Parinama

  On the night before he was arrested, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  It was an act of great humility, love and care.  In this tender act, he demonstrated to his disciples what it meant to be a teacher, one who guides others with deference, earthiness, mercy.  Jesus also allowed his own feet to be washed.  Six days before his death, he allowed Mary, Martha’s sister, to wash his feet with the most expensive of perfumed oils.  Judas had objected saying that all that money could have been used to feed the poor.  My understanding of what Jesus told him is that while the poor need our care, we also must take care of ourselves so that our work in the world, our love, care, social justice, is integrated with the innermostself, the soul.  With that intimacy with the soul our movements and actions in the world integration will embody both integrity and humility.  As Mary prepared Jesus’ feet for his death, I imagine her tears flowing onto th...

Along this spiritual path, we are invited to live with “open hands”.  Hands that are open to receive life’s unfolding, to let go of what is no longer needed, to give into the bounty of life and receive it back in a new form. I have found it nearly impossible to live with open hands but not entirely. At some point in the struggle to accept what is happening, life itself wrenches my close palms open so that I might find a way through to the new life.  When crossed into thresholds of loss, the first human reaction, instinctual, is to grip, to hold on more tightly to what is being lost, to try and salvage the old life.  How could we do otherwise?  What has kept us, loved us, restored us is slipping away and with it our sense of solidity, vitality, strength, protection. There is for me an experience of being thrown into a new and foreign land, the tools I used to plow my fields no longer work in this new place.  The brick I used to make my house doesn’t exist only re...