Juliana Cesano - The Way of the Mystic: St. Teresa of Avila's Life and T...

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welcome thank you John and thank you all of you for being here tonight

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it's great to see that there is some interest in Christian mysticism and particularly on the life and teachings

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of Saint Teresa of ávila for those of you who don't know me I have to warn you

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that I'm I am neither a nun nor a scholar so whatever I'm going to share

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with you tonight is the fruit of my own search my own curiosity and a little bit

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of practice I can say that at least I

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was I was raised Christian within the Catholic Church but also within the

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Theosophical Society frame of mind or so and so I learned to pray as at the same

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time that I learned to meditate and I didn't really see much of a difference between these two and later on confirm

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that with Theresa's teachings within the talk I will probably mention other

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traditions as well as a Christian tradition because what you find when you

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read or or look into the lives of the Mystics is that what they say transcends

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their own religion and you find the same pearls in all of them and there is

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certain joy in finding those you see there is this common thread it is very

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true it's tremendously inspiring so there is a lot to share tonight and I

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will only be able to share some of it and particularly about her life and some

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important details of what she considered to be important and this weekend

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we this Saturday we will continue with her practice what she taught us prayer

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so st. Teresa stepped into my life unexpectedly one time one day I was

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walking through the bookstore on this book kind of fell from the Shelf and I got it and I saw st. Teresa of ávila

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passionate mystic and this is a book like Mira by Starr it's being very

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inspiring it's a tiny little book on the accounts of her life many stories and some quotes from her some of her poetry

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so that inspired me to continue the search and to look into the other her

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other works the one thing that I find

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most inspiring about the Mystics is that they seem to be very real very

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real people common to some extent extraordinary as well but people with

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real struggles and who share those struggles who with those who are also

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seeking so that is quite precious you

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you'll find that they are so incredibly courageous and with this yearning desire to become one with God and I think we

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can all identify it with that as well so apart from the book I just showed you

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there are many other books off that were reading about her now the books that she

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wrote a few of them are listed here the most important ones life of Saint Teresa

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of Avila a book about it's an autobiography so it's called Vida the

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way of perfection which is the book she wrote for the nuns in the first convent

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that she founded so it was specifically written for them but we can all benefit

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from the advice that she gives there then you have the interior castle which

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is probably her magnum opus it is a book that was written after

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a vision that she had of the soul she had this vision of the soul being a

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diamond and like in the form of a castle that had inside seven mansions and rooms

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within those mansions so she describes each of these mansions as states of Prayer or I would say

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states of consciousness how the journey of the soul within and that's why it's

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called a interior castle about the teaching of Prayer then she wrote book

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of foundations with other type of advise meditations on Song of Songs is

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commentary on the Lord's Prayer the letters of st. Therese of Jesus is a

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compilation of letters that she wrote to others and then some minor works from her as well so some impressions first

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about Teresa reading her is not easy it's not a

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reading a contemporary book you have to most of all navigate through her

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apologetic writing there is a combination combination of genuine

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humility but also the fact that she was a nun in the 1500s having visions and

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mystical experiences so all her

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confessors were men and she didn't think

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she knew what she was talking about of course she was wrong about that because

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she was later on centuries after that consider one of the doctors of the

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church the first female doctor to be considered a doctor of the church

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because of her contribution to theology and doctoring so everything she wrote

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was requested it wasn't something that she wanted one day she said and said I'm gonna write something about this no it

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was requested from either the nuns at the convent or her confessors or the

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that were like she says in charge of her soul so she had to be very careful with

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what she wrote her books the the first one and in the way of perfection she

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says at some point father Preciado which was her confessor at the time who will

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be the first to read this book will either make corrections or burn it so

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she didn't know which way was gonna go but in any case she presented her wisdom

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in them so a little bit about her early life she was born in 1515 in goat Aaron

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Dewar and the province of Avila Spain when she was 14 her mother died there

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was a huge event in her life being a girl and but from the beginning she was

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very much inspired by religion and especially Christianity and prayer at

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the age of 20 she decided to enter the Carmelite monastery a little bit against

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her father's wishes but then with her father's blessing and within the

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monastery she got very ill and they

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tried several treatments on her not none of them worked so her father took her back home to die and she actually did to

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some extent she fell into a coma for a few days and when they were about to consider her

