Offering and Dr. Alimantado
In this unprecedented time of instant access and communication, and purposeful distance, it is hard to understand how to orient as the concept of "normal" slips further into obscurity. We have the capacity to wave goodbye to what was, and welcome and be curious about what is coming. We can find our way through the challenges of today by remaining open and available to what is present, by awakening our awareness through compassion, diligent effort, and surrender to grace. Rather than offer some analytical view or conceptual framework, here you will find the prayer in my heart:
Oh celestial intelligence,
limitless and unfathomable to the mind,
but dwelling already in the heart as the supreme beloved,
I offer my life to you in service.
May you work through these hands, this body, this mind, and this heart
to bring into this world whatever is most harmonious with the wisdom
already present in the forces of nature.
You are present as all things seen and unseen,
all that is known and unknown to our minds,
all that causes us to cower and celebrate,
all that moves us as desire and aversion,
all that urges us to quarrel and question,
all that lifts us to ecstasy and delight,
all that crawls, flies, walks, slithers, and swims,
all that flows, sways, bubbles, cracks, and grows.
Your self-same resplendence and radiance is the light of all the stars,
you are all the surfaces that reflect and hold that glow,
and your all enveloping embrace is the darkness out of which light emerges.
May we turn to you and listen.
May we hear your silent wisdom permeating sound itself.
May we cling to you, instead of our imagined hopes and fears.
May we have the courage to see you in every eye we see.
May we have the humility to arrange our lives in order
to revere and dignify your presence within us all.
May we recognize that it is by your omnipotent power that everything exists;
our being is contingent on your being.
May we honor the gift that lights our lives, brief, fragile, and finite as a candle flame.
May we cherish and grieve as you return us from whence we came.
May we remember we can never be separated from you.
In whatever way we find ourselves called to be of service at this time, whether that is offering direct action to people whose lives are being directly impacted by the health crisis, or whether that means practicing patience and self-control we are all capable of meeting the challenges that are present in our lives. The incomprehensible number of cosmic patterns and events that allowed this planet to foster life, and billions of years that it has done so are contributing directly to the collective wisdom and intelligence in every cell of every living being. We are inheritors of all past actions, and the present ancestors of future generations. We all share this beautiful world equally, and have this momentous opportunity to embrace this wonderful and temporary gift of life. By being here, subject to the cosmic process, we are all engaged in what Dr. Alimantado was singing about in his dub track, "Born for a Purpose (Reason for Living)."