A Practice of Peace (Tova Averbuch)

Jeff Aitken ja at svn.net
Sun Apr 21 23:23:02 PDT 2002


Thanks Peg so much.

I've been freely translating the Sh'ma encouraged by teachers who say the
tradition is to argue and question and make the knowledge our own. I do not
claim authority, but the struggle is illuminating for me.

sh'ma yisra-el yhvh eloheynu yhvh echad (devarim [deuteronomy] 6:4)

listen, you who have struggled with Being;
the infinite one is the source of our capacities;
the infinite one is all that is.

I love the word "el-ohey-nu" because "nu" means "our", so to me this
describes that of the Infinite to which we have access in our lives --
which literally unfolds as our capacities in the world. The center of the
universe looks out thru our eyes. And the center of the universe is That in
which billions of galaxies swirl and dance.

There's a chant called "ten thousand eyes and hands (of bodhisattva)" in
the korean zen tradition. We would look around the room and count - "28
eyes and hands today!" and start the chant. Aspiring to awaken as that
one-and-many.

Our unity depends on our diversity. "There can hardly be any unity of the
human race if there is no room for as many diverse ways of being human as
there are people on the planet." (Rabbi Gershon Winkler)

Open space.

Jeff

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