REFLECTION: ‘You are amazing. I know it’s rude to stare, but it’s hard to tear myself away. Namaste* (I see the light in you!) You are full of light. This practice of bringing peace is about seeing the wonder in another person. It’s about recognizing their extraordinary being, and sensing that this is so mysterious and so good and so potentially peaceful that we might even say that it’s about coming to recognize the divine nature of every human being that we meet. [*Namaste – a greeting from the Indian subcontinent meaning something like ‘I reverence you’]…
PRACTICE: ‘One way into the practice of Namaste (I see the light in you!) is to nurture an awareness of how you are seeing others. Try to catch yourself whenever you are making an assumption about someone, and therefore potentially when you are judging them (another of Jesus’s teachings focusses specifically on the damage caused by judging others). This can be alarming. You’ll soon realize how frequently you are looking for the small darknesses in others, not seeing their greater light. But with persistence and practice you will find that by catching yourself you can stop that judging process, and exchange it for a seeing-with-mercy, embodying the love that is already moving towards the other…’
©Ian Adams 2013 ‘Running Over Rocks: spiritual practices to transform tough times’ (Canterbury Press)
Look out for short daily posts around the week’s theme on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll be doing the practices wherever we are, and we’ll look forward to hearing how you get on – do let us know!
Unfurling: poems
Ian’s new collection of poems Unfurling is out now on Canterbury Press, also via your local bookshop, and all usual online sources including Book Depository with free delivery world-wide.