“The other side of the lake”

Jesus in the territory of Gerasenes

 

   “            "Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” Mk 4.35. Jesus leaves the security, the popularity, the acceptance of this side and crosses the lake for the persecution, opposition, screaming and shouting of the other side. On this side of the lake crowds follow him, he is beginning to be understood and accepted. Just when everything looked favourable, he says,  “let us go to the other side.”

The decision looked a poor discernment. The timing too seemed to go wrong. The journey across the lake was stormy. The waves and the winds nearly drowned them. On the other side there are only crowds of swine. Just one man comes running to him and that too from the midst of tombs, not to welcome him but to scream and shout and demand that Jesus leave his territory and back off.  

 Jesus doe not oblige him. He knows the man is possessed, a captive, chained and in shackles. Jesus knows it is the devil speaking through him.  In the shouting and screaming, Jesus hears the cry for freedom.  A little earlier Jesus had stated his vision of life, “to proclaim liberty to captives.” So rather than obey the voice of the devil, he commands the devil to leave the man.

The good shepherd goes in search of the one lost sheep. Jesus comes risking the waves and winds,  rejection and opposition in search of this one man.

The situation of every mission land is like that of Gerasenes. The reaction to the one who brings the good news is often opposition, rejection and persecution. People think the good news is a torment and an oppression. So they come individually and in a delegation to demand that we back off.

We are so often so quick to obey them. We fear persecution and even imprisonment. We are not prepared for the risk involved in the journey. We are surrounded by angry mobs and unfriendly authorities. We are not ready to sail far and risk our life for just one or two individuals.

Every person, every land that rejects the good news is a captive, bound in social, economic, ethnic, religious and caste chains. Others are held captive by poisoned ideologies, corrupt political systems, poverty, sickness and hunger. Selfish leaders exploit the ignorance, caste and superstition of the crowds to make their way to the top. 

   The scream and shout of the crowd is a cry for help and compassion. The persecution the leaders unleash and the oppressive laws they pass are meant  to keep the people bound in chains.  

  Jesus refused to listen to the voice of the devil.  Can the evangeliser of the good news restate their vision and mission once more and stand up for the truth than fear a lie? Even at the cost of rejection and persecution we are invited to set people free. They may kill you but the man whom you set free will continue your work.  You may succeed to free only just one individual but he in his turn will bring the ‘whole town’.

Lord give us a sensitive ear to hear in the screams and shouts of those bound in chains, the cry for compassion and help.  Give us the courage to launch out from the familiar and the usual, to new territories, to break new grounds, willing to sail, even if it is for just one lost sheep, “ to the other side of the lake.”

 

                 

                                                            Ph.D. on ‘Nothing’

                                Silence and Space - portals to the Unmanifested

The Unmanifested is not separate  from the manifested. It pervades the whole world. It is so well disguised that everyone misses it. If you know where to look you will find it.
You hear the chirping of the bird.  You hear the sound of a car. Can you feel the Un manifested ?  No.  Look for it in the silence out of which the sound came and into which it returns.  Pay more attention to the silence than the sound .

Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence and during its span it is surrounded by silence.  Silence enables the sound to be.  Silence is intrinsic and unmanifested  part of every sound, every song, every note, every word. The Unmanifested is present in this world of silence.  ‘Nothing in this world is so like God as silence’. Silence is one of the portals to enter the Unmanifested.

  Just as sound cannot exist without silence, nothing can exist without empty space.  Every physical body has come out of nothing, is surrounded by nothing and will eventually return to nothing.  Even inside every physical body there is more ‘nothing ‘ than ‘something’. Physicists tell us  that solidity of matter is an illusion. Every solid matter is nearly 100% empty space, so vast are the distance between the atoms compared to their size.  What is more, inside every atom there is mostly empty space. “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”,  says Heart Sutra one of the ancient Buddhists texts.  The essence of all things is emptiness.
  Although in itself space has no existence it enables everything else to exist. Silence has no existence , but it enables every sound  to be.
You may ask what is this ‘space’? What is this ‘silence’ ? What is this ‘no thing’ ? You cannot ask such question ! Your mind is trying to make nothing into something.  The moment you make it into something you miss it. It cannot become an object of knowledge. You cannot do a Ph.D on ‘nothing’.
What is the essence of a room ?Is it the furniture, the pictures, the chairs, the tables  that are in the room? They are not the room. The floor, the ceiling , the walls define the boundary of the room. They are not the room. What is essence of a room then? Space, empty space. There is no room without it. Since space is ‘nothing’ we can say what is not there is more important than what is there.  Become aware of the space around you. Don’t try to understand it. Pay attention  to  ‘nothing’. 
 
