self-Emptying Love
Revealing God through the Dance of self-Emptying
Cynthia Bourgeault in Wisdom Jesus brings forth a powerful and refreshing perspective of the life and wisdom teachings of Jesus. One concept that she shares in this eye- and heart-opening book, is “self-emptying love.” This concept intrigues me to more fully understand and embody it. Cynthia shares,
“The Trinity, understood in a wisdom sense, is really an icon of self-emptying love. The three persons [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling into one another. And as they do so, the mill turns and the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible. The Cappadocians called this complete intercirculation of love perichoresis, which literally means, ‘the dance around.’ Their wonderful and profound insight is that God reveals his own innermost nature through a continuous round dance of self-emptying. On the great watermill of the Trinity, the statement ‘God is love’ brings itself into reality.” Location 1196 on Kindle version
Photo by Jonathan Wheeler
What is self-Emptying?
Self-Emptying is letting go of the small “s” self. Trying to accumulate is the mode that so many of us, including this one, can get preoccupied in. So much time is spent trying to get and to gain, to acquire and retain, to build and reinforce. All are strategies to establish a sense of stability in an ever-changing world. Having grown up in conditions where we had so little, it is no wonder that this one does all it can to take care of what is present in my life. And there is a respect and appreciation for what has been given that is truly honorable. There is a mindfulness about how we interact with what we have that is right and good. Learning how to work with the flow of finances and things can be a conscious act that ameliorates our lives.
So How Does self-Emptying Love Work?
The Trinity, as this one understands it, consists of:
The God-Head (the unmanifest from which all things are created),
The Son (that which is manifest in this physical realm, existing at varying levels of awakening) and
The Holy Spirit (the advocate, the link which links all things manifest and unmanifest).
These three pour forth into one another.
God - Undoubtedly, God eternally pours forth into creation.
Son - Ideally, the son pours forth in emptying itself and allows something to move through it to another, and into the world. This is where we can get hung up. Our identification as a separate being needing to take care of itself, to gratify the ego’s desires and whims, to retain and seal ourself away from the whole, to pour less out than comes in, to collect and build pools of stuff, pools of energy in our bodies, in our homes, in our closets and storage units, to stock away for a raining day in a stagnant type of way. This is where the ego can get rigid in its ability to tilt and pour forth into another.
Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit connects us all. There is no one and no thing, no wisdom or act that is hidden from this Holy Counselor. Jesus called this the Advocate which would instruct us in all ways. It is the Still Small Voice that tells us not to put our glasses in our pocket, right before we do so and they fall out and get run over by a car. It is the One who knows all of our actions and their impact on others. It is the One that knows the path of action that will yield a win-win-win for all who are involved. The Holy Counselor bridges the gap between the manifest and the unmanifest and coaches us in ways that are loving and life-giving.
The Eternal Pouring Forth
This eternal pouring forth from one into the other is a dance that yields love. This act is God’s love becoming manifest and accessible to everyone (our self included). Cynthia put it, “The three persons go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling into one another. And as they do so, the mill turns and the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible.”
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