A passionate lesson in non-duality

It's now 2 days into Holy Week
(well, according to the Gregorian calendar,
western version - west of Constantinople, that is )

Holy Week? Holy in what way?
Who is holy? What is holy?

Holy, according to the dictionary, means
something or someone to be revered
and comes from the old English word for
WHOLE.

I've always been fascinated by
this time of year in the Christian Church;
suddenly, it seems, there is no need to
preach dogma or doctrine or moral rules -
for everything is self-evident;
the stories speak for themselves
and we become fellow journeyers
in and through a transformational world
of cosmic, divine proportions.

There is a wonderful phrase in
the Apostles' Creed .....
after the brief crucifixion narrative
comes the sentence ...

He descended into Hell

For me, this is the ultimate confirmation
that the Divine is in everything,
however "good", however "evil" -
whatever we may think of something
or of someone, however "impossible",
God is not just "also there", but in totality!

The very Essence of Divinity dwells there!

So how do we in Western Society
get to a place where we can allow ourselves
to explore the physical and emotional intensity
of the dark places of Earth-life in safety?
And, more important , how do we access
the hidden darkness within us
- those recesses which we do everything
in our conscious power to hide
from ourselves and others?

I believe that most of us really endeavour
to live - and try to appear to live -
"good" lives. Any perceived dark faults
and cracks in our personality ......
- such things as our anger, our frustration,
our raw passion, our longing to break out,
the yearning to stamp our feet or
scream as loudly as possible,
the desperate urge to let go and
freely allow our bodies and minds to do
absolutely what they will, etc., -
we try and lock away in our body-cage
and perhaps even try to pray, meditate
and therapize them into submission.

Mind over matter we tell ourselves.

Part of western civilization's baggage is
the Gentle-Jesus-meek-and-mild Syndrome.
It matters not whether one professes faith
in the traditional church manner or not -
the cultural imprint of the erroneous
"Be good/nice, or you'll go to Hell!" is
still very much with and inside us!

Yet, not having any pathways to explore
and express the darkness inside us
is a sure way of avoiding the very inner peace
we long for! By desperately trying to avoid
our own "unacceptable behaviour" we are
opening ourselves to "Hell on Earth" - the
hidden personal misery which finds no outlet
- or worse, school shootings, rapes, murders,
dangerous abusive relationships,
and pointless, seemingly unstoppable, wars.

Holy Week actually inspires us to be whole.
We follow a man who gets so angry that he
- takes a whip to drive traders out of the Temple
shouting at them as his whip stings them,
- curses a fig-tree early in the morning because
it didn't have any fruit on to feed him,
(what happened to his morning meditation?),
- gets totally exasperated with his loyal friends
and speaks kindly to his betrayer (?!?)
a man who is so brazen that he quotes for himself
the divine name of I Am in front of the very
people (church leaders/puppet politicians)
he's just slandered as vipers, liars, hypocrites,
and then flatly refuses to even speak to
the authority that is trying him as someone
totally beneath him, etc.......

One of the points of this story seems to me
to be the example it shows of someone
who dares to be whole.
Uncompromisingly whole!
Not just following that inner knowing
whatever the cost, but also being totally
raw, real, open and vulnerable along the way!

In this totality of being there is little
space or time for duality, (except, of course, in
moments of doubt - those Gethsemane experiences!)
Shall we dare to explore what it means
to be real, to be whole, to be so impassioned
that we must follow our calling wherever
it may take us, and dare to be real and raw
as we let go and tread the path?

More on this, soon.

Holy blessings of wholeness

John O