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dead her father leaned on her and realized that she was breathing there were some

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signs of life and at that moment they

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realized that she was alive and help her kind of come out of that state imagine at that time we didn't they didn't have

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enough resources to to deal with those type of things but she came back to life

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the only thing she could do was to bling her eyes and then little by little move

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a finger and after months eight months she was able

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to move her limbs and he took her two years to crawl so she taught herself to

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walk and that tells you about her will and her her power even during her time

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of illness she experienced periods of of religious ecstasy and the book that

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inspired her tremendously it was the only book that she carried with her everywhere actually a lot of the images

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that you see of her and statues she's carrying a book I wonder if it's that one because in her accounts that's the

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only book she actually seemed to have read and this book there was the third

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spiritual alphabet by Francisco Osuna who was also a mystic I was shocked to

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find out that this book is available not only in the library but on Amazon so

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it's it's a big book and it's I recommended highly recommended Teresa

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was very genuine she had an exceptional intellect and but

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this intellect was balanced by her very passionate emotions so she had a heart and in mind that were strong and she

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says that one of her officer the greatest obstacle that she had but it

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turned out to be turn out to be her most effective weapon was that she liked to

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be light so for a person who is trying to transcend whatever others think of

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you that was an obstacle but for someone who was having visions and mystical

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experiences it was a blessing because she was very charismatic and was able to

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navigate through this with ease because she liked to be liked and people liked it liked her and sometimes well while I

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read her I became kind of concerned about her

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because you can see that she was really a gem and she was so she was so much

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around other people who were in control of what she was experiencing and where

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the judge judges of what she was experiencing that you feel at some point

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is she gonna make it and it she kind of made the right people and fortunately

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fortunately she did and that's why she

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lives until she was older enough to die of illness one of the the primary fruits

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of of Teresa's inner experiences was the realization that no intermediaries were

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needed for the soul to achieve union with God and this was kind of a

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revelation at that time right we didn't need anybody else to take us there we can just go within and find God within

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so doing we have the Christian missus and missus assuming the Golden Age of

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Spain and here it just listed these three mystics but there were so many

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more francisco do suna was the author of the book that Teresa read Saint Teresa

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of Avila 1515 to 1582 and then st. John of the Cross 1542 1591 st. Teresa was 27

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years older than him and this is something that very few people know

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about Teresa was John st. John of the Cross his friend and mentor so she was

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in a way a mentor because she was the one who started the Reformation but then

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st. John's inner development was as great at hers or even beyond of course

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nobody's can judge that but they are very very close and very good and supported each other in their growth

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when she had these this moments of ecstasy she would have at times visions

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and experiences that were not of this of this world so when she shared this is

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quote from her this is when she shared the details is sexual from Meera by star when she shared the details of her

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visions and voices with the men in charge of her soul they were overcome with either reverence or suspicion but

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no one was capable of investigating terrorism more thoroughly than she was already investigating herself she

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subjected every one of her mystical favors to rigorous self inquiry she was

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determined to discern whether her visions came from God were delusions of

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the devil like she would say or were artifacts of mental imbalance in spite

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of the doubts of some she concluded that her experiences were divine in origin because they left life-changing peace in

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her soul and an irrevocable increase of love in her heart the one thing that I

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want to point out the most is is this rigorous self inquiry that she had yes

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she was very brave to just see herself as she was and not to be afraid of not

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trusting the visions and asking the visions and checking with other people she would go to learn men within the

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church and speak about what she experienced and asked him to find those things in books or and to corroborate

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for her she was really a seeker she was seeking for the truth of it getting

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inside the mind and the heart of a mystic can turn your life upside down

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or inside out and hopefully change your

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life for good normally we are quite

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concerned about our self-image and you know it's we think a lot about

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how other sees as what other think of us and we focus much more quite a lot on

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that external part of an of life but for

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for a mystic and for a spiritual person in general all that matters is our relationship with God it is between me

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and God she writes a beautiful poem that I'm not gonna be able to share with

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you today that one in particular is very long but at the end at the very end of

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that poem of the that poem and she says let me prove my worth in solitude and

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solitude meant with herself but also with God so it doesn't really matter

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what's on the surface or what is happening in the outside with the rest

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of the world but what is happening with my conversation with God it's what

