I have friends who are Quakers, friends who are Unitarian Universalists, friends who Dialogue in the Bohmian tradition, friends who are Mystics, friends who are Poets, and so many other friends who live lives of wisdom and wonder... this is my account of the meeting with these friends...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The mirror of saying Yes!

James reminded us today of this from our friend Meister Eckhart:

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

This has been most relevant for me this past week- Ive been seeing it again- this thing that J. Krishnamurti would say over and over, "relationship is a mirror"...

and so Ive been seeing this more and more with each passing day- that even the tiniest event or the most horrid, is a mirror to who or what I am... the eyes that see and measure, are the eyes that are in THIS head- they are the filter through which THIS being perceives ...

so, when I sit in conversation with a friend, and a hypocrisy comes from what appears as his mouth- perhaps a comfortable 'middle class' hypocrisy, such as when one minute he will be speaking about how I need to do more to enhance his life or his finances (I stay in a room in his house) and then the VERY NEXT minute he is telling me that he is preparing to spend four grand on a drum set, that he already sold away once since Ive known him at an $1800 loss ... but the $30 that he gave me to get some food for myself must not become a "habit"...

yes, I see the mirror of that- Truly I do...

IF and only IF the request is coming from God... if its God asking me to do more, or to make do with less so that I can sit with my friend without judgment- then I can see that it is MY objection to God, that will contain this same hypocrisy...

this is a subtle and tricky thing to see, and only comes when I cease to measure, and simply ask God what it is that "I am" - "who is looking, God?" - "why am I measuring at all?" ...

but when it is shown that this measurement lives in ME, and NOT my friend, then yes, "thank you" is the only prayer...

thank you thank you thank you!

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