Difficult times are a perfect catalyst for a major shift in consciousness. The most important shift is fear becomes love. Love is a complicated word since sometimes we use it when we mean attachment. When we are attached to an object we fear that we won’t get it or that we will lose it. In this case, love does not refer to clinging and attachment, but to our very nature which is complete in itself. Fear arises because we see ourselves as separate and we fear the other or we fear that we will lose the other. Our practice is to transform fear into love or Oneness.
That love becomes apparent when we experience no separation or no self. In the movie Dan in Real Life, a young man says, “Love is not a feeling. It is an ability.” That statement intrigued me. Even though our nature is love, we have to practice to realize that fact. This practice is the practice of meditation or zazen. In zazen we let go of ideas and concepts that mask the Oneness and realize True Nature. Fear disappears since there is nothing to fear and becomes love. Maezumi Roshi used to say the greatest gift from our practice is the gift of No Fear.
Now, when I am afraid, I use it as practice. I become aware of the fear and also notice what triggered the fear. For example: I may be late for an appointment and fear that the person I’m meeting will be angry and rejecting. When I shift that fear to love, I become aware that she is just like me, in fact is me. Her anger and my fear do not exist. Then I can embrace her anger without fear. I don’t have to be defensive. We can just be with what is. I was a little late. She is angry. So instead of pushing the other away I can open up to what is.
In the book The Great Shift, Fred Sterling says that there are three aspects that we must cultivate for the shift in consciousness. They are truth, trust and passion. The first is truth. If I am approaching everything in my life with love instead of fear, truth is the obvious result. The only reason I make up a lie about why I am late is out of my fear. Out of love there is no problem with saying. “I started talking to someone and didn’t notice the time. I’m sorry.” And my angry friend coming out of love rather than fear can say “I really wish you were more careful about time. I had to wait and now we won’t have as much time together.” She doesn’t have to say “O it’s ok” out of fear that the truth will harm our friendship. Just imagine how much easier life would be if we just told the truth rather than spinning and manipulating.
Out of truth comes trust. I was particularly struck by this, since I have a pattern of labeling people as not trustworthy. When I say someone is not trustworthy, I am really saying I don’t like them and I fear them. As I work with my trust issues, I find that the best way for me to reconnect with those I have decided are untrustworthy is through forgiveness. I need to do some kind of forgiveness ritual either directly with the person involved or as a personal prayer in order to reestablish trust. In the same way, if the true nature of the universe is love, then I don’t have to live in fear in this world. I can trust the perfection of life.
The third aspect of the shift is passion. By that Mr. Sterling means to find your passion and act on it. This is similar to loving action of the three tenants. No wonder the world is not working very well when so many of us are unhappy with our jobs and our situations. Find your passion and do that! When we start viewing the world as love and telling the truth and trusting the universe then the result is that we get to follow our heart and our passion. The peace that comes from trusting the universe and trusting our place in the universe is so much greater than the crazy ups and downs of living in attachment and aversion.
From a Zen standpoint, we have created our suffering by attaching to the false idea that we are separate from the environment. During the practice of meditation we see that we are one with everything and that everything is love (compassion). That experience of oneness is also the truth that we have denied ourselves. When we see things as they really are, we see that life is whole perfect and complete and we can begin to trust that life is good. Trusting in our life we can live our passion without fear.
Today a member told me we are so lucky that we have our practice in times like these. My wish is that all of us are able to embrace the oneness of all things, embrace the lessons of this time and continue to cultivate love, truth, trust and passion in our lives.
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