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This morning I am encouraging you to Wake Up! It's August, the solar mid point of summer is August 7, on Thursday. The rhythm of summer as a season though, is often condensed by Labor Day or school schedules that initiate our awareness of Fall. I begin with this to remind us that our cultural reframing of the seasons can be a subtle disruption of the natural rhythms of Life. And that in turn impacts our awareness with a conflict between our ideas and concepts, and the way our bodies developed in response and rhythm with the natural world. One theme to consider today is "wake-up to the mid-point of summer." Yet, that too is complex; climate shifts are also creating change, in what is now called "season fragmentation", adding another piece of change to awaken to and absorb. Admittedly, the title "Wake Up", actually came to me as a need to break the spell of the political pressure of these times--the unrelenting news flashes of policies, court rulings, outrage, fear, sadness, pain, helplessness and loss--and recover a larger sense of life. Wake UP! Wake up to Nature, to healing, and to new ideas and new understanding, new and renewed goals, creativity, discovery. Wake Up as a living, spiritual being, contributing to this unfolding, wondrous life. Wake up the Good.
Waking has a range of definitions in our current culture. We can talk about Waking Up from physical sleep, the sleep/wake cycle. We can talk about being awake and alert and recognize we go through midmorning or mid-afternoon slumps, We have various factors in that--tea or coffee, food, our ability to move around, health regimens, cortisol levels...there is a rhythm of alertness, and sensory awareness. Be aware of yours. Waking up can apply to deepening awareness of physical reality and the natural world. It can also apply to society, including the idea of being "Woke". Waking up also refers to experiencing something that supersedes physical, mental-emotional, and societal self-awareness to spiritual awareness. Spiritual awareness is a recognition of a connection to that beyond this physical, defined planet, felt in various ways as something transcendent, intangible-and often, a sacred source. Awakening can bring a sense of personal or collective potential to grow into more than what we seem to be, or recognition that we are already far more than we realize. Various philosophers offer humankind's creative principle, with a vision of latent human potential that has yet to express, or is currently coming into expression, that we can nurture and expand.
Spiritual awakening in Christianity is a profound shift in one's awareness of transformation in relationship to God and the mission of Christ. I love the description of 20th century Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel used in the description of awakening in Judaism as "radical amazement". Heschel noted that as "civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines". We can consider our sense of wonder and amazement with the "advancements" and struggles of the 21st century. In Islam, awakening is a path of inner transformation and deepening of a personal connection and devotion to Allah. Ancient Hindu Upanishads' texts instruct us of 4 states: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turiya. "Waking Up", in essence, applies to all of those divisions. We commonly understand waking up from a dream or from deep-sleep, but here, spiritual awakening implies also waking up from our usual state of waking. Actually, waking and dreaming are like 2 poles of the same activity: waking is perceiving the external world, dreaming is perceiving the internal world, and dreamless sleep is closest to pure consciousness, i.e., without awareness or sensory perception--no thought, no ego or individuality. We know Turiya, the 4th state, is bliss. Turiya is the Self. Turiya is ultimate Reality. May this week bring some new awakening. (Susan Nettleton)
https://sacredpoetryproject.com/to-learn-the-scriptures-is-easy/ https://mywordinyourear.com/2019/02/07/why-i-wake-early-mary-oliver-a-tribute/ https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/InnerWakeful/