New Heaven New Earth
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” (Isaiah 65:17)
The Heart Nebula
ONE WAY OF PUTTING the “former” to rest is to give our rapt attention to the present and to what’s coming down the pipe, so to speak, in the way of a new heaven, while giving all our energy to co-creating a new earth—a world “a rejoicing, and her people a joy.”
I see and hear evidence of a new heaven — a new consciousness — manifesting in and through various ones who speak on behalf of us all in the media and elsewhere. In his Solstice consideration just recently, John Gray, a long-time friend and spiritual guide in Lake Elsinore, California, opened with words I feel are timely . . . and welcome as tone setters for the New Year:
As calendar years draw to a close it’s usual to look back and assess the year that was. AJ Willingham, a writer for CNN, posted yesterday, “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that kindness and compassion have never been more important. It’s taught us that difficult times are made easier when we work together, when we take care of each other; when we reach out a hand to those struggling and lift up the heroes that protect us. It’s taught us that the best way through the darkness is to look for the light—and if there is none, to make it ourselves.” When the Washington Post asked readers recently to describe their experience of 2020 in one word or short phrase, they reported receiving over two thousand replies very quickly. The most common one-worders submitted were “exhausting,” “relentless,” “lost,” “chaotic,” and “surreal.” Those are understandable descriptives. But they aren’t words that I’d choose. How about you? The adjectives for 2020 that come to my mind are “attention-getting,” “opportune,” “progressive,” “confirming,” “rut-breaking,” and “uplifting.” Our experienced personal identities determine how we see things, of course.
John Gray’s presentation was subsequently entitled “Compassion.” In this regard he offered words of comfort during these times of grief as an aggressive virus sweeps across the globe taking a toll on human lives and social customs:
I looked up some statistics online an hour ago: About 1.7 million people worldwide are reported to have died of Covid-19 infection complications so far this year, with almost 320,000 of those fatalities in the United States—335,000 if we add Canada. I read that right now the Covid-19 daily mortality rate in America exceeds the number of people dying each day of heart disease and cancer combined. Globally in 2020, an estimated 60 million people died from all causes and about 150 million babies were born. That’s a lot of comings and goings, for sure, but as a proportion of the estimated total human population of 7.85 billion the increase was about 1%. These are just statistics of course, and statistics can be impersonal, even numbing. Let’s draw the matter in from the realm of numbers and closer to home: How many people died this year who you personally knew? How many children were born to people you know? I bet none of us would answer zero to either question; we all know of some departures and arrivals. For the most part, this is all seen as a normal part of human life experience. The coronavirus pandemic introduced a new element into the usual human view of life and death, however. We expect—and are maybe a little numbed to—people dying of heart problems and cancer, for examples, but this has added something different
It’s human nature to grieve about death and loss. And there’s a lot of grief in the world. This may be especially felt by an individual when it is their loved one who died. The deep substantial connection known in life shifts with death of the physical body. Resisting this process produces a painful experience to the griever. I think grief may be second only to shame as the most painful emotion human beings feel. We feel grief when our heads and our hearts—facts and feelings—pull in opposite directions. A person may feel, “Maybe such-and-such is a fact, but I don’t want it to be and I don’t like it!” It’s this internal division that produces pain. We can understand a toddler’s tantrum, grieving loudly over being told “no,” but it becomes an irrational and irresponsible thing in a person who is chronologically adult. The pain of grief can feel so great that facts are not faced at all.
Grief is an invaluable way to internally deal with events like death, and it shouldn’t be run from. One of our roles as divine beings in human form is, as may at times be necessary, preside over a process of reconciling and realigning mind and heart in ourselves and in the world. I don’t think grief is something to get over. Its presence indicates, often sharply, the need for healing, for making whole. When the heart/mind divide is closed, grief is no more. Just a thin scar remains. Grief is not related to just bodily death, of course. This past year many people have mourned the demise of some comfortable norms of everyday social life. Some grieve the fact that they can’t get together with family and friends as in the past, or they are controlled by those feelings and do it anyway. How many grieve over the death of a rain forest, or of untold species of plants and animals? How many grieve the innumerable imbalanced conditions in the natural and manmade worlds, and the state of the planet itself.
Personal experiences of grief are connected to and are rooted in deeper collective experiences of grief in the whole body of mankind and of the planet. We are each, after all, inextricable parts of that whole and we share a deep subconscious past. Much of that remains unresolved, unhealed. This may help explain why feelings of grief may seem bottomless, as they sometimes do. We feel on behalf of the whole. Doing this is an aspect of our service.
