A newborn doesn’t see itself as separate from its parents, and as we are leaving our bodies our caretakers don’t see themselves as separate from their beloved. Caring for others becomes as natural as attending to our own bodily needs. Our suffering is each others.
As my grandfather was passing away from cancer in February of 2012 I was on my way to lead a yoga trip in costa rica. It was a blizzard and I was rushing to him, because I was thinking that the two males left to do the job of caretaker were hardly qualified, being atheist and male. Two prejudices that were unknownst and hidden from me, until I reflect back. Could they lead him beyond the physical? Could they offer the emotional support and guidance as he passed through this body to something greater?
I rushed into the house and was instantly stopped and stilled by the amazing wall of energy I felt as I opened the door. The feeling was so intense it stopped me in my snowy tracks, and took my breath away. It seemed to speak to me…through me, as if to say, “Do not interrupt the majesty that is going on here.” Usually when we think of something that stops us, or is in our way, it appears to be an obstacle. Dense, tamasic, inertia, but this was a light force, and the source of power you feel when you walk into a cathedral. My two atheist, male relatives had created a sacred temple for my grandfather to walk beyond this plane.
The obstacle was only my ego, my belief that some of us are limited in the amount of love we can give. As I shed the ego from bumping into the element of truth, I was able to witness the beauty of everything.
Everyone has the capacity to love beyond the expectations we place upon them, or they place upon themselves. It simply takes one moment of remembering. It takes someone in front of us whom we can love and serve, and instantly our illusion of separateness falls away.
Practice this. Pick up an inanimate object with your left hand. Now give it to your right hand. Was there a giver and a receiver? Or is it still belonging to you?
It may appear that others are not on the path of love because they don’t measure up to our experiences, memories, expectations, or values; but as Nicola Tesla, the Serbian physicist states, “two parallel lines shall meet in infinity.”
In geometry the infinity line is added to the real plane completing the plane. Our service is that line.
As we serve one another we are serving the body of God. It may appear on the physical level that there is a giver and receiver..and there is… but who is not leaving here without the gift?
Infinity is the space between the inhale and the exhale, our likes and dislikes, our fears and attachment, our ideas of good and bad..
the perceived giver and receiver.
We are all just walking each other home, no different than your left hand that gives to your right. The two end points meet as one body in our actions of service to one another.
