Omer Day 1 - home in the low places
Today is the first day of the Counting of the Omer - a time when many Jews note each day between the Second Day of Passover and the next major holiday, Shavuot, or “weeks”. Each of the seven weeks and each of the seven days of the week correspond to a particular “sefirah” or “sphere” or perhaps better, a divine emanation. These themes allow us to reflect on the days as we move from liberation to revelation in the Jewish calendar.
Today is the day of loving-kindness in the week of loving-kindness, so I will look at this idea in myself and in the world around me.
In combination with the Taoist text below, I thought of a line from Psalm 23 that has accompanied me through moments of difficulty, verse 4:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Maybe the low places, “the valley of the shadow of death” in the Psalm, the “ravine of the world” and the “valley of the world” in the Lao Tzu below, are not places to emerge from but places to work in.
I don’t need to leave the low place, I need to notice that the low place is a source of good things. I don’t need to run away, I need to find the companionship of meaning and mystery that dwells most deeply in the low places.
And for the Counting of the Omer, I need to be guided by compassion for both myself, my situation, and for everyone else.
Wishing all of you meaningful counting, a Happy Passover, a celebratory Holi, and a good week.
Before and after meditating today I read this:
[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), page 154, slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]
28.
One who knows the male (active force) and helps to the female (the receptive element)
Becomes the ravine of the world.
Being the ravine of the world,
They will never depart from eternal virtue,
But return to the state of infancy.
One who knows the white (glory) and yet keeps to the black (humility),
Becomes the model for the world.
Being the model for the world,
They will never deviate from eternal virtue,
But return to the state of the Ultimate of Non-being.
One who knows glory but keeps to humility,
Becomes the valley of the world,
They will be proficient in eternal virtue,
And return to the state of simplicity (uncarved wood).
When the uncarved wood is broken up, it is turned into concrete things (as Tao is transformed into the myriad things).
But when the sage uses it, they become the leading official.
Therefore the great ruler does not cut up.
Loneliness and Meaning
Shavua Tov. Wishing everyone a good and healthy week.
Here are my thoughts today - the meditation text is below.
The loneliness in this passage speaks of both abandoning and being abandoned, and finding meaning in difficulty. It feels a lot like Psalm 23:4:
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me”.
The authors of both the Psalm and the Tao feel abandoned in that place of loneliness and still they feel connected with the most profound ideas of meaning. So this passage in the Tao concludes:
“I alone differ from others,
And value drawing sustenance from Tao.”
I too have felt that loneliness and often find comfort in the Psalms. Even alone, we are not alone.
Another thought: “Abandon learning…” seems to be difficult for anyone who spends any part of our lives trying to expand our minds.
This connects to Martin Buber’s I and Thou - Buber advises against the accumulation of experiences. The idea that we can gather things and tick them off a list from which we would derive meaning, in Buber’s writings, leads to diminish our very nature. Meaning arises from encounters and learning and we must figure out how to continue to be open to growth and not constrained by what we’ve experienced or learned before.
Before meditating today I read this:
[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), pages 149-150, slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]
20.
Abandon learning and there will be no sorrow.
How much difference is there between “Yes, sir,” and “Of course not”?
How much difference is there between “good” and “evil”?
What people dread, do not fail to dread.
But, alas, how confused, and the end is not yet.
The multitude are merry, as though feasting on a day of sacrifice,
Or like ascending a tower at springtime.
I alone am inert, showing no sign of desires,
Like an infant that has not yet smiled.
Wearied, indeed, I seem to be without a home.
The multitude all possess more than enough,
I alone seem to have lost all.
Mine is indeed the mind of an ignorant person,
Indiscriminate and dull!
Common folks are indeed brilliant;
I alone seem to be in the dark.
Common folks see differences that are clear-cut;
I alone make no distinctions.
I seem drifting as the sea;
Like the wind blowing about, seemingly without destination.
The multitude all have a purpose;
I alone seem to be stubborn and rustic.
I alone differ from others,
And value drawing sustenance from Tao.