The Growing Capacity to
Wear the Three Crowns
This is the last of the Holy Nights for this Inner Christmas. (Tomorrow I will write an Epiphany message framing the portal into the ordinary year.)
Never before have I felt a need to attend to what it means to my inner life that the Holy Nights are at an end. Is this because I wrote so personally about the growing capacity for endings?
Twelve is really a number of a full circle of consciousness. We have gone through a full circle of consciousness in the clear presence of the spiritual world and in the clear insight of our "I." Maybe we don't exactly know what that means but all of us sharing Inner Christmas have been active during the Holy Nights - we have moved through a full circle together.
Why would the presence of either the spiritual world or our "I" consciousness fade or blur? Perhaps it is our attention that now dives into ordinary life.
Are the Holy Nights, a yearly spiritual feast, filling us with 12 spiritual dishes that we then digest and make our own? We can then ask which of these dishes did our soul enjoy immediately, which will we savor over the year. Which dish gave our soul something to chew on? Has it been a good meal? Is tonight's message a sweet or savory ending?
What are the three crowns the soul can grow to wear? The crown of Truth. The crown of Beauty. The crown of Goodness.
The soul, your soul, can only wear the crowns through much moral striving. It is moral striving to work with the question, "What is Truth/Beauty/Goodness?" This asks you to wonder - growing the last capacity is dependent on growing the first!
Ask 12 questions about Truth.
Then ask twelve questions about Beauty.
And finally, ask twelve questions about Goodness.
Write them down. Do not try to answer them but do reread them and keep them somewhere to read next Christmas before beginning the Holy Nights.
In your whole life, have you ever asked even three questions about Truth, Beauty or Goodness? Isn't it about time? It is for me.
This is how we begin the year and end the Holy Nights, finding our simple questions about the three crowns of our soul.
Let the questions you have grow in your soul through the year.
If you would like to share your questions and inspire others, please do so at www.innerchristmas2010.blogspot.com
Lynn, thank you again for enriching & infusing my Holy Nights with warmth, reflection and awareness.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of sitting with questions on Truth, Beauty & Goodness...
Some questions that occur to me:
How do I know when truth/beauty/goodness are present?
How are truth/beauty/goodness expressed through me?
How do I receive truth/beauty/goodness in my life?
How can I open to more truth/beauty/goodness?
Where is the truth/beauty/goodness about this person, experience or this moment?
How can I embody more truth/beauty/goodness?
rich fodder indeed for the coming year.
with gratitude, love & blessings,
Shannon
Initially a hard exercise, but evolved to be quite joyful, and I feel perfectly fine with not knowing answers and letting them unfold.
ReplyDeleteAsk 12 questions about Truth.
What is the difference between the Truth and honesty?
How does the Truth set me free?
What is the lesson in the phrase ‘Truth or consequences’ ?
What does it mean to ‘tell the Truth’?
What is my highest Truth?
What is my lowest Truth?
How do I discover the Truth in any situation?
How do I avoid the Truth?
When is the truth not the Truth?
Is anything ever ‘obviously’ the Truth?
What are the Truths I hold to be self evident?
If not the Truth, then what?
Then ask twelve questions about Beauty.
Is Beauty only skin deep?
Is Beauty in the eye of the beholder?
What is the difference between Beauty and the Beast?
How do I experience beauty in simple things?
How big is Beauty?
Where do I feel Beauty?
What is Beauty Full?
Is Beauty a judgment?
Can I hold onto Beauty?
Can I save Beauty?
Can I give Beauty?
How long does Beauty last?
And finally, ask twelve questions about Goodness
Does Goodness live only in the heart?
Is Goodness next to Godliness?
What is My Goodness?
How do I recognize Goodness in others?
Where do I feel Goodness?
What is the flavor of Goodness?
Can I share Goodness?
Is Goodness inherent in all beings?
How does one learn Goodness?
How does Goodness find me?
When Goodness leads, what follows next?
Why do I experience Goodness as light?
Lynn, I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart(h), from the depth of my being... for sharing inner christmas with us, your inspired readers!
ReplyDeleteFellow Readers,
I have created a personal survey about the holiness of the holidays:
http://polldaddy.com/s/889385E86ACEE8FC
It will bring me great joy to see all your responses!
