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Bernadette Roberts
(1931-present, United States)
Biography Excerpt:
The child of a devout Catholic family, Bernadette Roberts’ contemplative experiences began at an early age. It was at fifteen that they began to fit into a frame of reference within her Christian tradition. Ten years of seclusion in a monastery followed, during which Bernadette realized an abiding state of oneness with God. According to the Christian mystical tradition, this egoless, unitive state is as far as one can progress in this life- the ultimate state, of course, being the glorious estate of heaven.
Enlightenment Story Excerpt:
I
The moment was unheralded, unrecognized,
and un-known; it was the moment "I" entered a great silence and never returned.
Beyond the threshold of the known, the door upon self was closed, but the
door upon the Un-known was opened in a fixed gaze that could not look away.
Impossible to see the self, to remember the self, or to be self-conscious,
the mind was restricted to the pres-ent moment. The more it tried to reflect
back on itself, the more overpowering the silence.
II
By steadily gazing outward upon the Unknown, the silence abated and the emptiness of self became a joy. But the search for the still-point—God within—revealed not one emptiness, but two, for when there is no self, there is no Other; without a personal self there is no per-sonal God—without a subject, there is no object. The still-point had vanished, and with its disappearance it took every sense of life the self possessed—a self which could no longer be felt to exist. What remained was not known. There was no life, no will, no energy, no feelings, no experiences, no within, no spiritual or psychic life. Yet, life was somewhere because all was as usual.