My theme question may make this subject rather obvious. Yet I awoke with many thoughts flooding my mind for the last couple of early morning hours. The first four blogs were about my family and friend and my relationship to them and also the "nature" of those relationships.
Therefore my experience recently watching a film about the life of Mother Teresa became profound teaching. She spoke very clearly, when you give, "give with love", whatever you do, "do it with love". I watched her closely for the remainder of the film to see how she expressed this teaching. She began her ministry in Kalcutta by searching for the "untouchables" left to die alone in the street's gutters. They were given a safe, clean abode to live out their lives. She would not just bathe them in water for a bath, but in loving caresses all over their heads and later their eyes would fill with light and animated outstretched arms as she returned for a visit. Her greatest gift was to give them something being denied them, a relationship. She gave them someone to love back. Now they were not alone . 1 John 4:8 says anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love
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My next thoughts went to my studies reading the Old Testament. I repeatedly heard in my heart the message in the scriptures,, simply, "I am". Exodus 3:14. Now I also hear " I am... in relationship with you". Isaiah 41:10. This is a promise. Even though I have spent most of my life living in denial of this, and visualizing myself in a motion of "turning away" from this truth. I now know that this can not be possible. My visual today is one of everywhere I turn, 360 degrees, Father is there, love is there, waiting for me all along the way. To deny this truth, connection, promise and relationship is THE Sin. At the moment I lift up my eyes out of my darkness to acknowledge this, I am who I have always been.
Repentance is about me acknowledging the relationship. Repent means to "turn or return". Zechariah 1:3b Forgiveness is about God's loving response to our believing we could ever be out of a relationship with Him. I will forgive their wrongdoing, I will never again remember their sins. Hebrew 8:12
As my mind moves out from here some final thoughts are how a relationship is the "nature" of ALL I can see now. Obviously, as in nature, we are beginning to understand how each plant and animal is vital to the health of environments on earth. As the wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone Park the direction of river beds badly eroded by deer overpopulation change courses... Being an artist, my life long pursuit of painting one color next to another and discovering how the colors change is inexhaustible.
studies in astronomy, with my professor in 1970, revealed his summer research at an observatory searching for a very large 10th planet beyond Pluto with a definite "pull"!
My cup has it's saucer.....like I said everywhere I look.
Just as I was about to sign off. I remembered the origins of my name. I was given a Buddhist name, Hokyo Soen, at my Lay Ordination in 1986. The first name is designated as one's true nature, the second is one's life work. Hokyo means Jewel Mirror my first and middle names. Soen [not legally taken] means round, perfect, and lucid. What is somewhat miraculous to me now about this name is what a Jewel Mirror is. It refers to Indra's Net. It is a Hindu/Buddhist description of the interconnectedness of all of creation.
It is a net with a round jewel at each knot of the net that reflects all other jewels in the net. This goes on for eternity. My life's work, therefore, is to keep my jewel in its form, a perfect round and clear reflective orb, unblemished. My name is about existence as a relationship and what kind I will have with others. When the darkness appears on my jewel it will be mirrored onto every other jewel, my suffering is shared and others suffering with me. There is NO other. Mark 12:30-31 Love your neighbor as yourself.. When we choose to live in the light of love and joy, this brightness is reflected out endlessly.
P.S.
A late-night NBC news flash came on with an update concerning a week-long debate about how to free the last two men. A week earlier a disaster struck a construction site at a coal mine resulting in 50 men being trapped underground. This mine, located in a small New England state's rural area, has been inundated by reporters after the story broke on Monday. Currently, there are three trapped below. One is a young 33-year-old physician who arrived earlier this week at the bequest of his father. When arriving on the scene he reported to a journalist privately, he was there to fulfill his father's request. One of the last two men trapped in an old childhood buddy of his father's and they had become estranged as young men. They have not spoken to each other face to face since. When his father heard of the need for medical personnel to help with rescued miners, he asked his son to join the medical team. For the last two men, there were injuries causing them to need direct emergency medical care before they could come up top safely. The son volunteered to go down into the mine and attend to the two men and stabilize them. They were brought to the surface safely, both were DOA at the hospital. His father's friend has his wife by his side in the ambulance, the woman both men had loved deeply and was the cause of the rift in the relationship. The physician and devoted son that remains behind in the mine, dies before his rescue, as the result of a sudden collapse in the mine brought on by a small local quake when it closes off the shaft with large boulders.
His father, three days later, while in mourning and surrounded by family, was watching an ABC Sunday Morning news commentary show about the mining industry's failure to value their workers' safety over profits.
Then the phone rang. His son, Joshua's voice spoke, "Dad, it is finished, be at peace and call on me anytime, I love you,"
It is a net with a round jewel at each knot of the net that reflects all other jewels in the net. This goes on for eternity. My life's work, therefore, is to keep my jewel in its form, a perfect round and clear reflective orb, unblemished. My name is about existence as a relationship and what kind I will have with others. When the darkness appears on my jewel it will be mirrored onto every other jewel, my suffering is shared and others suffering with me. There is NO other. Mark 12:30-31 Love your neighbor as yourself.. When we choose to live in the light of love and joy, this brightness is reflected out endlessly.
P.S.
A late-night NBC news flash came on with an update concerning a week-long debate about how to free the last two men. A week earlier a disaster struck a construction site at a coal mine resulting in 50 men being trapped underground. This mine, located in a small New England state's rural area, has been inundated by reporters after the story broke on Monday. Currently, there are three trapped below. One is a young 33-year-old physician who arrived earlier this week at the bequest of his father. When arriving on the scene he reported to a journalist privately, he was there to fulfill his father's request. One of the last two men trapped in an old childhood buddy of his father's and they had become estranged as young men. They have not spoken to each other face to face since. When his father heard of the need for medical personnel to help with rescued miners, he asked his son to join the medical team. For the last two men, there were injuries causing them to need direct emergency medical care before they could come up top safely. The son volunteered to go down into the mine and attend to the two men and stabilize them. They were brought to the surface safely, both were DOA at the hospital. His father's friend has his wife by his side in the ambulance, the woman both men had loved deeply and was the cause of the rift in the relationship. The physician and devoted son that remains behind in the mine, dies before his rescue, as the result of a sudden collapse in the mine brought on by a small local quake when it closes off the shaft with large boulders.
His father, three days later, while in mourning and surrounded by family, was watching an ABC Sunday Morning news commentary show about the mining industry's failure to value their workers' safety over profits.
Then the phone rang. His son, Joshua's voice spoke, "Dad, it is finished, be at peace and call on me anytime, I love you,"
