13 December 2019

In prayer and meditation I affirm my oneness with Source, and in so our oneness with it and each other, and with all life.

Source: everything comes from something else. It’s all “begats”: moons born of planets born of stars born of galaxies born of universes… we’re in there somewhere. Our descriptions of ultimate source, of first cause, deepen and expand as our intelligence deepens and expands, but we can never “know” it, never describe it: whatever we describe ultimately comes from something we can’t. We can’t help, however, but “be” it: all that is made is made from what’s made; there is nothing outside of Nature. We are That. 

“Ultimate,” “first,” even “Source,” even “it”… such words, any words, anthropomorphize what I am referring to—it is hubris to refer at all, unless we are fully surrendered in question. Being a Jew, I use a Jewish term for this referring that embodies humble questioning and creates a stop in shallow thinking, and a deepening into Self: “HaShem,” the Name. 

Meditation: a falling into silence and remembering of oneness. Prayer: from a place of oneness an affirmation that others may find the same, and that I and we act from this understanding.  In prayer and meditation I affirm my oneness with HaShem, and in so our oneness with HaShem, and each other, and with all life. 

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In prayer and contemplation I am aware of gifts. The gifts of what I can do, what I have, the gift of being, of aliveness; the gifts of struggle and suffering, that I might grow. The gift of witnessing the struggles and suffering of others, that I might give everything I am given to help. The gift of help that others give me. It is here I see the nature of Nature, the action of HaShem: it is love. What but love would give me life? What but love flows through me to give? All that I receive, friendship, partnership, family, yes, but even food in a restaurant, the roof over my head, payment for the products and services I provide—what is the river within which all that flows? It is the river of love, and I and all and everything swims in it, as sure as it swims through us.

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Today I contemplate the greatest gift I receive personally, the gift of living itself. Yes, my life is the action of HaShem, of love made manifest; but through whom did this life, this flesh and blood, enter the world? Through my mother and father, of course, and blessed may they be; but who gave birth to them, to all of us? Who is the mother of humanity? 

The Earth, of course. In that long list of “begats,” She begets us. These lives we lead, these bodies we run around in—She gives them to us. We are of HaShem through Her. And like mothers everywhere, she shows us how to survive—and like children everywhere, we must pay attention. Children don’t always outlive their parents; She can survive without us, but not the other way around. Nature finds a way; we haven’t. 

In silence we hear Her advice. What does She say? Nothing. 

But from the silence I see more, I feel more, I sense more. And I love more, and I know I am loved, and I forget to be grateful less and less. Intelligence isn’t just facts—it’s seeing and being and loving and giving, it’s understanding larger contexts, it’s allowing ourselves to be informed. This intelligence, it’s there for us—the Earth holds out Her hand to us the moment She gives us life.

I affirm my oneness with HaShem and Mother Earth, and in so our oneness with them and each other, and with all life. In love, in gratitude, Amen.