WISDOM 19

 

P. 150-151 (kind of like Henry the 8th by Hermin’s Hermits--”second verse same as the first”)

I'm afraid I might have muddied the waters a bit by bringing up what I perceived as a severe dilemma in today's world, but I will dive in right here without apology.

It seems as if one of the aspects that contributes to the severe polarity, not only in politics but in everything, that we seem to be living in two different worlds or a world in which we have views that are so deeply different from one another there doesn’t seem to be any ground for agreement or even understanding. That predicament saddens me and I'm sure it does you as well.

And this brings us to the point that is emphasized in the next section from the book.

I noticed that there is sometimes a fine line of distinction between judgement and awareness. I emphasize this is not about judgement. I do believe that we can be aware that someone is in a lower vibrational state without making a judgment about them being bad or wrong. This is the line we walk when we open our hearts in compassion. I do not decide what another person needs nor how they need it. I can recognize a lower state of vibration in another just as I can recognize within myself. By raising my vibration, I literally raise the vibration of those around me. Now, again here is a fine line of distinction. I don't raise my vibration because there's something wrong with you or I think there's something wrong with you; I raise my vibration because it is the thing to do, for me and for the universe. If you desire to participate in that higher vibration then you are always more than welcome to it, but I have no say in how that happens nor do I have any say in what that will look like. You might be deeply affected by the higher vibration of love and compassion and yet you might not show that. In other words, your external appearance might be exactly the same.

If I am doing this just to feel good or just feel good because I'm making you feel better, I am losing something in the process. I'm not sure about you, but often times I find myself with mixed motivation, and so I did not want to wait until my motivation is pure before I act on my behalf or yours. As a stumbling fumbling human being I'm doing the best I can with what I've got and today I am grateful for that and I am certainly grateful for all of you in my life.

 “There are many ways to doctor someone. There is medicine and there is love. There is true recognition of worth, and there is the authority you bring as a conscious being who no longer aligns to a lower vibration. When you are encountered by somebody who holds low vibration, the opportunity that you have is to lift them to a new ideal, and this is done through your vibration, not necessarily through language or intentional action.”

My sense is that we spent most of our energy and exploration on this particular paragraph. When that happens (long focus on a seemingly small amount of material), it speaks to me that the energy contained in these few words is extremely powerful and vital to our own process of growth and evolution. We are not picking them apart intellectually, but we are listening to the reverberations and echoes of the energy behind these words which are resonating within us on a level of Truth beyond that which we could create with the intellect.

I was reminded of how we describe the miraculous healings of Jesus, and that was to say or to be aware that the reason people got well in his presence was because he did not see illness or disease. He did not see sickness or imbalance. “I see you as whole and complete,” he might say. “And because my vision of your wholeness, completeness and perfection is so strong and powerful it overcomes your limited vision of yourself as being sick or ill or incomplete.

I dare say, there have probably been people in our lives who have loved us so deeply, despite our seeming imperfections, that we have allowed our heart to open in profound and deepest ways.

My physical eyes might not be able to see you as being perfect, my emotional or personality self might be lost in argumentation and being right, and yet when I sit with you in the highest vibration available to me, I see you as a soul, as a spiritual being, very much like me, wrestling with your demons and looking for peace. When I can hold you that way I literally heal both of us.

Because so much of this happens on a non-verbal level, we sometimes miss the depth and importance of someone else's presence. When I look back on my early education there are some teachers that stand out for me. I know that I might remember very little, if anything at all, of what they might have taught me in terms of subject matter, but the experience of our connection, which they usually made much more directly than I did— the experience of our connection, their presence to me, remains outstanding and clear. They did not offer me a thing or a thought or an idea or a book or a script, but somehow or another they communicated to me beyond words, “I am here for you; I trust you; you are worthwhile; I care about you as a human being; you are an integral part of my life.”

I related that story of the traffic stop in Chicago where I saw this little street pageant unfold, when a woman walks by homeless person with an empty coffee cup, drops a dollar in the cup and then I saw her deliberately stop and turn around and go back and engage this person in conversation. I did not get to hear the conversation at all, but I have a sense of what transpired perhaps even beyond words— “I want to know who you are; I want to know your name; you are more than empty cup sitting in a chair outside of department store; I want to tell you my name; I don't have to hear your whole story, but I want you to know that I care; I want you to know that I am present, and even though we might never meet again that we have met on a level of understanding that goes beyond money, goes beyond need goes beyond words.

I often quote this examination of love from Sheldon Kopp’s book If You Meet the Buddha on the Road Kill Him. He says this: “Love is sometimes living with the helpless knowing that I can do nothing about another person’s pain. You can sit with that one for a while.

I came across the meaning of that years ago. It was fairly soon after I had read the book and I was with my mother in Upper New York State right after my father's passing. I started trying to do everything I could for my mother-- cook dinner, take her out to dinner, take her to a movie, do this do that, until finally she said to me “Stop, I need to grieve.” I realized what I was doing. I was hurting because she was hurting, and I wanted somehow or another to take her pain away. Surely I wanted her to feel better, but I also wanted to feel better myself.

When she told me to stop, the quote from Sheldon Kopp came into my mind and I realized that all I could do was to be with her and her pain. I couldn't carry it; I couldn't fix it; I couldn't quickly make it better, but I could be here with you. So I am amending that quote by saying, “I can do nothing about another person's pain, but I can be here with you; I can offer you my presence. I can offer you my love, my compassion, my embracing you as a fellow human being. And even though I can't take away your pain, even though I would like to, I can be here with you as you move through whatever it is you need to move through.

What a blessing that teaching was and continues to be. 

This was such a powerful gathering this morning with all of our sharing, our questions, our doubts, our fears, our pain, our joy, our ability to be together and to create a Sacred Space.

For all of this, for all of you, for all who we are together, for all of those who are on this journey with us, those we know and those we do not, my prayer continues to be “May all beings be at peace; may all beings be free of suffering; may all beings remember who they are.

Be at Peace. Amen