What is the Lex Hixon Center for Contemplative Studies?
Participants will be invited to meet and engage in the spiritual practices within multiple sacred traditions of the world and the diverse perspectives of these traditions. They will be enriched and transformed as they immerse themselves in the intricate cultures of meditative communion, contemplation, devotion, prayer, ritual, and worship. In this space they will encounter kindred spirits seeking to explore the mysteries of the heart and the open space of consciousness. Here they can share their experiences and deepen their study and contemplation of the True.
Who is Lex Hixon?
At the heart of the Center is the vision of Lex Hixon who devoted his life to seeking truth. He was both a practitioner of the wisdom traditions and a scholar/visionary who recognized the Ultimate Truth, the One Source, within the diverse sacred universes. He drank from the living water of Truth and was a loving transmitter of that realization.
Dedicating himself to the work of elevating human consciousness, he saw clearly the fragmentation and numerous afflictions that torment the shared heart of humanity. Today we see in an even cruder way, how that condition is transferred from within the communal heart out into the world.
The contemporary world shows us an inexhaustible succession of images that emerge from that human heart wounded by notions of separation, by individualism, by forgetfulness, by arrogant denial, by disconnection, by hopelessness. Not even the great religious structures escape this moment, even though at the very center of each sacred tradition the water of life of Truth remains intact and uncorrupted.
Thus, all the conventional dimensions of the world present to us in a deceptive way, as something alien and distant, the realization of all that is our fundamental nature and destiny, and the beautiful expressions of what is truly human and touches all aspects of our individual, family and community lives. In Lex Nur’s words:
“There has always been a consensus in spirit that recognizes the elevation of consciousness as the fundamental human task; a gaze that witnesses the present of each instant beyond the limited images projected by a confined perception.” Lex Hixon
Today is a very cloudy autumn day, yet without any electric lights, I’m able to read and write. The sun, which is not even visible to my eyes, is still providing me with enough light so I can function in all sorts of ways. Similarly, all the activities of human life are made possible by the light shed abundantly by Reality Itself. All our intellectual efforts, all our science, all our ethical commitments are made possible only by this spiritual light. In that sense, you can say that everyone in the world is experiencing some of this enlightenment.
In the case of the mystic, the clouds are parted and a direct vision of the sun occurs. In his dialogue, The Republic, Plato talks about the myth of the cave. We’re like prisoners in a cave, with our backs to the sun, and all we see are shadows. Now and then someone comes out of the cave and sees the sun directly. Having seen the splendor of the sun, that person sometimes has difficulty going back into the cave—that is, into the conventional world—and functioning there. So the mystic, who sees directly, sometimes becomes incapacitated in dealing with and enjoying the ordinary world.
The most advanced mystics I know of, in all the traditions, are people who are capable of seeing that naked sun, that naked Divine Radiance, without being blinded or incapacitated. They are able to function joyously even in the tiniest details of life by understanding that every single detail of one’s being and existence itself is enlightened by that primal light. The Christian liturgy speaks about Christ as the Light that enlightens every soul who comes into the world. So human life itself is already enlightened and we shouldn’t feel that enlightenment is some sort of special state that one or two mystics have experienced while the rest of us are living in darkness.
When one studies and experiences the mystic traditions, one begins to appreciate human life more and more. One begins to appreciate the omnipresence of divine life, the extraordinary perfection of the design of creation which allows this divine light to constitute and to permeate every cell, every atom of the creation. The Koran says that as the bird opens its wings in flight, it is praising Allah. And it goes on to say that every motion of the creation is praising the Source of creation”.*
In times of spiritual confusion and despair, which many are experiencing today, we poignantly appreciate the mystical gaze of Lex Hixon which emerges from the very center of the human heart, in harmony with the luminous visions of mystic masters from former generations and from our own time. May the joining of these visions and the collaborative work they inspire reveal untapped human potential and bring about a new level of human consciousness and love.
* The Transcendent Unity of Sacred Traditions:
Examining the Nature of Enlightenment
An interview with Lex Hixon, Ph.D. by John White
Science of Mind Journal, April, 1989