For several weeks now, I've been pondering the question of the difference between action within the ordinary, and experience within the ordinary, and the action of the Divine within life.
Human beings, in general, have completely disconnected from the action of Divine within life, which ought to be a daily, hourly, and perhaps even momentary influence. The human organism, you see, has a capacity to receive Divine influences at all times — not just under some special set of conditions, or while during meditation. In point of fact, as I have tried to emphasize to my readership for more than six years now, the whole point of Divine influence is that it wishes to express itself within ordinary circumstances and on an ordinary basis.
In order to prepare oneself for this influence, of course, one has to recognize that one belongs to an order — that one
is ordinary — and this is the point of inner work.
It is possible to distinguish quite clearly between Divine and ordinary influences. They are quite different than one another, and there can't be any mistaking Divine influence, that is,
inflow, as Swedenborg characterized it. If the inner eye is opened, the light of the Divine shines in one way or another on a regular basis within the body itself, in an organic manifestation.
These things are mysteries. The Divine influence draws each human being into a more and more intimate and direct contact with God; and a deepening work brings one to an inevitably religious understanding which transcends the words in books and the conventional understanding of religion as we know it. There comes a point where experience is no longer communicable; and a human being who is drawn into this work must pursue the path that is infused into their own heart, deaf to the allurement of other, lower influences. The inner action itself becomes the guide.
Although outer action is required, outer action must arise from and be infused by this inner quality of Divine influence. Above all, such influence does not declare itself or proselytize; it is the influence itself, its actual action on the others around one through an intelligent and intelligible, that is,
active, compassion, love, and kindness, that must be expressed... not the
idea of the influence or its higher principles. One begins to see that one should not talk softly and carry a big stick; one should talk softly and put all of the sticks down.
There are times when I think our chief difficulty is that we all think we are extraordinary. It's only the softening influence of the Divine, which gently and patiently teaches us, as we absorb it, that can dissolve the arrogance that suffuses our lives. And there are three tasks we must undertake for ourselves in this action: submit, submit, submit. This is very similar to Gurdjieff's Being Parktdolg-Duty, that is, duty, duty, duty.
What he did not elaborate is that
our duty is to submit. If we do not work to become available, if we do not prepare ourselves to receive tangible influences of the Divine, we do not fulfill our duty.
May your soul be filled with light.