I invite you to go on a journey here with me in this meditation.
We have to find ourselves in Being and allow ourselves to be found by Being to know who we are, to be
who we are, to express who we are, and to create as who we are.
I think it’s common for us as human beings, one way or another, to want to create, want to express ourselves, want to manifest something in our lives and in our world. What can be overlooked is that first part of the process by which we do this successfully, in a way that brings happiness and fulfillment. That is to find ourselves in Being. The essence of who we are is there.
When we find ourselves in Being and allow that larger pattern to find us and come into us and express through us, something different happens. We assume our creatorship in a way that we can’t otherwise. To the degree we don’t find ourselves in Being, we begin to go through an experience of not being. It’s the only alternative left.
When we find ourselves in Being, we find our own wholeness, our intactness, our own creative power as part of Being. Many people aspire to some kind of power. But without this essential first step, they can end up embracing a brand of tyranny, not real creative power.
Real creative power comes from Being. It’s our destiny to know that as a human being.
We might imagine that if we are truly ourselves, the world will welcome us. Sometimes that happens. But often, the world can’t see us as who we are and takes no notice. And sometimes it assaults who we are in some way.
We live in a human world that is often antithetical to Being. It can be antithetical to Being expressing through a human being, and antithetical to other forms of life. Scientists estimate that there is a massive decimation of species by the human population of Planet Earth. The latest Living Planet Report, published by the World Wildlife Fund, shows a 73% decline in the average size of the wildlife populations studied between 1970 and 2020.
There is a biblical story that portrays how the human world assaults the presence of Being through human beings. Elijah was a prophet in Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel, in the 8th century B.C. King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, were corrupting the Israelite culture and murdering its prophets. Meanwhile, they were promoting the prevalent superstitious religion of the day that included a practice of child sacrifice.
In about 870 B.C., King Ahab confronted Elijah, saying this as it is translated in the King James Version of the Bible:
Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
1 Kings 18:17
Really?
Elijah responds:
And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
1 Kings 18:18
Elijah confronted the way of the world that is antithetical to Being and antithetical to life. It is not uncommon for someone who is being themselves and bringing something truthful to be challenged. Are you the one causing trouble around here? You’re not falling in line. As John Lewis said, there is such a thing as good trouble.
Today is Palm Sunday. In the Christian tradition, Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a week before Easter. All at the same time, it was a glorious, joyful event and a tragic one. It wouldn’t have been hard for anyone in Jesus’ position to appreciate that. And he wasn’t just anyone.
The Jewish people were looking to him to be another King David, to be a political king and to stand up against the Romans. And that is not at all what he had in mind. Of course, any spiritual movement has political and cultural implications. But still, that wasn’t his focus. And at the same time, this was exactly the issue that was getting him into trouble with the Jewish leadership and the Roman authorities. They were worried about Jesus’ ascendancy as a leader in Israel.
So, here he is, coming into Jerusalem for the Passover celebration, and the crowds were crying out, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
He had been hiding out on the other side of the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea where John the Baptist had baptized people, in Bethany, and on the edge of the wilderness. He was fleeing from the authorities after reviving Lazarus, a very provocative public event. It doesn’t say it quite like this in the Bible, but as I read the story, I think he must have come to a point of thinking, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t hide anymore. It’s not who I am.
I think of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. After surviving a poisoning attempt, likely by the Russian Federation, he returned to Russia in 2021 where he was immediately imprisoned, and soon died. Alexei Navalny was standing up against Russian corruption and tyranny. So how could he stand for that publicly while cowering from Russian authority in his own life?
Likewise, Jesus reached a point where he couldn’t deny by his public actions who he was and what he was bringing to the world. So, he came into Jerusalem a week before what we call Easter now. He was coming into a city that he’d visited all his life. The Temple played a major role in Jewish culture, and annually masses of people would gather there for the Passover.
This is from the story:
Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;
Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.
On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
John 12:9-13
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.
Luke 19:39-41
Despite all that was going on in the consciousness of people, he was recognizing that there is an urge in humanity to recognize what’s true. And, however it comes out—whatever religious, political, or cultural structures float on top of that urge—there is the urge within us all to respond to the Presence of Being whenever it appears through a person.
And looking over Jerusalem, this city he knew so well, he wept. Why? He had to have known the complex trap that had been laid for him. There was the threat to his life. And there was the twisted rejection of who he was and the gift he was bringing.
There is a terrible phrase in common parlance: No good deed goes unpunished.
Earlier, Jesus faced a group of people who sought to stone him.
Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
John 10:32
It is sad that in the culture of our world, where there are elements that are antithetical to life, there is an ironic truth to the statement No good deed goes unpunished. And still, Being prevails. Life prevails. And the stones, and all of life on this planet respond.
Jesus left his followers with his teaching of a truth, put this way in the King James Version of the Bible.
…continue in my word…
John 8:31
…continue ye in my love.
John 15:9
The word continue implies forward movement, and perhaps a path of becoming. It seems to imply the necessity of diligence. But the original Greek word that the disciple John seems to have actually used—in both verses as he wrote his gospel—means something else. It is a word that alludes to a state of Being, not becoming. It means something closer to abide or stay. So it means Don’t leave. Don’t go.
The Greek word that was translated as word was logo, which is a form of the word logos. To the Greek-speaking world, it refers to the rational principle governing the cosmos.
The Greek word translated as love was agape—selfless, unconditional, divine love.
Here is a translation of these verses that incorporates this understanding:
Stay in the flow of the pattern of Reality I have shared with you.
Don’t leave the unconditional love you know with me.
These instructions strike me as profoundly meaningful today. We are here to create on earth, to achieve something. We are not here for nothing. But where does our achieving come from? A place of Being. And in Being is meaning. In Being is purpose. In Being are the seeds of Creation.
We have the honor of knowing our meaning and significance from that perspective. We begin to know ourselves as someone. We are someone. We are not nobody. We find the someone that we are in Being.
We have to find ourselves in Being and allow ourselves to be found by Being to know who we are, to be who we are, to express who we are, and to create as who we are.