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really matters when there is this honest attempt to follow the footsteps of a

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saint and it doesn't mean that we're going to try to follow exactly those footsteps because that's impossible we're all unique and different and we're

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going to follow our own path not anybody else's hopefully but when we attempt to

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live the teachings we realize that it requires the commitment to change to

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turn to some extent you know some of the things that we're doing right now need

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to be adjusted and so there's the need of this courage inside to change those

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things we cannot remain who we are and at the same time walk the disjoining and get closer to

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the divinity so she says things that if

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you really want to put in practice it can change your life right she says how

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good and true will be love of the sister is she's talking to her nuns who can help others by setting

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aside her own advantage for their own sake she will make much progress in all

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the verges so definitely she was the

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real deal and in that you know we will see it along the way

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in as part of her teaching one of the

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things that stands out the most when it comes to her and probably every every

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spiritual person is this absolute trust

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in a higher power trusting in the great

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goodness of God who never fails to help anyone who is determined to give up

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everything for him so what happens normally is that we're

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not ready to give everything we we just want to give what we're ready to give at this point it's just a little bit of

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what we want and keep the other which is fine the only thing that we need to take

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into account is that if we don't give everything we don't get everything that's returned it's this in a way it's

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simple math if we want to see it from that side so this particular time in our

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culture is it runs a little bit around

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that getting what we want to be the most important thing and but you know even

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following the Lord's Prayer when it says Lord thy will be done and that is come

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what may this is not my own well it is a much more powerful force that is going

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to take me to the place that I need to go so

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at some point she says something very important she says do not fear that he will fail you and if sometimes he should

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fail you it would be for a greater good and that greater good that good doesn't

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mean that all something better is coming we don't know what is our greater good something that she says a lot is God

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knows this a lot better than we do know ourselves and so everything that comes

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to us it's what we need and this you

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know experience that comes it's what allows us to develop whatever it is it

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is that we need to develop at this point so I'm going to be and I'm already

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saying a lot the word the word God and I

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have go I probably said devil and I will say it again because of the word she

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uses you are welcome to interpret those two words in any way you want

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underneath through this roof we have that freedom and I will share with you

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very briefly what I consider to be God and the devil god I believe that none of

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them have have personal characteristics

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there are impersonal forces God is this omnipresent ineffable eternal power that

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sustains everything that is alive and that power also lives within us as a

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spark so it's everything God is also what sleeps within the human being and

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slowly awakens and the devil I see it as

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this as the obstacles that come along the journey that sometimes we can even

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call temptation because they do tempt us they tempt us to give up which I'm just

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to take another road when we decided that we were going to take one you know it seems that whenever we

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really commit to do something anything I'm sure it has happened to all of us whether it is prayer or meditation or

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you know I'm gonna really try not to think badly or peep of people or to

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gossip and you know it's like the moment we put this this force into in motion

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there is the media response sometimes that wants to prevent that move it in

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the right direction so I consider that to be that devil that force that she

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called in that way so before we go into

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into prayer one of the main vows of her the

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Carmelite Discalced which was what she

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the order that she found it was poverty and it was extreme poverty so there was

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this commitment to live in a very austere and simple life and the main

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reason is what for them you know they go all the way all the way but not to make

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this you know a big gap between them and us we can see that all that simplicity

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is needed when we want to devote our lives to what is what really matters and

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right now whatever is not it's not that simplicity is a distraction we can call

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it a big distraction recently I was watching this talk by a priest and he

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said that the priest in the congregation who had TV showed up at pray or less

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than those who did it I thought that was very funny because I didn't know that

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those thing can happen even with an you know a convent but you know that's such a reality for us we we have so many

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distractions and the more we have the more we get and the more we use our energy in those

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things you know we have temperatures that we have to wash it's not the same as we have to wash one or two so it's

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time it's basically time that we put in other things instead of what is our

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priority or if we want that to be a priority of course so they lived in such

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austerity that there is this funny account in which so Teresa was having

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this exercises at any given time she or she will also levitate at any given time

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and the nuns in the convent were already used to it but one time she was holding

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a pan with oil and she had this moment of ecstasy and and the account says the

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nuns were really worried but not because of the ecstasy because they were very used to that but because she was gonna

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spill the last oil that they had in the convent so that depicts more or less the the

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type of life they were living the other

