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So, this was what I call a surprise of Grace. Having been in many worship gatherings in the past months, in this Buddhist sharing I realized I could not recall having felt bodily and sensed in-spirit the depth of holiness, love, and worship that arose from the Silence and in spirit-witnessing-with-spirit in this gathering last evening. I left with the sense of I-can’t-wait until the next gathering, rather than as often in the past in worship, I’m-glad-that-is-over.
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We cannot say “Yes” to Grace, however we understand that, and, at the same time, decide where and how Life will greet us and meet us, and bless us. The subject shared that evening by Anam Thubten was letting go, or nonattachment. Jesus speaks this in the Gospel, on the cross, being executed by the political and religious hierarchies, “Into Your hands I surrender my spirit.” When he surrenders the life-energy, this was not an ending, rather the beginning of a new way of being-among-us, a freedom from a more limited being-with. This same is modeled by the historical Buddha, when he surrendered his efforts at enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. He had tried freedom through the rigorous denials of religion as he had been given it. This asceticism empowered the self, blocking out Grace, or the power of Dharma (Truth, Reality). Jesus and Buddha speak to us of letting go being a loss that is the opening to a larger, more fulfilling, more with-others life. We learn, therefore, the fear associated with letting go of my way is illusory, a phantom of ego.
We learn, likewise, that in time letting go becomes felt more as a dropping away, a shedding of. Initially, we practice letting go. As we grow in Grace, we see attachments dropping away, vanishing. There is less attention and effort needed at this point.
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The apostle Paul, in the Christian Scriptures, speaks of this newly-given openness to Life, arising from the death of letting go or the dropping away. He finds the gift of Grace to arise from the loss of selfish-interest. The self-life, limited in time and space, is joined in union with the Christ-Life, unlimited, transcending in a communion not limited by time and space.
I am put to death on the cross with Christ. Yet, I live. However, I do not live. And the life I now live, I live by trust in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
With the surrender of self, not negation of self, all that “Christ” implies is able to move freely to the extent this is allowed to move. This allowing is based on our present capacities. In this moving the letting go is a process. And this letting go is not a mere denial, this would lead to cynicism; rather, this letting go is a yielding the total being into the larger Life. In this Life is the all-potential; while fully here-and-now, this here-and-now is always replete with new beginnings before they appear; meaning, in Christ, in Buddha, one is already living what has not manifested outwardly as an object of observation. The new beginnings flower out of the loving spaciousness and devotion of the Silence, now allowed to unfurl its hidden, living potencies.
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