Being in the World but Not of It by Rev. Lane Williams
We truly live in interesting times, which is a curse perhaps, but also can be the opportunity to use our spiritual teachings to bring forth peace in the midst of chaos, harmony in the presence of discord, and love and forgiveness in the midst of war and disaster. In what is now the greatest environmental disaster that the US has experienced, the oil leak in our Gulf Coast, people are angry, sad, and frustrated that no one is DOING anything to get it fixed. I too have searched for what I can do to help out – to serve and contribute and lend a hand in a situation that has even the greatest minds scratching their heads for a solution.
Since my life is centered on the Sufi ideal of being in the world, but not of it, I want to bring more of my spiritual nature and understanding to bear on these challenges of being a human today. What consciousness can we bring to this dilemma? I know that as we open our minds and trust, the perfect solution will come forth. Focused prayer and intentional thoughts of love, forgiveness and gratitude directed toward the Gulf and all the living beings involved in this crisis, can create the shift in awareness, creating a positive force for good. I affirm that ultimately this disaster will bring blessings to us as a species. Perhaps this will be the perfect event that will have us change the direction of our lives. We can use this as an opening to look with fresh eyes at what our values are and how to walk gently on our planet.
There is a Hawaiian therapist, Dr. Len, who healed mentally ill patients through a method called Ho’oponopono. He used only the power of prayer, his deep spiritual consciousness, and although he never even met with or treated them in person, they were healed. He explained that as he reviewed their files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal. “I was simply healing the part of me that created them.” As I hear of this process, I can imagine that when he looked at the file of someone who had killed their parent, he looked at that part of himself that had at a time in his life, a time of anger and frustration, had wanted to kill his parent, and maybe even imagined it. He did his personal work in healing himself.
Dr. Len explained that when you take total responsibility for your life it means that everything in your life – simply because it is in your life – is your responsibility. In a literal sense, the entire world is your creation. If you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. (Be careful here to know that responsibility is not about blame. Don’t hear it like that…)
Ho’oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone or anything, you do it by healing yourself. When Dr. Len was asked what he was doing exactly, when he looked at those patients’ files, he said, “I just kept saying ‘I’m sorry’ ‘Please forgive me’ ‘I love you’ and ‘Thank you’ over and over again.”
In Romans, Paul writes to his congregations: “And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” A more modern translation is: Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect. So that is the opening for us now. Shall we change our thinking, our values and way we live our lives? That is the challenge and the opportunity of these interesting times we live in.
