The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. Letting in even a little of the world means listening and speaking with sorrow. We come to learn that It is only kindness that makes sense. Our spiritual practice calls us to find the hidden light in all events and all people, and to offer our hearts to the healing of the world. We can begin by cultivating peace within ourselves. We can find acts of kindness from this place of inner peace.
We heard “the story of the birthday of the world” as shared by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. The story was told to Rachel by her “flaming mystic” rabbi grandfather. The story is about our calling to “heal the world one heart at a time. And this task is called ‘tikkun olam,’ in Hebrew — ‘restoring the world. ‘” The story can be found in Krista Tippett’s book, Becoming Wise. You can hear Rachel share it in her 2005 On-Being interview, How We Live With Loss.
We heard part of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, Kindness. Naomi is an Arab-American poet, editor, songwriter and novelist. in 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for the 2019–21 term. Naomi thinks of herself as a wandering poet traveling to hold poetry workshops for children and adults. You can hear her inspiring February 6, 2025 Seattle Arts and Lectures talk by going to their web-site.
We drew inspiration from Brother Pháp Hữu’s Tricycle Magazine article, The Path to Transforming Generational Suffering. Brother Pháp Hữu was a student of meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh. He encourages students to cultivate inner peace as the basis for compassionate action.
We ended with poet David Budbill’s poem, What Issa Heard.
Guided Reflection
Welcome. Last week we reflected on our power to feel, witness and to choose kindness. We considered the different ways we can support ourselves in claiming our power. We witness, feel and act with our bodies. We embody understanding which can help us honor our inter-relatedness and choose kindness. We can be moved by love.
This week I read a beautiful story told by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen as transcribed by Krista Tippett in her book Becoming Wise. Rachel has dedicated her life to healing. She believes there is a difference between curing and healing. Healing is a process of becoming whole. She also believes that we are all called to give and receive healing. The way we respond to losses and wounds can enable us to be present to all our experiences.
Rachel shared a beautiful story her rabbi grandfather told her about the first day of the world. She called him “a flaming mystic” because he was in constant dialogue with a presence that was holy and sacred.
So this is the story of the birthday of the world. In the beginning, there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light.
And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident. [laughs] And the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world, was scattered into a thousand, thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day.
Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again, and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. This is a very important story for our times, that we heal the world one heart at a time. And this task is called “tikkun olam,” in Hebrew — “restoring the world.
We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up, make it visible. Perhaps we come together in practice so that we can take part in restoring the world. Everywhere we look we are presented with an opportunity to help, or as Rachel would say, to heal: “ It’s about healing the world that touches you, that’s around you.” Rachel and Krista had this conversation 20 years ago and I feel like it is more relevant than ever.
I am learning, again and again, that I can feel grief, loss and powerlessness and still help a part of the world that touches me. I return, again and again, to kindness. We are blessed with awareness that enables us to respond with the heart’s feeling and imagination. The poet of kindness, Naomi Shihab Nye, reminds me:
… Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
Letting in even a little of the world means listening and speaking with sorrow. After struggling with the right or wrong of a situation I come back to whatever act of kindness I can offer. It is only kindness that makes sense – let it be my shadow and friend.
In his encouraging article, The Path to Transforming Generational Suffering, Thich Nhat Hanh’s student Brother Phap Huu writes:
Even if you only have five minutes, use those five minutes to cultivate peace for yourself and for the world. . . . However much time you may have, use that time to contribute to the legacy of peace and humanity through our ways of being. This is our practice of transforming wars, including the wars that have not yet broken out, both within us and outside of us. . . .
Thay’s words are thunderous: Now, wherever you are, don’t take what you have for granted. You are enough. The path of peace begins with the transformation of your own wrong perceptions and views that divide us. It starts with you. Begin now. The time is now.
We are called to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again, and to restore the innate wholeness of the world. We can begin by cultivating peace within ourselves. We can find acts of kindness from this place of inner peace.
Let’s begin by cultivating a steady loving presence for ourselves and others. We can become that presence in our practice today. I invite you to bring awareness to Body. You might take a deep breath and let it go. Notice how your Body settles on Earth’s body. Feel the points of contact where the firmness of your bones feel grounded: the bottoms of your feet and pelvis, perhaps back of the legs. Sense how the length of your spine holds you up. How it supports you even while lying down. Can you sense Earth’s abiding presence? Can you sense her steady support? Your body’s steady inner warmth? Your inner light?
Feel the in-breath. Know that you are breathing in. Feel the out-breath. Aware that you are breathing out. Each moment can be a pause to breathe and feel. Present. Here. Now. Sense your heart center. Breathe and feel the front of your heart. In and out. Breathe and feel the sides of your heart. Breathe and feel the back of your heart. Breathe and feel the wholeness of your heart. Observe your response to this sensing, this imagining. You might bring a relaxed curiosity to how things change with this moment. And this one. And this one.
With each breath, each sensation, each imagining, you can know that in the stillness of your heart’s intention you are on the path of peace. Sometimes it takes courage to feel what is true. To explore the willingness to stay. Stay with embodied experience. Open. Curious. Present with this unending stream of experience.
Present in the stream. You can know this stream is part of a great river of being. Here we are, together, attending to this moment. And this moment becoming the next becoming the long arc of history. Sensations, feeling, thoughts come and go. In this stillness of your heart’s intention can there also be a patient loving kindness? Can there be an allowing of experience to be – just as it is in this moment?
Some feelings and thoughts may arise from fear. And below the band of fear there may be currents of deep caring and love. What is revealed in this time of steady loving presence? Steady yourself and see. Breathe and allow. Feel what is true. Stretch the mind until you can see and listen with your heart. Explore the light and space of your heart. It can be a space of loving refuge. It can be a space of loving inspiration.
We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again, and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world.
Hear poet David Budbill’s words and take heart my friends:
Two hundred years ago Issa heard the morning birds
singing sutras to this suffering world.
I heard them too, this morning, which must mean,
since we will always have a suffering world,
we must also always have a song.