Thank you for 12 profound and thought provoking Holy Nights of love and wisdom. For a second time you have started my year with abundance.
ReplyDeletethis opportunity has allowed love to flow where there had been some depression in past years.
ReplyDeleteto be able to, daily, sink into my own layers of wisdom has brought to each day a spirit of deep gratitude...thankyou
I am moved and thankful.
ReplyDeleteLast night, in the midst of the stressful thinking, the picture of the blue bright cronflower appeared in my inner vision.
I felt it as the next inner christmas arriving in wave of love and sharing - rising as a powerful possibility for feeling save and holy.
Thank you Lynn for all that you are and that you share with us.
Jasminka
Thank you for the 12 holy nights. I came across the information while searching for a way to reconnect with my spirituality as the Christmas season approached.I was feeling empty as the commercialism of this sacred time saddens me. I feel very blessed by your gift of bringing the holy back into my life.
ReplyDeleteTruth Beauty and Goodness -- they do remain soul compasses for me, but I am almost 70. I pray that everyone soul-alive who has been part of this Inner Christmas community has found or will find in due course the love of truth, beauty and goodness, try to manifest them in their work their relationships with people and the world. May we all find ways to share our love of and intrinsic need for truth, beauty and goodness. And may we also have compassion for those in struggle-- caught in the forces mediating against truth, beauty and goodness on all planes.
ReplyDeleteIn love, blessings and thanks.
What a powerful culmination to these Holy Nights. Lynn, thank you for your generosity of spirit and inspired guidance. I am so grateful each year to have this focus and to go on this communal journey. Have a blessed 2011 one and ALL. I know I will be taking this soul work with me throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I was amazed each and every night at how thoughts poured out as if by magic, as if from heaven. It is a profound experience when you take the time and for me the holy nights where enriching and fulfilling like never before. Blessing on your year to come, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe practice of posing questions to the universe without looking for answers is a wonderful one, a way to go deeper into the mystery of existence. I'm surprised that no one (so far in these posts) took you up on the suggestion of posting their questions. (Maybe they did later; I haven't looked at the Epiphany posts yet.) It's taken me a couple of days, and because I was doing it from memory I also asked questions of Love. So here goes:
ReplyDeleteQuestions for Truth: Who are you anyway? What is the truth of belief? What is the truth of irrational belief, that believes despite obvious evidence otherwise? Is the path to truth to let go of belief? If my truth is different from your truth, what is the truth that keeps us living in the same world? What is the truth of a falling snowflake? A car passing on the road? The distance between loved ones? How does the truth of felt experience dance with the truth of science? Is the longing for truth the same as the longing for God, or for love? Does truth exist for someone who does not know how to lie, like an infant or a cat? Is truth a concept or a reality?
Questions for Beauty: Do you have some sort of connection to my limbic or endrocine system? Are you what makes the world alive? Why does it seem that nothing of humanity can match the beauty of a sunrise or a snowfall? Is music the most beautiful creation of humanity? Where does beauty go? Does beauty of soul or spirit really exist? Where is beauty when my eyes are closed? Do birds experience beauty? If the sun rises on an empty sea, is it still beautiful? Why do only some things seem beautiful? In a world of contrast, are dullness and ugliness necessary? Does beauty exist only in my response?
Questions for Goodness: Why do you seem like trying too hard? Are you really there in a delicious feast with wine and conversation? Is evil your opposite - or your twin? Are you compassionate? Can goodness be anything but a human invention? Why are you harder for me to think about than Truth, Beauty, or Love? Do you really have to contrast with fun? Is goodness a matter of taste? Whose taste? Is it really possible to know what is truly good for me - or anyone? Is there anything absolute about you?
And the bonus - Questions for Love: Why are you filled with such heartache and longing? Why do you hide behind cynicsm and despair? Are you really the core of everything? Why do you open to tears? Are you a passion or an action? Are you there even when everything seems numb? If God is only a concept, do you blossom anyway? What has become of my ability to love the "unloveable"? How is it that music and candlelight carry your flame? If love is the answer, what is the question?
Thanks again, Lyn. I hope others took up your challenge, even if they didn't post their questions.