The human heart can go the lengths of God.
Dark and cold we may be, but this Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move; The thunder is the thunder of the floes, The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we humans ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity’s sake?
I recently came across this final soliloquy from Christopher Fry’s 1951 play, A Sleep of Prisoners. I remember hearing it many years ago, but this time, it sprang to life, resonating deeply. The poem describes precisely where we are as a species, and gives me so much hope. “Our time is Now.” I woke up in the middle of one night thinking about it, and the metaphor was reinforced; as a species, we are waking up in the dark.
The season of the dark is once more upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, providing us short days and long evenings in which to search our interior landscapes for some Sources of Light. It takes a bit of effort; as “wrong comes up to face us everywhere.” Recently, I asked a friend how she was doing, and she replied with a heavy sigh, “I don’t know. You know that place where you just can’t even BELIEVE how much suffering there is….?” Yes.
But I also know that we live in extraordinary times when “the task is our exploration into God.” This dawning understanding of our emerging consciousness is epic: it is no less than our awakening into the Heart of God that we are, to the Light that shines brilliantly in us and everywhere, including all of the dark places. As the Sufi poet Rumi said, “This is certainty, O beloved: I am hidden in the heart of the faithful. If you seek me, seek in these hearts." We have only to look around us with open and reflective spirits to see ample evidence of great Light in these dark days.
The planet is full of people consciously choosing and walking a spiritual path. Increasingly, these journeys transcend individual religions. As Joan Borysenko mused, “Perhaps spirituality is the religion of the 21st Century.” Whatever is happening, we are now taking “the longest stride of soul we humans ever took.” The issues facing and engaging us are indeed “soul size,” but there is a spiritual conspiracy of millions of good hearted, conscientious, loving people acting with passion and commitment for their own good and the good of others. These are not super-heroes or people doing anything
that will get the attention of the press; they are our friends and acquaintances, family members, co-workers, a cast of characters as diverse as our species because, of course, Light takes many forms.
How do we spot them? What do these people have or do that makes them so holy? They are deeply in touch with their own empathy, and allow it to propel them into action with generosity and gratitude. Just in the past week, I’ve bumped up against literally dozens: legal aid lawyers, teachers, physical therapists, bodyworkers, nurses, pharmacists, formerly homeless men and women, family members dedicated to the care of incapacitated relatives, youth and social workers, all passionate, committed people whose dedication and humble efforts move and inspire me. These are our teachers, who in some way embody the wisdom of Isaiah 58, who know that the times may be dark, but Light is rising for us. Their lives reflect the belief that “If we break the chains of injustice, rid the workplace of exploitation, free those oppressed, cancel debts, share our bread with the hungry, shelter those who are homeless, clothe the naked, and not turn our backs on our own families,” then light will rise in the dark, and the darkness will become as bright as the noonday sun.
Mystics and seers have been telling us for centuries that We Are One, and now science is confirming that we are hard-wired for empathy. We possess ‘mirror’ neurons that fire in our own heads when we simply see what happens to another.
Dubbed ‘Gandhi’ neurons, we register the experience of others as our own. (For a heartening description of our ‘Gandhi Neurons’, google and watch neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran’s 10 minute TED Lecture on Mirror Neuronsi: it will warm your heart and give you hope.) We are indeed wonderfully made.
If we focus our empathic energies and embrace our enormous potential and power to be the Face of God to each other, we will collectively hasten the day when Teilhard de Chardin’s Omega Point of universal Christ consciousness ii becomes a global reality, when all of humanity embraces love, compassion, and unity as universal principles. So here are two suggestions for very simple but transformative Advent practices, two ways to be contemplative that will accelerate the awakening of your own heart.
First, acknowledge and celebrate your Gandhi neurons, your capacity for empathy, and allow yourself to observe their operation and effects in yourself and those around you. Where do you see the human heart going “the lengths of God”? How does yours? Jot down what you find; talk about it. Cultivate empathy in yourself and others. Spread the good news that our species’ capacity for connection and love is ripening. It is. It will.
Second, practice gratitude, a core, essential attitude for spiritual growth. Happily, the press is full of gratitude articles and books these days. Perhaps the cultivation of gratitude, too, is maturing in us and nearing a tipping point. A recent New York Times articleiii described the physical and emotional benefits of an “attitude of gratitude”, and outlined a number of effective gratitude practices. They are worth exploring:
Once each week, simply write down 5 things for which you are grateful.
Express gratitude often for even small kindnesses, and do small, generous acts for others.
Rather than reacting negatively to someone or something, be kind, find a’ generous interpretation’ for behaviors or incidents.
Write a 300 word letter of thanks to someone, deliver and read it in person.
Pray/meditate.
Be generous, be thoughtful, be thankful. The effects of practicing gratitude are profound: gratitude is the precursor of awe, and awe is an experience of alignment with the Divine.
“It takes so many thousand years to wake,” and we are on the brink of knowing, deeply, profoundly, and utterly, that We Are One. Each of us is charged with waking up in the dark, of awakening that unique creative spark of the Divine that we are. “Will you wake? For pity’s sake?”
Sharon Browning JUST Listening
i http://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization.html
iii John Tierney, “A Serving of Gratitude May Save The Day,” New York Times November 21, 2011. View online at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/a-serving-of-gratitude-brings-healthy-
dividends.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210
A Sleep of Prisoners, Christopher Fry, 1951