|
Stool Iris
Damariscotta, ME; Inn Along the Way, Chapman Farm
* * *
Gospel of Matthew 6.3 - Jesus speaks ...
But when giving to those in need, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Bhagavad Gita 3.9 - Krishna instructs Arjuna ...
In this world people are fettered by action (lit., karma), unless it is performed as a sacrifice (i.e., gift, worship). Therefore, O Arjuna! let your acts be done without attachment, as sacrifice only.
* * *
Padampa Sangye (1000s), a sage known in his native India as Paramabuddha, traveled extensively through Tibet, India, China, and Nepal. His person and behavior were marked by simplicity. Padampa lived without prestige, and people often dismissed him, not recognizing him as a wise teacher.
A renowned Tibetan translator once stayed at the same guesthouse in Nepal as Padamapa. He thought Padamapa was a servant and asked him, "Who is your master?" Padampa wittily replied, "I'm a servant to all beings."
* * *
To be a servant to all is more about the heart than the mind. We do not have to go around with a conscious intent to be a servant to anyone. Once the intent ripens within, service becomes a spontaneous outflow of the heart. Love serves Love.
* * *
This Love serving Love Rumi speaks of. Love is his companion, he sings in the Rubaiyat (no. 42). Rumi is to set Love free. In loving, we set Love free to love; hereby, we set ourselves free. In the act arising from Love, Love and you are free in each other, as each other.
I have no companion but Love,
no beginning, no end, no dawn.
The Soul calls from within me:
"You, ignorant of the way of Love,
set me free."
A reason for our ignorance of the "way of Love" is we are taught what we ought to do and not do, what is logical for us to do and not do, and what the rules or law says to do or not. The heart, however, acts free of any reasons or justifications. For example, when in pure action, you do not serve to gain any merit, be good, please God, or get a reward - before or after death. This "way of Love" is why pure action is free of external justification or self-reflection.
* * *
In this spontaneous action, we and the action or oneed. There is nowhere to locate the self or action. That we are worshipping someone or something by acting, too, dissolves in the action-as-devotion. If we cling to action, the sense-of-self interferes with the purity of the sacrifice; instead, action is a means of self-transcendence. Otherwise, we become egotistic do-gooders. That one does more or less than another is not a priority. One can do much good from egotism or little good as the effulgence of the heart.
We serve all beings in any one action, in one moment, without thinking, "I am doing this." The self is surrendered into the act to dissolve in union with the action, then the self and act undergo a single oblation in the Fire of Love. Act and self become ashes - worship remains. Love remains as actor and action.
* * *
In Christian terms, this self-oblation is a eucharistic offering. You become the chalice as the means for the offering of the wine and the paten for the offering of the bread. You are lifted up, with and as Christ. Christ says, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all persons to myself" (Gospel of John 12.32). Through action, we are lifted up and become Christ in union with Christ, who is Love; we become a means for others to lose themselves in the Beloved, so find themselves in the Beloved.
Accordingly, we discover Love is the pure Fount of all action. We realize through action, even the most unremarkable and hidden, we love, are loved, and become Love. We know the joy of fulfilling the words, "By Love, serve one another" (Galatians 5.13).
* * *
*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox, and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
*Poem of Rumi, from Rumi. the pocket Rumi. Ed. Kabir Helminski. Poem, trans. Kabir & Camille Helminski, with Lida Saedian.
|
