The light is waning and we are traveling into the darkest season of the year. For millennia, the darkest season has been the perfect time to contemplate the hidden, the unseen…the mystery that permeates all things. It is the perfect time to contemplate the concept of Faith.
Faith is a word that raises the hackles on many people’s necks, very often because it can imply a blind adherence to some sort religious path. Faith in and of itself comes from the Latin root Fidere which means “to trust”. What do we put our trust in? Do we put our trust in those things we can quantify or qualify?…facts, statistics and the like? Or do we put our trust into subtler things like our intuition or gut, community or the power of friendship?
When we contemplate the seasons, we see an ancient pattern underlying the natural world. Just when the dark seems like it is taking over, the wheel turns and the light begins its slow ascent. I see faith like this. It is a trust (not based in the intellect) that there is an intelligence that is greater than the limited self that flows through all things. I read something beautiful …it says “Faith is like the fragrance of the heart’s knowing.” (Roger Housden). And the heart’s greatest knowing is the law of connection. The heart knows without need of proof that there is an invisible fabric woven through the entirety of the universe…that the universe is not random and that things are placed “in a special way”. We often discover or renew our faith in those darkest “nights of the soul” when most of our accustomed light sources drop away and we are challenged to the very root of our beings to persevere. It is in those moments that we throw up our hands and let go of what we think we know that the unseen rises to meet us, that a subtler and more powerful order reveals itself and guides us back to the light, a renewed and strengthened level of understanding and awareness.
This is the Voyage of Faith.
As we journey towards the winter solstice and through the darkest days of the year, let us explore and rekindle the inner light of Faith. May we put our trust in the wisdom of a compassionate universe and move bravely forward guided by the knowing of the heart.
Practice at home
Meditation for Trust
When you are shut down, the electromagnetic field around the heart can contract. This meditation helps to ground and elevate the heart. After some time, you can feel the heart filling into the aura and surrounding you with love.
1. Sit in an easy pose.
2. Lift the arms up over the head with the right palm over the left for males and the left palm over the right for females. Thumbs are touching. The palms are down and over the crown area with the elbows slightly bent.
3. Whisper Wahe Guru with the eyes slightly open and gazing at the upper lip.
4. Meditate for 11 minutes.
F Train to 2nd Ave.