welcome, well come to this moment of eternity where we will continue going a little deeper into Peace Pilgrim’s 4 Relinquishments with tonight’s focus on her third surrender or softening…
“Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there for use. It’s all right to use them; that’s what they’re there for. But when they’ve outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.”
this third surrender of nonattachment is one i tend to through attention and intention continuously since our natural tendency of the mind is to cling to what we like and resist what we don’t like… there is another way, that of equanimity, the humble yet radical wisdom of simply letting it be, living in the eye of the storm, the center of the tao where we cultivate an inner quality of unshakability and care and engagement in each moment in a nonattached way, being in the world and not of the world accepting whatever is without judgment and from a space of receptive gratitude for the implicate order that is always for all our relatives and gifting us with just what we need on this mystery tour of life…
yes, what a mystery the great mystery is and such a place beyond words and such an experience of knowing/ not knowing as when back almost nine months ago, i was in that place of choiceless awareness of to be here or to be there and perfectly content with either way – ah… liberation…
let’s seal this space with the reciting of the poem for the fifteenth day of the forty days of cultivating peace = people emerging and cultivating equanimity….
“When the earth is in distress, it attunes itself with love and sends out a prayer.
The True One hears it, and with total ease is pleased to give Its strength and steadiness.
It sends a command to the Power of Rain, and the rain pours down in torrents.
The wealth of grain and corn grows thick.
A person cannot describe its value.
Oh Naanak, appreciate the Divine Identity.
You, Divine One, cause the life-giving food to be given to all the creatures.
Eating this, peace grows, and the cycle of pain comes no more.”