Saying For Today: That peeing, intoxicated, cursing man was and is as much a being of Love as any I've met in my almost 58 years, including all the roshis, gurus, preachers, lamas, priests, popes.... Christ showed up on a dirt road peeing and, then, shared holy Communion with me.
This is the thirteenth of the series of reflections arising from a month in silence and solitude; the musings invite the reader to explore the Truth for himself or herself. May the writer's reflections be windows to look in, or out, onto the vista of our one Beloved, our deepest, truest Self. Peace! Brian
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We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil good enough to cultivate; we can plant anything in it.
*Chögyam Trungpa. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.
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He's peeing, partially hidden by tall bushes beside the dirt road. Doing what so many men seem to do, looking down at his member, as though it might run off and leave the rest of his body. I sit on the porch of the building I'm staying in. Here alone mostly. Most days the only persons I see are the few who drive by, who live back in these woods. One man comes by daily, he's learned to anticipate me on the porch, reaching toward me with a wave of the hand, from the cab of his little red truck. That feels good, alone but someone recognizes I'm alive, still of this world. Very good! The peeing man doesn't know I see him. When finished, he zips up his pants. He sees me, apologizes, says he had to go ~ a colloquialism for urinate. I reply no problem and recognize in myself what the need to go right now feels like. He wants to talk some, about good neighbors to the right and left, where he lives up the road, and the animals I likely see in the woods. I reply to him briefly, engaging quietly. After a few minutes, he says goodbyes, turning to his bike, saying, "I'm going to get my drunk ass home!" I appreciate his forthrightness. I smile, wish him safety. He rides off. What just happened? A holy meeting. Communion. A Communion as holy as any gathering in a zendo, an ashram, a church, a mosque, anywhere. Maybe odd Communion, certainly not by a rite found in a prayer book or worship manual. Presence shows up in strange ways, eccentric situations, beautiful precisely in the miracle of the apparent wierdness of it all. Grace appears to enjoy surprising us with Its amazing enjoyment ~ possibly, even preference ~ of nonconformity. Certainly, that is one reason I've never stopped loving Jesus. That peeing, intoxicated, cursing man was and is as much a being of Love as any I've met in my almost 58 years, including all the roshis, gurus, preachers, lamas, priests, popes.... Christ showed up on a dirt road peeing and, then, shared holy Communion with me. How blessed I am! How wonderful!
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In and by living from Silence and Solitude, one senses a holiness right-here-and-now not seen before. Years ago, I would have judged the man, such was what I was taught to do in my home and fundamentalist religion. I would have seen him as a drunk, a sinner, lost ~ meaning, damned forever. In religion school, I even spent a whole semester learning how I could sell him Jesus, by scaring the theological hell out of him. I was told, when a child, by the preacher, if I didn't try to do that with any of those damned, lost ones, and one of them went to a burning hell, that one's blood would be on my hands. He meant it literally, not as metaphor.
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Buddhists use the image of a mirror. This is the pure innocence, I would even say Presence, primordial spaciousness before all and is eternal. One way of this mirror is we initially see in this mirror ourselves, we explore ourselves. This is what a lot of psychology and meditation is about. Later, through growing in self-knowledge, we see ourselves by looking at, really into the other. Like, I see you, but in your eyes I see mirrored back myself. You looking into my eyes, you see your own self. The irony is, when seeing in the translucent mirror, to see the self reflected back, we see one Face. That is Communion. Like, here we're sharing, I'm in a body relating with you, and find amidst this diversity, this itself is the garment of Oneness, of a single, diversified Love. Seeing past our individual faces, one Face, only One. Buddha. Christ. OM Soham. Everyone. This is why the Sufi Bistami spoke, "Under my garments, there is only God."
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So, that day, sitting on the porch, I looked in the mirror. What did I see? My own self. In seeing myself in him, as Presence manifesting moment-to-moment, the Beloved he is by Grace reflected back to me Oneness. We, he and I, we the Beloved! I could see this, no words needed, no attempt at understanding. My individuality not lost, his not, self lives in Self, within God. This is why a Buddhist can say "Everyone is Buddha" or others say "Everyone is the Christ."
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So, could we choose to apply this in daily life? Dropping our prejudices when they arise, and give opportunity for Communion? What Beauty! May it happen, always. Amen.
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*All material, unless another source is cited, is authored by the presenter of Lotus of Heart, Brian Kenneth Wilcox, Florida USA. Use of the material is permitted; Brian only requests that credit be given and to be notified at 77ahavah77@gmail.com .
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union, is available through major booksellers.
*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.