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rule for them no the other vow was the pray without ceasing our primitive rules

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states then we must pray without ceasing if we do this with all the care possible

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for unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the role the fasts

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the disciplines and the silence the order commands will not be wanting so

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she didn't say you know this didn't mean you have to constantly pray vocally like

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with words this is a state of tray a state of that the Buddhists will call a

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present moment awareness it is just a state of coming back to where you are

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recognizing that the divinity within you so different mystics use different

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techniques if we can call them that way and but the idea so we

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the same is going back to this moment coming back to this moment as it is and

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bringing the presence of a higher power at least for the Christian mystics will

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be either the presence of Jesus or God and some of them would center in the

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center of the chest and the center of the heart or II I would say in the heart

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center and then she says something that I could have completely left at that

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side but I thought it was very important prayer and comfortable living are

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incompatible so whether we like to hear that or not but you know again being

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realistic about our maybe sporadic or

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limited efforts into this path and you

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know knowing that our approach to that light will be also limited and then

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something else she says about prayer if I if I had understood as I do now that in this little Palace of my soul dwells

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so great a king I would not have left him alone so often and this is one of

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the most powerful things that she shares all the time she says God is so close to

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us or that sometimes you say the Lord you don't sometimes you don't know if she's talking about Jesus or God it is

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and she says we miss it because it is so incredibly close to us so there's no

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purpose whatsoever of looking outside or in looking anywhere else we just look to need to look within which makes it

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pretty easy something in very inspiring account at

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least for me one time she saw a small boy standing at the bottom of the stairway who are you

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he asked her she said I am Teresa of Jesus she answered rather imperiously and who

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are you I am Jesus of Teresa he said and vanished

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I thought that was the sweetest thing

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and this account is as part of an explanation about her being like

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questioning her visions and who are you you know so another person would just

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stand there like wondering what is going on or but she was very brave requisites

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for prayer three virtues Jesus without them contemplative prayer it's

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impossible and she uses the word impossible of course she's talking about

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contemplative prayer which is in in her language it would be a complete union with God

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probably well in in Buddhism and Hinduism would be Samadhi so what she

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tries to convey here is that many talents we think that we only need a

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technique right we don't need the method so what is the method of prayer I just want to know how she prayed I'm doing

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that I'm probably gonna get where she god but the first scene things she tells

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you is well you need first to work on these three virtues and at the same time

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of course you can practice prayer but as long as you you don't advance in these

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virtues you will not advance in prayer which makes perfect sense doesn't it if

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we see it in terms of of vibration you know we're trying to raise ourselves into a different state of being and

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we cannot achieve that by 20 minutes of prayer or two hours of Prayer it is it

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has to be the change has to be complete our whole being needs to walk in that

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direction so it is you know the sincere

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effort to cultivate right living loving actions loving speech loving thoughts

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and that's not easy we can we have

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lifetime's of work just on that but the work can start any time like one of my

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favorite teachers says start where you are this is our chance to start or to

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continue so change must be up at all

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levels so the three virtues are love

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detachment and humility one of the

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things before before I show you I just picked one quote for each of them to

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show you a different aspect of what you may think of them but of course the

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obvious applies you know she talks about

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feel compassion for other people's faults instead of getting frustrated or

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commenting about it and I really like one recommendation that she gives

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practice with great perfection the virtue opposite to the fault

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that appears in the other so whenever we notice a fault on someone else we can

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immediately think of the opposite virtue and try to practice it that's a very

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practical advice she talks about all kinds different types of love it would

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take us out a whole time to talk about that but I am I was blown away by the

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keen serrations that she makes and that's a

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result of self-knowledge really and an observation of things she says that we

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normally cannot follow this properly

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either because of excess or defects and you know defect we cannot understand we

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don't love enough but then she talks about excess excess of of love and is in

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this excess of loving one person we're failing to love others equally or we're

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failing to love God above everything above all things so very you know things

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you would not normally think of and the considerations are very specific and she

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talks at length about them and the one thing that I that I thought it was

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important to share is that quote now it seems to me that those whom God brings

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to a certain clear knowledge love very differently than do those who have not

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reached it this clear knowledge is about the nature of the world that there is

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another world about the difference between the one and the other that the

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one is eternal and the other a dream and

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I honestly never expected a Christian mystic to use these terms which are which are very might much found in

