Essays, MWA Newsletter, Observing The World, Study/Action Group, -  Nov 09, 2020

Hold the Center

Dear Friends,

These are tumultuous times. We may think we have come through the storm. We may think the storm is just beginning as a certain man and his supporters resist the election results.

If neither of those happens, there is still this:

The Democratic Party is still committed to corporate profits and willing to destroy both our lives (especially BIPOC lives) and the whole planet in exchange. Or perhaps they are committed to losing – since they now push to abandon the very issues (Medicare for All) that won districts for their advocates. That is the beginning of a rant; I’ll refrain.

We are at a beginning.

As I was moving mulch in the garden, this morning before the rain and cold arrive, I thought that these meditation verses might be relevant for our dealings with the political world and the transition. From Sawyer Hitchcock, who lived and worked here for two weeks.

For weeding: Together with all beings, may we open the ground for new life.

For pruning: Together with all beings, may life return to the roots.

For building a path: Together with all beings, may we open the way for new life.

And mine, for clearing invasive plants: Together with all beings, may you return to your true home.

For my European settler-colonist people, regardless of how long we’ve been here, I wish this specifically: together with all beings, may we return to our true home. Wherever that may be – but there is this: for as long as European settlers have been on this continent, we have collectively treated it as a colony to exploit rather than as a home to embrace. I think we treated Europe that way too, and – knowing something of Europe’s indigenous peoples – I wonder when that began and why it prevailed. So my wish means “May we recognize that our true home is on this earth, may we stop discounting it as a short interruption on the road to heaven, may we be willing to belong here, may we finally join the family of life.” And may we make amends.

And here are these beautiful words of encouragement, from Clarissa Pinkola Estes (via Facebook), and St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (via Clarissa):

As you can dear souls, Hold the Center and Be Peace. Whatever outcomes, there will be much work to be done, to either prevent more wreckage, or to dive into the wreck and retrieve the treasures and repair them.

That is where Undiminishable Love and Inextinguishable Light flow: to within one’s reach, to prevent further wreckage of matters dear; to dive and retrieve the treasures within your reach, and to help to mend those you bring up held close to your heart.

Just this tiny storycito. In letter to Corinthians, a small village of people long ago, was writ something that is usually translated as ‘we will all be changed,’ [by the upheaval].

But that’s not quite what it actually says in the original ancient language. First of all, that quote leaves out the salient words that preceded it. They are these:

‘Listen! I am telling you a mystery. We will not all fall asleep but we will all be changed.’

That is what the translation into English says. But/and here is what it actually says in the ancient words carefully considered:

‘Behold this, you, see this! I am showing you an initiation [musterion] that comes from standing in silence within your holy nature.’

[in other words, clear instruction is being given to us to shed the old and step into a new strong reality of strength and vision. It’s saying wake up! you are in the midst of an initiation; you will not be the same after this…stand in a centered holy silence –more precise instruction about how to live the holy way on a day to day basis ]

Furthermore it says, with attention to the actual meanings of the old words:

‘we will not all slumber, that is, decrease in power, seem as though dead [koimao]…   Rather

‘moreover, we will in a whole way, make things different [as a result of being passed through initiation]’

Id like to offer these ancient instructions to you as the place to stand to hold the Center. Your Center, and the Center of the World Tree. You see how this fits or you, this standing in holy silence, each of you being a customized job.

Steady she goes. Easy does it.

We are together.

Blessings to you all in this time. Together with all beings, may we open the ground for new life.

with love,

Shodo