Yesterday afternoon I felt something shift and a clarity arose that had been missing in the world for a very long time. It wasn’t a clarity with words or any sort of information, just a very gentle glow to everything. I felt relaxed and physical tension released somewhat. I am wondering if anyone else felt this. Today it still feels better than it has in a very long time.
Summer Week 6 Tenderness
“One regret, dear world,
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed is that
I did not kiss you enough.”
Daniel Ladinsky, I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz
Life has presented me with such a miracle of wildness. I remember spending days with the Sufis and melting in Love, into the Beauty of it all. A few years ago, we spent five days with our heart friends at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado and then our Sheikha was in Boulder for a few days. Such love, such deep sharing, such amazing transformation for all of us! On another occasion, at our zikr in Boulder (Sufi practice of remembrance) a visitor was speaking about doing holy war with the ego. He said that he has been studying the poems of Rumi for years and that he loved a poem that spoke of the ego as the donkey that Christ rode into Jerusalem. What came to me to be shared, I wish to share with you, as well. Yes, the ego is like a donkey. Does it take a war or even one battle to tame a donkey? What happens if you begin to beat on a donkey? Does he serve you well? No, a donkey needs tenderness and the honoring of its purpose. It needs to be well tended so that it knows that it is loved. This is exactly what is needed by the ego. Warring with it does not work. It just gets very sly, like a donkey and bites or kicks when we aren’t paying attention. If anger arises, do we need to fight it into submission or can we recognize that there is a wound somewhere under the outburst and listen closely, so that healing may occur? The ego needs to be refined, not battled.
This week may we remember the donkey and be gentle with ourselves. Let us remember that we are loved and that we are Love and act in ways that align with that.
Concentration: Growth occurs when we begin to allow the disparate part of ourselves to face each other within the tender space of our heart. Here we find the compassion and mercy alive and well just waiting to enfold the ones who feel separate and left out. Inner work is vital to our outer lives. The work happens first inside and later is reflected in our outer world. Let yourselves enter the heart temple this week and create a place where you feel safe and relaxed. Visualize it in any way that feels right to you and hold the vision of this safe and sacred space. When something arises in the inner world, a dis-unity between parts of yourself, bring both parts to the heart and let your innate wisdom work with the situation. Likewise when something arises in your outer world, conflicts, criticism, judgments, go inside and find the parts affected by this and bring them to the heart. This is the week of the heart/hearth/home. Allow this protected place to nourish the beauty that you are.
Kabir, Habiba Ashki. Embracing a New Planetary Consciousness (pp. 72-73). Wasteland Press. Kindle Edition.