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Buddhism Hinduism in in in Theosophical texts this very clear notion that there

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is the world that we see that apparently is a little bit like a dream it's not

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that real as we think it is and there is this other world that is eternal and

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it's the one that actually counts so whenever we put our energy and our love

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into the world that it's a dream we're really wasting our time

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guess what really matters is what we're building in the other world in the world

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of God and then the next one is

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detachment a very simple definition that she gives about the attachment is not

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holding on to what is not eternal not

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paying attention to what doesn't bring us closer to God so anything that is

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going to attach us to whatever is going

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to change or die or modify or not exist eternally we can work on slowly and

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gradually detaching from you know we can

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always start with the things that are easier and move into the thing into the aspects that take more effort from us

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and the quote that's selected for that was a great a to going against your will

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it's to bear in mind continually how all is vanity and how quickly everything

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comes to an end this helps to remove our attachment to trivia and center it on

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what will never end when we begin to become attached to something we should strive to turn our thoughts from it and

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bring them back to God and His Majesty

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helps so we're not alone in that attempt we always get help as well if we're

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sincere so it's I think it's it's quite clear right when we begin to become

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attached to something well we can reflect on the nature of that and bring

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our attention and bring our self into the things that are long-lasting and the

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last one is humility and of course it's a fundamental virtue

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she says whoever has them because she's things detachment and humility go

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together there is no way we can practice one or the other whoever has them can

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easily go out and fight with all hell together and against the whole world and all its occasions of sin such a person

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has no fear of anyone for his is the kingdom of heaven he has no one to fear

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because he doesn't care if he loses everything nor would be he consider this

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a loss another story and probably one of

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the most powerful ones that inspired this statue by Bernini ecstasy of Saint

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Teresa she says I saw an angel beside me

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toward the left side in bodily form he was not very large but small very

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beautiful he's face so blazing with light that he seemed to be one of the very highest angels who appear all on

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fire they must be those they call Sheridan I

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saw in his hands a long dart of cold and on and at the end of the island there

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seemed to me to be a little fire this I thought he thrust through my heart

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several times and that it reached my very entrails as he withdrew it I

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thought it brought them with it and left me all burning with a great love of God

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so great was the pain that it made me give those moans and so utter this sweetness that this

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sharpest of pains gave me that there was no wanting it to stop nor is there any

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contenting of the soul with less than God so her conversations with God

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continued at times you can tell that she just she's describing Jesus she's having

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visions or hear in the voice of Jesus and

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she knew these visions were not the goal that these visions were just helping her

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to the further along the journey because

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that's also as part of the mystic work if we get stuck in the visions and the

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bliss of the of the ecstasy that is feeling that is also part of the things

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that are changing and not eternal so

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they continue they use that as as an

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opportunity and of course as guidance most of all and then I wanted to share

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with you a little bit of Saint John of the Cross so when Teresa was 52 she she

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had already founded the convent of the Carmelite Discalced this is she was

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already a Carmelite but she created the order of the Carmelite cults the word Discalced comes from the Spanish

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Descalso which means barefoot so they were either barefoot or wearing sandals but it

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depicted the poverty that the vow of poverty and one of the reasons they did

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that was she had a strong reaction to what was happening at the time within

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the convent of the Carmelites and it happened that prayer was not longer the

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first priority or silence there were people the citrus coming all the time

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high status people like sometimes politicians or wealthy people so the the

41:39

convent was turning into something that wasn't genuine you're really seeking

41:44

spirituality so she decided that she needed to bring that back and she needed

41:50

to bring the teachings of Jesus back and so she did and she found it 17 convents

41:57

some of them with the help of others among them Saint John of the Cross so

42:03

when she was about to found another convent she heard of of st. John

42:09

and some people to bring him to her and they began as sincere most sincere

42:18

friendship it is said that st. John of st. John of the crosses last attachment

42:26

was Teresa he realized that she was the

42:31

last thing he was attached to and when he realized that he was holding in his

42:36

chest some of the letters she had written to him and when he realized that

42:42

he burned them and in a way let her go but both of them had visions and

42:51

levitated Teresa would levitate after Communion and or other in other more

42:59

unexpected moments that at first when she didn't know what's going on she would ask the other nuns to hold her

