A Night Light Goes Off
November 9, 2006
I was blessed Monday night with a shine on the definition of Source from Sensei. In many studies with Sensei he says that everyone has a piece of the Source in them – that is what animates us. Conventional religion also says this (at least the denomination I grew up in) – God is in everything. Intellectually, this concept is easy to accept. It is easy to see that when the Source leaves us, our bodies die and start decaying right away – returning to their source – the Earth.
Over at http://eternalawareness.wordpress.com/ there has been several great lessons on The Art of Giving. The principles of giving – Respect, Appreciation, Gratitude and Value – include returning part of the appreciated value to the source. (see this post for more information on the Art of Giving http://eternalawareness.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/giving-back-to-the-source/)
The light bulb that went off for me is finally realizing (vs intellectualizing) that when Sensei says return a portion to the Source, he is talking about returning it to the spark within whoever you are engaged with – not necessarily returning it upstream. That is where I was falling down with it. I thought it had to go upstream and kept trying to return the value to my teacher…because he is the source of my learning.
Hopefully here is an example. Lets make it adversarial because it is easier to make the point. You are engaged in a conversation about work and you and the person you are talking with have very different opinions. The conversation is starting to get a little heated. It is at the point of really escalating. The challenge is to find the value in the other person, some value. Recognize it and acknowledge it (respect), appreciate it by adding value. Well, how do you do that? Take their idea and expound on it – open it up so that value can be added, maybe by someone else. But you opening it up is adding value. Showing gratitude is returning it to the Source. What Source? The Source within that person you were just arguing with. They had a nugget of good value in the argument that you saw, you seized upon it and made it more valuable. Now you make sure that person knows that it was their idea that started it. It isn’t stroking ego, it is returning value to the Source.
Entry Filed under: Source. .
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hhpete22 | July 27, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Aha! I just discovered your new blog spot. I wanted to thank you for this comment about giving back to source. It’s helped me see it more clearly. I too was trying to always work upstream and without much clarity on this. I can really identify with your example and now should be able to recognize the opportunity for giving in this way when it shows up (which, of course, it is all the time doing). I was thinking today about the importance of giving credit to others instead of taking it for myself, and this ties right in to what was rolling around in my head. It is important to me to be able to return some of the value to my teacher, who is the source of so much of my learning, but other people, even those I’m having problems with, are constantly teaching me also if I’ll just pay attention.