The Divine Anam Cara

The Divine Anam Cara
by William Ryan

The Personal Faces of the Divine
The essence of spirituality is connection, the life of communion with all life, all beings. Hence we are never alone in our life's journey. A vital aspect of this is the trust that the Heart of the Universe is both intimately personal and oceanic in our experience of It. In its personal face we can be in a conscious and intentional relationship of friendship with the personal face of the Divine. The ultimate spiritual teacher is within us and always accessible for our grounding and guidance. Mystics from all traditions throughout time have found ways to name and personify the Divine, often using human relationships as metaphor.

The Sufi mystic, Rumi, simply called the Divine, "Friend." Indigenous peoples frequently address the Ultimate as "Grandfather" or "Grandmother" In the patriarchal system of Judeo-Christianity, it was natural for Jesus to address the Divine Source as "Abba" or "Papa" suggesting both a fatherhood and an intimacy that was shocking to the people of his time, who had hitherto addressed the Divine as "Adonai" or "Lord." In the same way matriarchal traditions have called upon the Divine as "Mother."

Other traditions, such as Hinduism, have used mythic deities, and avatars(human incarnations of the Divine) to personify the Ultimate. In Buddhism, the cosmic Buddha, Vairocana, is a personfication of the oceanic Dharmakaya, or universal Essence or ocean of being from which all things arise. However, personifications that are accessible to the human devotee are frequently used, such as Kuan Yin in Chinsese Buddhism, or Tara, in Tibetan Buddhism, both feminine aspects of the compassionate Divine. The word "buddha" in Buddhism is used to address both the historical person who manifested the heart of Vairocana, and Vairocana Buddha Itself. So the Buddhist addresses "Buddha" in interior prayer and conversation as the personal Divine. For most Christians the mystical Yeshua, is the personification of the Divine and faithful life companion on the Way.

The Divine Anam Cara Relationship
One way of framing this relationship of interior support and spiritual guidance is through the ancient Celtic understanding of Anam Cara. The word, "Anam Cara" is frequently translated as "soul friend." Brigid of Kildare, the druid priestess and later Christian mystic of 7th century Ireland asserted that the most vital element on the spiritual journey is one's "Anam Cara." Anam Cara actually translates as "dear soul." It means a relationship of intimacy and trust, of spiritual communion that is profound and life-sustaining. For the human being on the journey some of us may be fortunate to find for a time a human "anam cara" who companions us for a time on the Way, whose love, support, and total regard for our well-being is without measure. Whether we do find a human anam cara or not, we always have a Divine Anam Cara, who is always accessible to us. Any human teacher or guide we might find in life, is only a finger pointing to the Divine Anam Cara who is our true companion, friend, and Heart's desire.

For many this relationship is experienced with such intensity and longing that it can only be summed up as a Divine Lover, who is our heart's desire and life's fulfillment. The Divine Anam Cara therefore is often called "Beloved" by practitioners of diverse traditions.In the transient life's journey where our human beloveds are only temporary companions with the usual limited capacity for love, kindness, and acceptance, the assurance and ongoing presence of the Divine Beloved is a great comfort and solace. Whatever term we use in addressing our Divine Anam Cara, whatever human metaphor we use to define our relationship with the Divine, it must come from within us, in a way that represents and defines absolute safety and healing, a refuge that is beyond question for us, as we walk the difficult and stumbling path of life.

Our True Refuge in the Limitless
As human beings our incarnate life takes place in a world of limits, within limited and transient life circumstances. Our spiritual life takes place in a conscious and intentional way when we learn to reach for and root ourselves in the Limitless, the Ultimate within and without. For this reason the crisis point is when we become accessible, when we face our mortality and our transitory existence and open to what is both at the heart of our life and beyond our personal life. Frequently then our spiritual life begins with a cry of help, often literally. It is the most honest and direct prayer we can make. And the prayer arises out of the intuition there is a Life, a Presence, with a Personal face or aspect, that is intimately concerned with our life. This growing communication and trust heals our wound of separateness over time, and we come to trust we are never completely alone. If we continue to open and grow this act of refuge becomes a singular act of will and attention in our life, an ongoing turning toward and within that becomes ceaseless. And just as in a human friendship, this Divine "dear soul" becomes the trusted friend and confidant of our life. When we seek for direction, when we seek for healing, when we seek for the love that never fails, our Dear Soul, the Friend, is there, by whatever name or metaphor we may choose.

We are One with Our Anam Cara.
The growth of the mystic path takes us inevitably to the insight that there is no distance between ourselves, and our Dear Soul who walks with us. They are the same footprints. Our Divine Anam Cara is living, moving, loving, healing fully present in us, both in our resistance and ignorance, and in our awakening to the life of unitive love and purpose. The true Seeker of the Heart and the One being Sought are the same. We come Home and find we have never truly left. All the while the Friend has traveled in us, living the totality of the human journey in us, whether we have known it or not. When we live our life with this awareness it is rich, and full, deep and joyful, and never easy or without challenge.