Beyond Wrongdoing

"Out there
beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing
there is a field,
I will meet you there."
~ Rumi

On this day of Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent, I take time to go church, get my ashes and reflect on my own wrongdoing, and ask for forgiveness for so many things. The readings and the homily for some reason, touch me very deeply, perhaps in light of all the recent events in my Anusara yoga community.

Yesterday, my entry reflected my initial preparation as I enter this season... It pains me to see so much separation in my community, but I am also heartened to see the flames of unity sparking in the broad expanse of so much divisiveness...

I told my students this morning, that this season is about Hope, because it coincides with spring, and Easter - which is symbolic of Resurrection. And spring, never fails to come - no matter what...

And I realize, there cannot be any rising without dying...

We cannot give birth to something new, without letting go of the old...

This is just a simple fact of life...

So for me, this Lent takes on a much deeper meaning. As I help members of my community give birth to the new - I must look within - and decide what within me impedes that...

Why? Because out beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing - there is a field - where we can all be ONE. Let us meet each other there...

And so, I drove back from Ash Wednesday services, listening to a wonderful CD that was given to me a year ago on Ash Wednesday entitled "Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers." It is beautiful and haunting, and a collaboration between Tina Turner. Dechen Shak-Dagsay and Regula Curti, who were moved to produce a series of original compositions blending Tibetan, Gregorian, and other Buddhist chants, after the Dalai Lama and the Abbot of a Benedictine Monastery in Switerland met and shared dialogue and prayer together. And this is what many in my community are doing right now - dialoguing through social media - and returning to the practices that nourish their souls.

What else is there?

And so I end, with this beautiful spiritual message from Tina Turner on the CD:

"Nothing lasts forever, no one lives forever, the flower that fades and dies, winter passes and spring comes, embrace the cycle of life, that is the greatest love.

Beyond takes you into the place where love grows, when you refuse to follow the impulses of fear, anger and revenge.

Start every day singing like the birds - singing takes you beyond...

We all need a repeated discipline, a genuine training to let go our old habits of mind and to find and sustain a new way of seeing.

Prayer clears the head and brings back peace to the soul.

Sing - singing takes you beyond...

We are all the same, all the same, looking to find our way back to the source, to the ONE, to the only ONE.

The greatest moment in our lives is when we allow ourselves to teach each other.

Sing - singing takes you beyond...

To become quiet to hear the beyond. To become patient to receive the beyond. To become open to invite the beyond and be grateful to allow the beyond. Be in the present moment to live in the beyond.

Start every day singing like the birds - singing takes you beyond...

LOVE grows when you trust. When you trust LOVE heals and renews. LOVE inspires and empowers us to do great things and makes us a better person to love. LOVE makes us feel safe and brings us closer to GOD.

When you go beyond that's where you find true love.

Keep singing - singing takes you beyond..."

"Out there
beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing
there is a field,
I will meet you there."
~ Rumi