43:05

down because she didn't want to be seen like that and you can imagine so one

43:15

time one nun reported that when she entered the convent kitchen at dawn to

43:21

stir the coals for morning tea she found John and Terry said leaning toward one another in silence while their chairs

43:28

were hovering a few inches of the ground and of course this wasn't something that

43:34

they were they were looking for they were trying to achieve this was just a consequence of their state of

43:41

consciousness it brings lightness and

43:48

you can find in the India accounts of Teresa about these mystical experiences

43:54

that what what is happening is so

43:59

complex that at times she cannot find the words to define it and when it

44:07

happens to be the body when the body is not present sometimes the body I mean the first thing goes off like it's

44:15

unconscious is the body but then sometimes the memory remains as the memories not there and as she

44:21

advances into these stages you'll see that there is tremendous upliftment on

44:26

everything and with it also the physical body don't try to help her with some of

44:35

these powers that she developed and he was he was less passionate and he

44:43

thought that it was her passion what caused all these things so he gave her

44:50

some advice and a funny account despite

44:55

the great affection and respect Teresa and John fell for each other John didn't

45:01

hesitate to reprove her he told her when you make a confessions mother you think

45:06

of the prettiest excuses for your sins

45:12

don't we all he was very honest with her

45:19

and at times for example he tried to well this is happening after communion

45:24

and maybe because you have you know the whole bread in your mouth and that gives you this tremendous feeling of God

45:30

inside of you so they were trying to figure out how to help her with this and he he thought he would help her by just

45:37

breaking the bread in half and given just half and it didn't matter she had

45:44

she levitated anyway after the bread so

45:55

a little bit about prayer

46:03

one of the things we we can learn from her is that prayer is for all of us it

46:09

doesn't mean there were all mystics it doesn't mean that we're all going to achieve contemplative prayer but it does

46:15

mean that we can all pray and she gives instructions from the very beginning

46:22

into the higher stages with such clarity in the interior castle in which she

46:30

explains each of these stages of prayer she gives very specific information of

46:36

in this stage be aware of this or be aware of that careful with such thing in

46:41

such a thing move in this direction it's like if you know someone who has been

46:47

there can tell you this is the way you drive it doesn't mean that it's going to

46:52

be exactly the same sentence we take other roads to get there but at least we have some reference so she makes a basic

47:04

distinction at the beginning of two types of Prayer the vocal prayer that we

47:10

all know of the one we say with our words and then something she calls

47:16

mental prayer this mental prayer is it's

47:21

not related to something that is mostly done with the mind but it is it's a

47:27

mynhardt prayer and it starts the the basic

47:35

foundation of it is a conversation with God or a conversation with Jesus and the

47:45

attempt to become closer and closer to their nature she will normally meditate she this was

47:54

also called meditation she will meditate on the qualities of Jesus or the

48:00

passions and little by little moving into a state of being that was

48:09

completely quiet she had a very active mind so it's not that she was born with

48:16

the capacity to pray to pray quietly and I

48:22

will share with you on Saturday accounts of how she dealt with that but she was

48:28

very aware of how active her mind was and sometimes she will tell her tell her nuns you cannot pray today and that's

48:35

fine not every day you're gonna it's not that they were not allowed I mean that

48:41

they wouldn't pray they would in any way they would attend prayer she they had a

48:46

two-hour practice of prayer but she she

48:51

would recognize the fact that it wasn't enough at all times possible to have a

48:57

quiet mind able to reflect on these things or even to reach the point of

49:03

being completely quiet so she had a lot of experience and and shares that with

49:11

us so for her this contemplative prayer the beginning is is nothing else but a

49:18

close sharing between France it means taking time frequently to be alone with

49:25

who we know loves us and like she said he's so close to us and she recommended

49:34

that we always keep the at the beginning the image of of the teacher close to us

49:42

for protection but also for inspiration and

49:51

really what matters in prayer is not so much what we do but what God does in us

50:01

during those moments so it is more of a

50:07

at first a very active practice and then I'm much more passive in fact there is a

50:15

description she she makes a description of four stages of prayer in which she

50:23

says at first it's like you know the let's imagine that we're trying to cultivate this garden and we need to

