Community- Shared Materials- Articals of Interest
WALKING THE PATH WITH SPIRITUAL FRIENDS by Tara Brach
Friendliness is one of the main translations of the Pali word metta or lovingkindness. The love and understanding of a friend, like a deep well of the purest water, refreshes the very source of our being. If all religions and great ideologies disappeared and our one pursuit was friendship-unconditional friendliness with each other, our inner life, all nature-ah, what a world!
Being with good friends helps us relax about our inner weather and stop regarding our painful emotions or confused behaviors as symptoms of spiritual backsliding. As we bring our vulnerability, insight and heart into conscious relationship, we realize we are all waking up together. In this environment of togetherness, deep healing becomes possible.
When Radical Acceptance blossoms in our relationships, it becomes a kind of spiritual re-parenting that enables us to trust the goodness and beauty 0f who we really are. Just as good parenting mirrors back to a child that they are lovable, when we understand and accept others, we affirm their intrinsic worth and belonging.
To receive this kind of Radical Acceptance can transform our lives. By mirroring back to someone their goodness, we offer a priceless gift, and its blessings ripple out through a lifetime. Rachael Naomi Remen writes, "When we recognize the spark of God in others, we blow on it with our attention and strengthen it, No matter how deeply it has been buried or for how long.... When we bless someone, we touch the unborn goodness in them and wish it well." The mirroring of inner beauty is the blessing any of us can give to each other. We only need to pause, see clearly who is before us and open wide our heart. Some of our deepest awakenings happen through the intimate and loving connections that remind us most fully of who we are.
Sufi teacher Idries Shah tells the story of a dervish who was so wise and beloved that every time he sat down at one of his favorite coffeehouses, he would be immediately surrounded by students and devotees. While he was humble and did not proclaim to be someone special, these very qualities were part of the vibrant aura that attracted his followers. The dervish was asked various questions about spiritual life, but the most frequent was personal: "How did you become so holy?" Invariably he would simply reply, "I know what is in the Koran:' This went on for quite a while Until one day, after hearing this response a rather arrogant newcomer challenged him, "Well, what is in the Koran?" he demanded. After regarding him kindly, the dervish responded "In the Koran there are two pressed flowers, and a letter from my friend Abdullah."
Although scriptures guide us and practices focus and quiet us, as the dervish suggested the living experience of love reveals our intrinsic wholeness and radiance. Our life is embedded in an interdependent field of being and when we are relating consciously-when as Rumi says, "our friendship is made of being awake"-the suffering of our personal trance dissolves.
Reprinted with Permission from Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach ISBN 0-533-38099-0, pages 297-301 (to view comments or to comment on this topic, please click) http://www.caringawareness.com/community/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=26