Here we are

This morning I feel moved to say that in our most fundamental, most foundational, most singular, most essential nature, we are free, open, spacious, silent, self-evident, self-validating, limitless, motionless, endless, changeless, beginningless, undisturbed, uncreated, unbounded, unborn, all of the un’s and non’s and in’s we can come up with, consciousness.  And that pure, pristine, absolutely undisturbed awareness is continually impaled on the spike of this incarnate life.

We are also these conditional, constrained, mortal, imperfect, changing, body-minds and the paradoxical reality of these two polarities is what we call the Core Wound of Existence.  This poignant condition informs all of who we are and engenders the yearning and seeking which has been the central thrust of so many of our lives.  Before the basic awakening that in this work we call the Second Birth, the Core Wound is a wound of tribulation or affliction.  It’s a problem or a dilemma we continually strive to solve and after the second birth it’s a wound of love.  I say it is a wound of love because there is a profound tenderness and vulnerability that comes with knowing the apparent and unbridgeable divisions between all things are insubstantial.  In living in this world and in the condition of non-separateness that characterizes this awakening, everything feels close and dear and kindred and not at all alien.  It is an indescribably intimate condition.

Here we are, facing the future, engaged, caring, loving, connected and yet, as these body-minds, we’re all headed for the same death, we’re dying as we’re living AND in another way, we never began and will never end.  Let’s begin this sitting just stopping.  You know the word, “Pranam?” When we put our hands together in front of our heart/neck/mouth it symbolizes the momentary end of our ceaseless grasping, pushing and pulling and we also usually bow our heads slightly symbolizing the surrender of our endless mentation.  If we just stop for a moment, we may immediately sense that tender, quiet presence that is always there but is frequently missed.  This presence is fervent and poignant and yet it contains quiet joy.  This place of possibility is where I’m hoping each of our sharing can originate.

From this place we can open to that next step which is needed in our continuing coalescence or crystallization.  You know, in becoming increasingly undivided we unpack and depressurize the contracted parts of ourselves and mysteriously, as we become more integrated we also become more individuated, more authentic.  As the cracks and splits in us close up, we don’t become more uniform but more unique.  We become more distinctly who we actually are.  The talents, gifts and blessings we are here to display come into clearer focus.   And this process doesn’t happen automatically, it takes courage and I mean that word in both its original and colloquial meanings.

We often think of courage as the ability act in the face of apparent danger.  Courage can also be standing up in the face of expectation when being true to yourself appears unconventional or abnormal.  Courage originates from the French word “coeur” for heart making courageous and heartful synonyms.  © 2012