What is Holy?

Sunday 11/30/08 - Karuna

Returning from a retreat of heart-opening, soul-nurturing, stomach-filling moments; I am back in my home trying to hold on to the Me that I discover in those times, trying to bring to my "real" life the calm, creativity, care, unconditional acceptance and love that so easily takes place there.

On retreat, infinite possibilities of deeper connections rise to the surface of my awareness.  It seems easier to allow my practices to feed me, so that I am more compassionate.  It seems harder to let my judgments have a voice.  With great relief, they are drowned out by the trees, rocks, wind, sun, pool, dance, like-heartminds, play, dusty ground, dry creek bed, hugs, tears, praying mantis, Pileated woodpeckers and star-filled sky.

How can I nurture myself and transcend the temptation to separate what is possible there and here?  How can I open up to the infinite possibilities that I can so clearly see there, when in the mire of the daily, seemingly finite and distractible life here?

I rediscovered a strange and often misunderstood word on retreat, which might help me "re-enter" this time - holy.  Paul Tillich describes holy as infinite relations, different from finite relations.  At first the religiosity of the word stuck in my throat.  But being in the open-hearted place I was, I could see how I do make my relations finite - how my own expectations, agendas and assumptions limit the possibility to experience so much more; and how I might be able to allow more infinite possibilities to be revealed.

I start with my relation to nature - infinite possibilities.  Letting myself move beyond simple identification of a bird, to the wonder of watching her fly, preen, hunt, eat, sleep; I discover a feeling of dissolving.  It is as if the boundaries between myself and the bird are thinner.  I can almost feel what it is like to be the bird.  In that moment I touch the infinite possibilities.  In that moment I let myself reach into the unknown, without need to know. 

That moment is holy.

Now, the questions remain:

How do I bring holiness; allowing of the infinite; boundary-thinning moment to all relations?

How do I let myself move beyond simple identification and expectation of others, to see and wonder as they too live, eat, love, cry, laugh, dance, fall, sleep, hold and try to reach for what is beyond the finite? 

How do I open to and reveal the holiness in the everyday-ness?

 

(originally published in "Sword of My Soul: Writings on Flowing Dragon Swords, 2007)

Hope

Tuesday 11/18/08 - Karuna

It's been a short time and already a cliché is born.  Hope is
restored!  But let us not forget that along with these feelings of
Hopefulness in the wake of historic events, comes the responsibility
to translate these feelings into practical actions that honor and
defend the breadth and depth of the Hopefulness that has been
unfurled.

We need to recommit ourselves on a daily basis to the inspiration and
the actions that electrified our visions, and motivated our
participation. We must remain engaged in the lives of our communities
for they support and sustain our individual lives. We must be willing
to look at the reality of the dark and light of every moment, not
letting ourselves be swept away by despair at the enormity of the
problems; or be entangled by our ego at the illusion of power we may
wield.

Yes, we are powerful.  We know that and have seen our power in action.
 Our true power has never come from a place that feeds us alone.  Our
true power comes from and is at its best when it recognizes that I can
because you can too.  It comes from the place that is within each of
us as individuals and each family, community, state, nation and the
world.  This is the place that recognizes on the deepest level
possible, that we are more similar than we are different, and that we
remain separate because we accept the illusion that if you can then I
can not.

When we each find our voice and our power, we discover the resonance
we seek in the realization of the place we hold in the chorus of
humanity, and that all voices are needed, all tones are required, all
melodies meld into one harmony.  The work to remain Hopeful is the
work we seek, it is the reifying of the vision; it is the call that we
have all heard.

Now let us defend our vision, commit ourselves to use our power for
Us, and to continue the work that We have begun – because we can and
we will.