You don’t know what power your
love will have.”​ From Jesus, “Let your Light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven.”

Walker summed up our inquiry, with “seeing true.” The findings of recent research,
on challenges of visual accuracy, was demonstrated in a movement session. We
walked the lemniscate, while bouncing balls, and reading a nearby chart of
directional arrows. As a testimony to the days of sharing beautiful talks together, we
had coherence as a group, enjoying the levity, and maintaining our focus. As Walker
emphasized, seeing true determines outcomes. Accuracy brings safety, insulation.

All of this marking and tracing was an ​esse ​dance, against the backdrop of a beautiful
Christmas tree. New Song Night was a testimony to the creativity of the Niscience
Dharma: Orman’s inspired arrangements for choir (including “Away in a Manger”),
Indee’s pure tones, the heartfelt new songs, the choir’s enchanted blending, and
instrumental adventures. We were nourished with the excellence of soups and
salads, casseroles and cakes. All around were festive parcels and bows, filled with
treasures of tender holy concern, symbolic of our co-disciple love. Once again, Ann
Ree’s teachings on hospitality inspired a welcome for the pilgrims.

Thank you, Enys, for the hospitality, for all of the planning, for the beautiful talk on
“the Music.” The Angelic musics united our hearts, in celebration of the birth of
Christ, the Light of the World, the Jesus One. Thanks to every one, for every special
present, and for being present, co-disciples (and streamers) all. Thank you.