this “stacked up” head–heart split is not what St. Diodochos means when he says “enlightened by the Holy Spirit in the inner shrine of our heart.” In Judeo-Christian tradition “heart” intends the unifying, grounding, center of the human person. The heart in this deep sense permits no “stacked up” dualisms, which shape our culture and our lives.48 L

reactive mind differs from receptive mind just as hard, dry soil, full of clay, differs from soft, well-worked soil that is rich in organic material. In each case it is soil, but there is a difference in the quality of the respective soils.

Perhaps the most famous statement of this is provided by St. Athanasius the Great, “God became human so that humans may become God.”8 What God is by nature we become by grace.

We go at these dualisms tooth and nail, and dualistically bludgeon them into what we triumphantly label “the non-dual.”

The sheer generosity of receptive mind continues its expanse, an expanse generous enough to cradle in its arms the joys and burdens of a lifetime. Pain still hurts. Joy still gladdens. Despair still flattens. But we are less demanding that the present moment—whether pain, boredom, or bliss—be other than it happens to be.

Whenever we turn to God, there is a light that shines and burns in us, guiding us to what we should do and what we should not do, and giving us all kinds of good instruction, of which we had no knowledge or understanding in the past.”

As John Chapman writes in his Spiritual Letters, “Progress will mean becoming more and more indifferent as to what state we are in.”

at some moment, when we spontaneously stopped looking at ourselves as objects of fascination, we cease using the practice of contemplation as a means of controlling any aspect of our progress in contemplation. Each time we sit, it is as though for the very first time and we are too innocent to expect anything at all.

A habitus is a dynamism—mental, physical, or moral—that generates an increasingly positive momentum toward love of God and neighbor (this is but one love loving love). There can also be a negative habitus, that is, away from love of God and neighbor, but here we shall focus on the positive.