Well, good grief! What’s needed to comport ourselves effectively and well in the midst of all this? Dealing with grief is just a small bit of what is ours to give and receive and bless in the world, of course, but when it’s to the fore, it can seem pretty big. Spiritual leaders have for centuries emphasized the need for compassion—compassion for oneself and for one’s fellows; to uplift the afflicted. Compassion is defined in dictionaries as “having care and concern for the suffering or misfortune of another, often including the desire to alleviate it.” Both Greek and Latin roots of the word have to do with feeling the suffering and having empathy for another’s plight—and, to me, suggests extending understanding and a helping hand.
There is a well-loved passage in the Old Testament of the Bible which describes these essences so well:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty unto the captives… to comfort all that mourn; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” [Isaiah 61:1-3]
Anyone looking for a resolution for the New Year—and the rest of this incarnation— could hardly do better than adopt these words! The proclamation I quoted, attributed to the prophet Isaiah, comes from the same spiritual symphony as the basic teachings of Buddha a couple of centuries later. Per Wikipedia, “According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive—it’s not empathy alone—but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness.”
Isaiah and Buddha were among enlightened ones who were forerunners to the coming of the one we call the LORD of Lords. What the Christ came to accomplish—minimally, the establishment of a nucleus collective body of spiritually conscious individuals—could not be accomplished the way it might have been had those close to him been more willing. In the New Testament portrayal of this, when this fact became evident, it is said, “Jesus wept.” [John 11:35]I can only imagine his profound sorrow. Not long after this point came his crucifixion. Notwithstanding that horrific event, his attitude toward everyone throughout this whole time was, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34] He demonstrated supreme compassion.
In his usual gentle and humble manner—as I have experienced his spirit over the years I’ve known him—John closed his consideration with these uplifting and encouraging words:
I confess that there have been times in my life when I’ve said, “Father forgive me, for I know not what I did.” Gradually I came to know with certainty that it is my anointed place—and it is each of ours—to extend the same qualities of forgiveness and compassion to all and to everything. Let us hold the world this way. It so needs us.
THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS
As a way of holding the new world being born, and of closing 2020 and opening a New Year, I offer this Aramaic Prayer of Jesus as an invocation of the spirit of love, and as a carrier wave for an intention for peace and harmony throughout our world at the beginning of the year of our Lord 2021. Saying this prayer, or listening to it, one can send forth one’s intention into the Universe while being released from all ties to the past and freed up to move forward into a new cycle with a clean slate, so-to-speak.
Aramaic is a sound-based rather than meaning-based language. When spoken or chanted, the tone of the words themselves go forth to cymatically, if you will, shape and inspire new forms with life. It carries the spirit we send forth to accomplish absolutely that which we intend. Above all, it sends our words before us to clear the paths upon which we are about to embark of all the clutter of yesterday’s successes and failures. It literally makes our paths new.
The invocation itself creates sacred space for the Great Spirit of the Father and Mother God to enter and be with us as we initiate this new cycle in 2021.
Praying this particular Prayer of Jesus helps us to come in his name (shem in Aramaic), or vibration, which is the vibration of love itself. Love is, after all, the path of Truth we have chosen to walk in life. We hereby set our direction and receive the energy and provision we will need to travel and serve upon this path. I invite you to listen to this video recording and simply be with the Aramaic words as they flow through your mind and body.
(There’s music after the “Amen.” See the Aramaic words and translation below. There are other videos that follow this one with songs in Aramaic and Hebrew you may wish to view as well.)
The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’ arah
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.
Washboqlan khaubayn wakhtahayn
aykana daph khnan Shbwoqan I’khayyabayn.
Wela tahlan l’ nesyuna
Ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha,
wahayla, wateshbukhta. l’ ahlam almin. Ameyn.
ONE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
O Birther, Father-Mother of all creation,
Your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your “I Can” now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us to not forget our Source, yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every vision, power, and song, from gathering to gathering.
Amen: may our future actions grow from here!
May this prayer open up new pathways in your life during 2021 to bring your unique gift of love’s light to your world . . . and may you have a Happy and Blessed New Year!
Anthony
tpal70@gmail.com
Credits: For John Gray’s excerpts, gratitude to David Barns for his bog post at https://greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/
Healing Tones 