 The Unmanifested is present in this world as ‘silence’ and pervades the universe as ‘space.’  By becoming aware of empty space around you, you  become aware of the Unmanifested.  Contemplation of space and silence are  portals to  the Unmanifested.

The inner equivalent of objects in space is your thoughts, your  emotions and the objects of your senses. The inner equivalent of space is the consciousness that enables your mind and objects to be, just as space allows objects to be.  So if you withdraw attention from the things, from the objects in space,  you automatically withdraw attention from your mind objects as well.  You cannot think and be aware of space or silence. By  becoming aware of the empty space around you,  become aware of the Unmanifested. 

If some cosmic convulsion were to bring an end to the world the Unmanifested would remain totally unaffected. This truth is expressed when ‘A Course in Miracles’  says, “ Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God.”

If you remain in conscious connection with the Unmanifested,you will deeply respect the manifested and every form in it as an expression of the One Life beyond form.  The Unmanifested is not separate  from the manifested.

As Buddha says you have ‘crossed over to the other shore’ , or as Jesus says , “ You have overcome the world.” 
                        

- Paraphrased  by George Chalil  from ‘The Power of NOW’ by Eckhart Tolle
 
 

                                                         Center Vs Periphery

( Musings on today’s Gospel, Sower and the Seed )

 

I am watching a farmer clearing the ground for cultivation. He has all sorts of soil in his field. Some areas are level and easy to dig and less work to get it ready. Other areas are  stony and bushy. The  farmer starts with the easier patches of ground. As he digs  he takes  the stones that come up  and throws them on to the periphery of the good soil where there are already some stones and bushes. He burdens the stony and bushy areas with more stones and bushes. He seems to have no plans for this patch of ground at least not for this year.

 Finally after much swept and hard work he has converted some patches into  good soil. It is made good in a way  at the expense of the periphery patches which are  made worse by the additional stones and bushes that are thrown on to it. The farmer takes great care of the good soil. He digs deep, puts fertilizer, provides water, puts up hedges,  buys the best seeds.  He invests  ‘all’ he has for the sake of the good soil while he seems to have no thought for the periphery.

The farmer seems ‘unjust’ to the periphery  and partial to the good soil.  All his attention and investment is for the good. He may seem unjust but he is smart and calculative. He wants a good crop so that he can invest more and bring more thorny soil into the category of the good in the coming years.

The elder son stands by the road side with folded hands accusing his younger brother of wastefulness and immorality. He accuses him because he is not obedient, chaste and  poor like him. The father gently reminds him that he has given the elder son ‘all’ he has. He has received far more than the younger son. He has been far more time with him.

We find so often in our communities the ‘good brigades’  complaining and  accusing because others are not like them. They find others having an easy life, not keeping the rules, not obedient and chaste, not willing to shoulder responsibilities.

The ‘good brigades‘, the elder sons,  cannot  grumble and complain and compare with those on the periphery. The farmer has invested far more for them. They often had opportunity, privilege others did not have. They were sent abroad for long years of study and updating. Some of them came back after four or six years without fruits and had to be send again to get a degree. All these while those who were considered not so brilliant and productive, those on the periphery, had to bear the brunt of additional job. Sticks and stones were heaped on them. The farmer although seemed unjust  was hopeful  of a good harvest from the good soil so that he could invest more and bring more and more periphery  into the category of good soil.

The farmer will be disappointed if the ‘good brigades’ begin to complain and condemn because those around them are not like them. They cannot be like them, at least for now. The farmer has not invested on them not even one fourth of what he has invested  for the good soil. Instead he had burdened them with additional sticks and stones.

The only way to bring all the soil into the category of good soil is for the good soil to produce more so that farmer can invest more on the periphery  in the coming years. Rather than compare and condemn those on the peripheries, those who are privileged and  favored   to be at the  center must  produce at least a thirty or sixty if not a  hundred.