50:30

water it so at first the effort as a lot we have to bring buckets of water into

50:36

the garden and walk our way back and bring the water and the second stage of

50:42

Prayer we use a wheel one of those wheels that crap the water and so then

50:50

you just take that water and pour it into the garden it's this less intensive

50:56

labor the third stage of Prayer in this

51:02

third stage of prayer we receive water from from the ground those the channels

51:10

that for irrigation and so we receive

51:17

that water at certain times but it is there and there is we don't have to walk

51:22

and get it it's coming it's flowing to us and she said the fourth state stage

51:27

it's like rain it pours into you there's no nothing you can do or cannot do it

51:35

just comes to you

51:41

I think that her favorite prayer was the Lord's Prayer and it is after all the

51:49

only prayer that Jesus shared I recommend it so this is her famous most

52:04

famous Prayer in Spanish nada Tito a nod

52:11

Aponte todos que pasa Dianna semua la paciencia todo el cáncer

52:21

kena deity na nan Aleph Alta solo Dios

52:27

bata let nothing disturb you let nothing

52:33

frighten you all things are passing away God never changes

52:39

patience obtains all things whoever has God likes nothing

52:46

God alone surfaces and this is uh by

52:54

Jose Rivera and as you can see there is a skull and a dog and so it's it's a

53:03

representation of both her inspiration the eternal world and the world of of

53:12

dreams the one that dies this is the

53:17

representation of death and the eternal she wrote many poems and this is just

53:27

one of them so if by chance you forget where I am

53:32

do not rush around here and there if you want to find me seek me inside yourself

53:40

so you're my room you are my house you're my dwelling if through you're

53:49

distracted ways I ever find your door tightly closed to not seek me out

53:55

by yourself to find me he will be enough simply to call me and I will come

54:01

quickly seek me inside yourself

54:09

so do you think she had a near-death experience it's quite possible I was

54:18

hoping to read something about that and I didn't find it it it didn't surprise

54:26

me that she had in that experience of dying in a way you see that in other

54:32

mystics as well that they have to some

54:38

extent some experiences that can be seen as near-death or sometimes the

54:44

experience like parts of them dying and so it wasn't surprising but for sure she

54:53

she experienced things in in the state of coma yeah what was the name of the

55:01

book that you had at the very beginning yes st. Teresa of Avila passionate

55:08

mystic by Mira by star beautiful book

55:21

very inspiring and inspired all this and a lot more now my house is full of books

55:27

of Tarasova and all the ones that other people wrote about her I know I so if you will if

55:35

you've more there that I don't have but

55:41

it's it's really not about it's really not about the books it really inspires

55:48

you to try to practice and at every

55:54

level not just well you know in the sitting meditation or sit in the Syrian prayer but to practice with your loved

56:05

ones with your co-workers with your friends with people you don't know to

56:11

cultivate that we do have a question

56:16

that was sent in if you're sorry in your

56:21

comments about who God is and who the devil is God a force is within do you think the

56:29

devil this force is also within us if it is how did it get there I may not have

56:46

the answer to that question I'm just going to share what I think one of the

56:53

things that I said is that I don't see the devil as uh with with personal

56:59

attributes so it wouldn't be something that it gets in there I believe that we

57:07

have limitations and those limitations

57:12

become obstacles in my view limitations

57:18

come from before because I have a more that's a Buddhist perspective and I

57:26

believe in reincarnation so I think that

57:31

we bring those elements that we still need to work on so they are with us and

57:38

they're they are within us actually I

57:43

believe that most of our obstacles are within and we many times does the

57:50

external circumstances are just a reflection of those limitations that we bring so is it it outside or inside hard

57:59

to say but I definitely won't see it as in terms of an entity or a person

58:08

thank you another question also been sent in some female mystics were burnt

58:15

at the stake for similar practices what did she do differently hmm to not meet

58:22

that same fate yes I said something at the beginning that is related to that

58:28

she liked to be liked so she made a great effort to be light

58:35

and which means she was very charismatic and she was extremely capable with her

58:44

intellect of pretty much convincing everybody about what she thought that's

58:50

why John tells her you find the prettiest excuses for your sins and she

58:56

found she was at the level of the conversation and she could tell people

59:02

things that they may not know at the same time I think it's just a matter of

59:09

the role that she had to fulfill within the church she was a reformer and together with Saint John of the Cross

