The passion to alleviate suffering is itself part of the path, you know. To whatever degree we are able to do that.
And to honor that place in us that wishes to see the world as different.
~ Beverly Lanzetta, “Engage 2022“
Today is a momentous day in human history, when 13,152 Jews in Paris were arrested, including more than 4,000 children. Likely few individuals alive, exactly 80 years later, remember that date.
I just finished reading Sarah’s Key, a historical fiction novel by Franco-British author, Tatiana de Rosnay. On July 16, 1942, when the French police took Sarah and her parents into custody, this innocent child locked her younger brother in a cabinet — their secret hiding place — thinking he would be spared the trauma of the arrest. Even though Sarah’s Key is not historical fact, you can see why this is not an easy read (also made into a movie).
In 2012, as I was going through surgery to remove a 22cm mass on my ovary, I received a message from the Holy Spirit that the “divine feminine” could not be stabilized on the planet until human women could forgive human men. (The divine feminine is the spiritual concept that there exists a feminine counterpart to the patriarchal and masculine worship structures that have long dominated organized religions. The divine feminine extends well beyond one belief system, and instead can be used as a spiritual lens to balance our perspective.)
More from Beverly Lanzetta, in a talk titled “Becoming Wisdom:”
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We have to walk through the door of letting go of the attachment to our own thoughts, our own ways of being, and so to live one’s life with a passionate intention to be wisdom. Which is not something we can make happen. And that’s another place where the subtlety of the journey arises. We’re so used to thinking that we’re going to do something, we’re going to make something happen, but in the deeper life it’s something that comes to us. Using religious language we would say at the active part of the journey we’re seeking god, we’re seeking the truth — but in the passive part of the journey, god or truth is seeking us. God or truth is working in us, and that’s where the surrender comes in. We surrender to the working the reception in us.
Last evening I received an email message from a friend on the dharma path asking me how I manage when there are so many people whose names we have to say prayers for. “It can become a very long prayer session, several hours, to say individualized prayers for each. Yet it feels insincere and superficial, irresponsible, to do some sort of group prayer.”
I shared some of my process. “In a practical sense, I first set an intention for the GROUP – meaning all beings – not just the sangha. I then allow (trust) spirit to bring to mind (I think of it as focusing a lens) individual aspects or persons. I do not try to manage this from my conscious mind.”
I went on to share about the time I was providing surgical support for a colleague in Tennessee who was having knee surgery. I used my customary process but on the day of her procedure she and her surgery did not come into conscious awareness. The following day she called to thank me and said my presence with her was palpable!
Yet another phase of softening around a “personal” identity.
Here is some more of the conversational stream with my dharma friend:
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A: I hold the others in a far deeper way than in my conscious state alone. The prayer has energy created that is also far more than just what is felt. This is the nondual nature of holding others in prayer.
D: Yes! No “separate I” praying for or to, just awareness of that stream of consciousness called prayer. I read once, years ago, that prayer does not change god, it changes us. This makes a deeper sense to me now.
A: I know I spontaneously and periodically think of them throughout the day. I remind myself momentarily that they are in need, are suffering in some way that needs God’s attention and help.
D: Yes! I am in awe of how someone will pop into my mind and I will reach out and discover there is great need for support at that exact instant. One time, I received a mailing from our church conference. I saw the name of a woman I had counseled with at a youth camp. I knew her husband had been ill. I picked up the phone and called her. He had just passed…. I mean moments before. His body was still there in the house. When she asked me what had made me call, I told her seeing her name on the conference mailing prompted the call. She said she had not been in that group, and when I looked again at the list, her name was not on it!
A: Maybe Spirit knows and hears despite my drifting consciousness.
D: I am convinced you are right about this. In Christian terms it is said that the holy spirit prays for us. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans …” Romans 8:26.
On this July 16 (2022), the wordless groans of those 13,152 Jewish men and women, including the 40,000 children are heard….
“You can’t wait until
life isn’t hard any more
to be happy…”
~ Nightbirde
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