“For too long, we have believed that the divine is outside us. This belief has strained our longing disastrously. This is so lonely since it is human longing that makes us holy. The most beautiful thing about us is our longing; this longing is spiritual and has great depth and wisdom. If you focus your longing on a faraway divinity, you put an unfair strain on your longing. Thus it often happens that the longing reaches out towards the distant divine, but, because it over-strains itself, it bends back to become cynicism, emptiness or negativity. This can destroy your sensibility. Yet we do not need to put any strain on our longing. If we believe that the body is in the soul and the soul is divine ground, then the presence of the divine is completely here, close with us.” – John O’Donohue
All longing is by definition a desire for connection. Longing to be with the love of one’s life, longing for a clear sense of meaning and purpose, longing for one’s favorite team to win the World Cup all imply a yearning for relationship, for the connection of two things which are presently separate.
While all of these place various degrees of strain on those involved, the ultimate longing, the longing for the return of the kingdom of heaven on earth, has been the most traumatic and frustrating. Ironically, the divine is much closer than most have assumed. It is, as it was once so elegantly put, “at hand” – not far away, not in some distant future, but – at hand.
You needn’t look farther than the way the man known as Jesus was supposedly treated by the religious and secular leaders of his time to see what happens to those who dare to challenge the firmly held and fiercely protected human conviction that the divine is outside of us. In fact it was the high priest of the Jews – not some evil dictator or red-faced horned fallen angel – who, upon hearing Jesus’ assertion that the divine is inside of us, declared such talk to be blasphemy. If the record is accurate and if I am interpreting it correctly, then Jesus was killed by his peers for claiming that the divine is within us.
Why is this thought so offensive to people? Why are they so afraid of it? I suppose because if it were to be true, every power structure on earth would be threatened. And as history shows, those in power don’t like it when their power is called into question. Furthermore, it would remove the ultimate excuse for not living up to the standard of perfection. The statement (which is really an excuse clothed in false humility): “I’m only human” would be modified slightly to “I am a human being.” The simple addition of “being” would imply that at the core of every person on earth is a divine being.
Were the fact that the divine is within each one of us not only recognized, but honored, the world would become a different place within minutes. The release of power would be more significant, more far reaching than any other power man has been capable of amassing in the disconnected state. The excruciating longing in the hearts of men and women everywhere would instantly give way to deep and unremitting feeling of tranquility and assurance.
Gregory Hake 
The longings of human hearts are so mixed presently that few can untangle the snarl. Some are content to ‘worship’ a distant god of imagination while others talk blithely, or even arrogantly, about the ‘spark of the divine within.’ Both tend to miss the point, because the Divine is both well beyond oneself as an individual and, at once, immediately present and in fact forming the core of oneself!
I suppose the key is that, should longing be allowed to be consummated, the result would be oneness (as Lady Leo ably notes) and the state of chronic separation would be no more. This is what human beings in general and individual human beings in particular have been unwilling to allow. This is the life that is to be lost in order to find the life of Reality – the unified state. Losers unite!
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One can only imagine the great longing of the Father for his crowning creation to return to its rightful place, generation upon generation upon generation he has waited for this return. As his crowning creation the ardent longing of the heart is for the body of humanity to know again the shear wonder of “I and the Father are one”. I can’t do this for anyone else, but I can through my day by day living reveal the reality of it. What a wonderful Sunday morning consideration.
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Your words make me think further how the divine is recognized and honored.
By acknowledging the true essences of love in others affirming the recognition and honoring of the divine within us.
Having an understanding of why people act the way they do observant of their misplaced longings and rightly placed longing to bring something of heaven on earth.
Forgiving individuals of the misplaced longings that may have trespassed upon us.
Appreciating the joy that comes when rightly placed longings blend together in ourselves and others bringing the connection of wholeness.
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Recognizing the divine being of ourselves changes EVERYTHING. Many of the things the world would have you long for are unmasked and recognized for the empty rabbit holes they are. Jesus’ instruction and explanation to his disciples at the last supper as recorded in John 14 & 15 really answer the question as to why the continued separation between man and his divine being is so fervently protected. I find the chapters are worth re-reading on a regular basis but in short it’s ” If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin…If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”
With the recognition of our divine being, eyes become open; the longing for connection is no more. After the initial euphoria of the re-established connection comes the recognition of the next part that, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” In essence his longings become our longings. Our free will becomes dedicated to,above all else ,maintaining this connection with our divine being. Thank you for the post, to me, this is the foundation for all musings and exploration of truth and love.
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