Last Wednesday night as I was driving home, I noticed the neighborhood streets were unusually lined with parked cars, and several people making their way to the nearby Catholic church in the early dark. I suddenly realized it was the first day of Lent! Last Sunday, I mentioned the collective power of Ramadan. Lent is a Christian practice of fasting and prayer in spiritual preparation for Easter Sunday. Even though religious doctrines may not ever recognize them as such, Ramadan and Lent have a complementary energy; within each are their own denominational variations of practice--fasting and/or abstinence, prayer and devotion. They are not the same, but there is a power in the depth of each that re-orients human focus to the spiritual. This year, they overlap.
I am writing from the point of view of individual spirituality, your unique path as a one-of-a-kind expression of spirituality. Even if you are deeply connected and devoted to a specific religion, with a specific doctrine, belief system and practice, you remain a unique creation. Your understanding and expression ultimately arises from your personal unity with God, with Life. Those who share in your spiritual life, add support. Ultimately, we share this world, this planet, and a collective construct--usually unconscious--of what life is, as well as an understanding that there is more that we do not, cannot, understand. So in my way of seeing, the reverence and love expressed in Ramadan and the reverence and love expressed in Lent and the Easter story are available to us all. That availability is not limited to Christianity and Islam, it extends to Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Indigenous understanding as well. It may seem too muddled and confusing, but that is because we hold ideas of separation. Yes, we are each unique, and from that uniqueness, combined with primal connectedness, Life is woven.
If your are outside a committed spiritual practice of Ramadan or Lent, consider this week (or month) a practice of your own form of fasting and prayer. We all develop habits or activities that in spite of our insight, weigh us down, or undermine our self-care. One possibility that Hillside has promoted over the years is "fasting from worry"! It may seem impossible, given the current political atmosphere of erratic shifts, mandates, and policies that fly by us daily, but replacing worry with a meditation break and a calmer, clearer mind, brings the necessary insight of what is real, what is meant to de-stabilize, and what is the wise path to take. Worry is not a solution. Or fast from self judgement and self blame, or fast from procrastination, or from mindlessly scrolling your phone. What activity weighs you down? Consider with your fast, Lao Tzu below. (Susan Nettleton)
“Do you have the patience to wait Till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving Till the right action arises by itself?” More: https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/3/24/fasting-from-worry https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/20/finding-peace-of-mind https://sacredpoetryproject.com/fasting/