There are many doors into the absolute. These are my portals into true intimacy. They are my entries into the divine, into the sacred. All these portals can be entered through deep concentration, through true mindfulness.
There are many ways of experiencing the absolute, what I sometimes have called the divine. These are like sacraments all around me because the absolute is in the essence of everything.
Some portals are easy to find and pass through. By practicing entering through them, I become more aware and skilled in mindfulness. It becomes more of a familiar passage, a familiar entry or experience. Insight, awareness comes as I enter through each of these portals. I am noticing that it is almost becoming like a habit, except that I am able to be aware of what I am doing.
I have always had some portals that were easy to pass through, and there was some aspect of the absolute I sometimes experienced beyond. The value of the portals has been in what they allowed me to experience. Step by tiny step, I became familiar with some aspect of the absolute.
So I have some familiarity with what lies beyond the portals. But all this has been changing. The frequency and intensity of my experience of what lies beyond the portals has changed. I am finding myself more and more at home in what I experience.
I am only slowly becoming aware that the sharing of intimacies with other people can be a portal to the absolute. Like many human activities, all manner of intimacies can be shared with little awareness or insight. Just as eating can be done pleasurably but with little mindfulness, so can intimacies be shared with little awareness.
Intimacy can be present in different ways and not always a portal to the absolute. Intimacy is not a guarantee of awareness any more than eating is a guarantee, or seeing or any aspect of touch. A hug may or may not be a portal to awareness.
I think that the opportunity is often offered to the absolute by intimacies, but we have so restricted the opportunities for intimacies in our culture that it is difficult to come by. Both verbal and physical intimacies have been carefully kept aside from common experience. Worse yet, we have made some intimacies an object of barter, a commodity to be traded as we might contract for goods. For some intimacies, there must be a contract and agreement before they are acceptable or allowed.
Fortunately, not all portals are so restricted. So I begin each day with the intent to explore as many portals as present themselves. I am glad for the growing familiarity I have in how to carry out those explorations. I am finding my home in an expanding number of places