We are called and magnetised to enter into and abide in the space of divine loving embrace, in the centreless centre of our Triune God—Father-Son-Spirit. This “perichoresis” or communion dance of self-emptying, outpouring love is the Life of our lives. In and through Jesus Christ.
This space of divine embrace reminds me of the absolute space of all phenomena, known in Sanskrit as “dharmadhatu.” Except that this “absolute space” of the divine embrace, which is reflected in the emptiness of inherent existence (sunyata) of all things, is not merely the emptiness of created phenomena but the unimaginable absolute interiority of the Triune God in His “empty” yet “full” quintessence, one that bears resonance with but is not identical to dharmadhatu per se. This space of divine embrace is radically but nondually Other.
If anything, this space of divine loving embrace is the quintessential space of God in His Triune absolute interiority that is mutuality and relationality all at once. Once we are immersed and soaked in God’s divine embrace, beyond all reference points, beyond even dharmadhatu, we are forever transformed.
Our lives are completely surrendered to Him alone, even as the process of ever-growing maturity and perfection of love continues to be progressively expressed in our time, here and now on earth. We gradually transform and grow into the likeness and fullness of Christ.
As we say in Zen:
“Sudden awakening. Gradual practice.”
Or again:
“Before awakening, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.
“In awakening, mountains are not mountains and rivers not rivers.
“After awakening, mountains are again mountains and rivers again rivers.”
Our illumination of spirit and metanoia of faith, by God’s sovereign grace, can be sudden and unexpected, and our initial transformation equally instantaneous and surprising. But this is only the start of a lifelong process of ongoing spiritual transformation in and through Christ, by the power of the Spirit, into our Father.
Amen. Hallelujah.
