God is the
interaction of all things.
God can be seen if looked for in the way all we see is
connected. One doesn’t need to “Believe in” an old guy with a long white beard,
or “Have Religion” to see and understand this. Even an Atheist or Agnostic can
use this wisdom in a very practical manner to appreciate the oneness of all
things.
A friend of mine from the 1960s, who later became a Monk,
once told me that he had “Seen the Face of God”. (We had had some experiences
in the 60s which provided much common ground for such discussions). I remember
telling him that, while I had not seen his face, I saw the Hand of God in
everything I looked at, and in the way all things seemed to work together for
the evolution of compassion (Love) and consciousness. My experience with Native
American spiritual concepts and practices seems a natural outgrowth of this, as
does the T’ai Chi concept of movement from the center.
Real prayer is manifested by what we do, and spoken prayers
can be pale reflections of those experienced as actions which are based upon
the premise of the interconnectedness, or oneness, of all. Other words for
this, such as love, compassion, service, harmony, all express the conscious
work of manifesting the working together of all the parts as part of the same
whole.
The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, known as the Day of
Atonement, can be viewed as the “Day of at-one-ment”. It is said that on the
New Year, God opens the Book of Life, and 8 days later he writes who shall live
and who shall die, who shall have good health and who bad, who shall prosper
and who shall suffer misfortune, and, on Yom Kippur, He (She) closes the book
for another year. Actually, I think perhaps the process can take place in every
moment. It is why we are here. ("She" above added at my wife's suggestion. Thanks, dear).
Again, this doesn’t have to be about religion, or require
faith. It can be derived from simple observation of all that is around us, the
inter-connectedness of all things, which brings Peace.
The Hebrew word for peace is:
Shalom
(I realize that this is not a typical T’ai Chi discourse,
but feel that I would be negligent in not expressing this insight into the “Big
picture”, and how, in a very practical way, it can facilitate the “Work” of
T’ai Chi on a larger scale.)
Heredity: If your parents didn’t have any children, chances
are that you won’t either.”