59:15

the two people who actually actively spoke about prayer so I'm not saying

59:22

that other Saints were less important and that's why the gobbler I think it was just some element of luck or you

59:30

know the need that the fact that she needed to go through that particular experience alive I also had the feeling

59:38

that she was connected with the right people she she was in a way protected by

59:45

the right people we and by that I mean learned men who believed in her and

59:57

protected her but if you if you read her

1:00:03

to actually if if you read her writings

1:00:09

she apologizes so much about what she's saying she's like I know nothing about

1:00:15

this I am nobody I'm the worst sinner in the whole world so she says that every

1:00:20

two sentences I think alike I could just stop it let me just read what you have to say I'm in the 2017 but maybe that

1:00:32

helped her to it was you know very humble but also very apologetic Oh

1:00:41

in your readings did you um learn about how she was able to detach

1:00:47

how did she practice that what did she do did she share about struggles with

1:00:54

detachment yeah I cannot think of a particular example right now it's not

1:01:04

nothing is really coming to mind about like a story or something like that but

1:01:12

she because she had this very keen self

1:01:18

observation whenever she felt that there was attachment she would be able to see

1:01:26

it and work on it and let go of it I

1:01:32

think that what happens with with attachment is that it sneaks in and then

1:01:39

we realized it when it's quite big and then the work begins but she gives us a

1:01:44

clue that is contemplate the things that are eternal and even when this doesn't

1:01:51

make sense you know sometimes we're attached to a problem that we have or an idea or a person and we can always try

1:02:00

to bring the mind to things that are of the soul and so that cultivates that

1:02:07

state of being instead of the you know of the world that she spoke about the

1:02:13

changes and it's like a dream so that's all I have another question from someone

1:02:23

online any similarities between her and Ramana Maharshi that you can think of he

1:02:32

has definitely the meditation in the

1:02:42

heart of prayer in the heart that is common in all Christian mystics Ramana

1:02:48

Maharshi spoke who is by the way Hindu mystic spoke of the practice of focusing on on

1:02:58

the divinity within in the center of the chest

1:03:03

austerity constant prayer constant meditation ramana maharshi spent years

1:03:10

in a cave when Teresa speaks of the place in which John of the Cross

1:03:17

meditated she said I went there with two merchants two people that accompany me

1:03:23

they did nothing but weep they were just weeping of the the energy that there was

1:03:32

in that place and it was just in the description it really sounds like a cave

1:03:38

where there was no comfort whatsoever and they would just spend hours and days

1:03:44

in contemplation so yeah those are the things that I can think of right now you

1:03:53

mentioned that she was a doctor of the church do you know from your readings of any of the qualities that wouldn't she

1:03:59

would have for that I don't know exactly

1:04:04

I read that it was because of the her

1:04:10

theologian the let's say knowledge that

1:04:18

she brought I my impression of it is that within the journey of the soul

1:04:26

there is certain amount of information that priests at those levels have and

1:04:33

she filled a lot of the gaps that they didn't know about and so she was part of

1:04:43

she helped construct the doctrine of the church in a way like giving this is my

1:04:50

piece this is my contribution to it but this did it that didn't happen until 1970 she was canonized

1:04:58

in the 1600s so that happened right away but she was considered doctrine of the

1:05:04

doctor of the church in 1970 so that was quite recent what language

1:05:13

did she write in Spanish I hope so you could read the in was is it the same

1:05:20

Spanish we know now or it's an ancient Spanish yeah you know it's it's Spanish

1:05:25

from Spain and it's such it is so old in I mean the sense that it was like more

1:05:30

of an an old type of structure and words and that it was easier for me to read in

1:05:39

English the in Spanish even though I speak the language sometimes like I wouldn't understand what she meant the

1:05:47

description and on the words I will be totally confused so I was like nah let's just do it in English but it's just yeah

1:05:54

it's a pity that I had to I couldn't read that now her poetry is of course

1:06:00

much more beautiful in Spanish how did she meet Saint John of the Cross in what

1:06:09

context you mean she's so she found out

1:06:17

about him there was this young friar who was being very committed to the

1:06:22

spiritual life unlike many others and you know I really don't know how you get

1:06:30

to hear about these things in the 1500s but you do because those things travel

1:06:38

and so she sent someone to get him and he went to her and met her at the

1:06:49

convent of st. Joseph

1:06:59

yo