Many people who rejected their early Christian conditioning feel a combination of freedom and homelessness. If we have a home to return to, roots that are deep and authentic, then going on a trip to explore another country and different beliefs can be exciting, expanding and enriching. We are glad to return home to see it in a new light.
But what if we have no home, or if, what was our home, has been wiped out and there is nowhere to return to? The refugees from Ukraine are estimated to rise to as many as ten million.Russian forces are doing there what they helped the Syrian regime to do in Aleppo, Damascus and Raqqa since the attempted revolution in 2011. Millions of Syrians cannot return even to their old homes that are still standing because the buildings could collapse at any time. We can only welcome the refugees and help them to start new lives or wait until they can return.
Not ‘only'. We can also work for a change of mind and heart in the global consciousness such as Paul of Tarsus underwent on the road to Damascus. We can work for the unified consciousness that not only opposes the dark forces but prevents them.
The Lord said to Moses..You must not oppress the stranger; you know how a stranger feels, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt. (Ex 23:9)
If you feel helpless and don’t know what to do, meditate and you will see precisely what you can and should do. Of course, we have then to decide if we will do it. In meditation we take nothing for granted. We don’t destroy anything, but we risk everything including our beliefs and assumptions. There is nothing we aren’t prepared for the work of silence to probe and prove. ‘Meditation proves the truths of our faith in our own experience’, said John Main echoing the contemplative wisdom of the desert which reminds every generation that ‘experience is the teacher’. This is the way to authenticity which leads to truth.
Yesterday I met with our Meditation With Children council to plan for a webinar on June 24th. We have recently published a new program for schools. Anything we can do to bring meditation to children in schools is worth doing. To give children this inner resource – which they take to with evident relief and happiness – vaccinates them against the brainwashing of our consumerist values and assures them experientially that the autnetic is real and lives within their own minds and hearts.
I have met several young adults recently who have shared with me in different words their feeling ‘I feel lost’. When we are lost in a strange land our first reaction is probably to consult our smart phone. But what if there is no signal or the instructions make no sense. We ask a local for directions.
The unified consciousness we must work for shows us we are all locals to and for each other.
Comments