Hello Everyone:
..Considering...learning...applying knowledge from our brothers and sisters...each other...humanity.
Rosh Hashanah began a week ago, last Sunday, September 25th at sundown. Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Blessed greetings, "L’Shanah Tovah!", wishing one another a good and sweet new year.
The past ten days are called the "The Ten Day of Awe", or the Ten Days of Repentance. It is a holy time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a loud blast and a sobering reminder that the time is near for the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is this Tuesday, October 4th and it begins at sundown. This sounding of the shofar is a call to teshuvah, which is the repentance and turning back to the Lord.
These ten days are ones of great introspection, heart-searching and self-examination.
The sound of the shofar for the Jewish people was, and still continues to be, a call to examine one’s life, to make amends with all those one may have wronged in the previous year, and to ask forgiveness for any vows one may have broken. Thus the primary theme of Rosh Hashanah is one of repentance leading us to atonement at Yom Kippur. The AT- ONE- MENT many seek.
There is a beautiful quote from the Tibetan that reminds me of the essence of these holy days:"Stand ready and watch the heart....It is not easy to love as do the Great Ones, with a pure love which requires nothing back; with an impersonal love that rejoices where there is a response, but looks not for it, and loves steadily, quietly, and deeply through all apparent divergences, knowing that when each has found his own way home, he will find that home to be the place of at-one-ment." - PT, page page 180
This year the Jewish festivals are in Libra.
In Libra means the Sun is receiving & distributing the Light of Libra. The sign of beauty, choice & of contemplation.
Libra is the sign of contemplation & the sign of making a momentous choice. In this process, beauty is revealed (eventually). Under the Libra Light, we contemplate choices, we make choices, and we are tested by our choices. We learn and experience life through our choices. We are constantly tested, till the right use of love is cultivated. When we develop love, then suffering over choice ends. Then...beauty is revealed. Librans understand this process.
We begin with our intention & prayer. Forgiveness upholds our connection with each other. We forgive ourselves and we forgive others. Eventually, maybe, at some point, we become grateful for those old grievances, a sense of gratitude can bloom. Then...we are transformed. This is true magic.
"This faculty of forgiveness is not a form of magnanimous forgetting or overlooking, neither is it a gesture of superiority whereby the slate is wiped clean. It is the very breath of life itself—the giving of all to all and for all."- ENA page 130
As the sun's light becomes dimmer and dimmer in the Northern Hemisphere and as we enter into the darkness & stillness of autumn and winter, may we be reminded to contemplate and forgive. Standing ready and watching the heart.
How do we watch the heart?
By ardently holding the intention. With this intention and in this stillness with(in) the heart, we listen. We learn the language of our hearts and we develop Right Choice.
In our contemplations & choices, may we be inspired to learn & develop a spirit of goodness, beauty and an understanding of each other.
See you on the other side.
Love,
Lauren