I try to avoid getting overly 'Christian' on this blog. But the following passage (edited from Martin Laird’s book ‘Into the Silent Land’) got me thinking both about my own life and the nature of the job I do.
Whether your conception of 'god' is different to mine, or if you have no truck with god concepts per se, you may find it has some pondering value...
A young novice monk is struggling with his calling and doesn’t know how to move forward. He seeks the advice of a wise, if somewhat unorthodox, older monk called Father Alypius.
Crouched over a table, Fr. Alypius was sitting on a stool repairing someone’s shoes. He peered over the top of his spectacles and said, ‘Sit down and tell me what’s wrong.’
The young man went on for an eternity and told him everything about his life.
All the while Fr. Alypius was working away on this one shoe. When the young man had finished, Fr. Alypius said, ‘I have just one question for you: ‘who are you?’’
‘I just told you,’ said the young man.
‘No, you told me about the clothes you wear. You told me your name, where you’re from, what you’ve done, the things you’ve studied. Your problem is, you don’t know who you are. Let me tell you who you are. You are a ray of God’s own light.’
‘Sounds a bit silly,’ the young man thought to himself. But he was intrigued, so he said, ‘What do you mean?’
‘You say you seek God, but a ray of light doesn’t seek the sun; it’s coming from the sun. You are a branch on the vine of God. A branch doesn’t seek the vine; it’s already part of the vine. A wave doesn’t look for the ocean; it’s already full of ocean.
Because you don’t know that who you are is one with God, you believe all these labels about yourself: I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I’m a wretch, I’m a worm and no man, I’m a monk, I’m a nurse.
These are all labels, clothing. They serve a purpose, but they are not who you are. To the extent that you believe these labels, you believe a lie, and you add anguish upon anguish. It’s what most of us do for most of our lives.’
‘Before you can know in your own experience what the Psalmist meant when he said, ‘Be still and know that I am God,’ you must first learn to be still and know who you are. The rest will follow.’
