Tuesday, July 11, 2006

MEDITATION: "Looking for Work, Doing the Dance"

This morning’s spiritual reading was on the topic of “life”, and it led me to thinking about my youngest son’s situation as he searches for his first teaching job. Like most of us, I guess, I have often thought of life as being primarily a material enterprise – an ongoing struggle, actually, among zillions of material entities (including people) to see who gets the biggest slices of material success. Consequently, it’s easy to get caught up in thinking that Matt is merely one of countless separate, material creatures battling for a miniscule number of satisfying jobs. I'm afraid that’s how I’ve been thinking of it, mostly, including thinking of myself as another separate entity -- pushing, pulling, and engineering Matt toward success. Thankfully, my meditation this morning reminded me that life simply isn’t like that. Life – as Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, and many others have taught – does not in any way conform to our usual materialistic view of it. Life is not in things, but in thoughts. Life is not a struggle among myriad material forces, but rather a dance done by a single fluid, elegant, and eternal power. Matt, then, is not out on the front lines fighting with other candidates for a share of a material prize called “a teaching job”. He couldn’t be, because he’s not a separate material creature. Like all of us, my son is an integral part of the seamless spiritual universe, and as such, nothing can go wrong – not in his interview this morning, and not for the rest of eternity. The universe will continue to dance its lovely, mysterious dance, and Matt. like all of us, will have the great good fortune of being part of the festivity, whatever “job” he happens to land.

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