I was born and raised in the Jewish religion. Being an Air Force family, (my father was a Master Sergeant), we moved every few years, each time my Dad was transferred to a new location with each new tour of duty. We were often the only, or one of just a few Jewish families for many miles.
We were raised in the Jewish religion but mostly weren’t exposed to the culture or community.
From 1960 through 1963, when we lived in Hawaii, in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah, I went to a civilian Reform Jewish Synagogue for Sunday School in the Nuuanu Valley, near Honolulu.
I learned Hebrew and was Bar Mitzvahed at the base Synagogue where we often attended Sabbath and Holiday services. Judaism is loosely divided into Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox traditions, and the community in the military was conservative. My Bar Mitzvah was in English and Hebrew.
It was a good way to grow into Adulthood.
My Mom always taught us that “Religion is in your Heart.”
In college I read extensively and enjoyed a passion for Native American, Buddhist, Sufi, Daoist (Chinese), Zen, and Christian teachings, traditions and stories.
I also studied the teachings of Gurdjieff, Agni Yoga, and other esoteric traditions.
I always sought to find that Religion that came from my Heart.
In the 1970’s, I joined a Buddhist group and was a student of Chogyam Trungpa, a Tulku and Tibetan Buddhist Teacher.
My friends had moved away to various parts of the country and that was my community until my marriage to a gal in my T’ai Chi classes that was not a Buddhist.
As I drifted away from my Buddhist studies, T’ai Chi became my Meditation.
When that marriage ended the 1990’s, I found that my healing included a monthly Sweat Lodge Ceremony led by Barrett Eagle-Bear, a Pipe Carrier of the Lakota Nation.
I found Community with an eclectic group of Spiritual people and re-connected with the Native American Traditions I had found in the 1980’s during my time with Grey Antelope (John Cisneros), a Pueblo Indian who had felt called upon to start performing Ceremony after the death of his son in a car accident.
He accepted those of us from different races and traditions that also felt the call. This was in and around Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico.
The Wheel
I have found these and other Teachings to be like the spokes of a wheel.
Around the outside edge of the wheel, these Teachings all may seem to be different.
But at their Heart, as we approach the center, they become more and more the same, teaching of Compassion, Love, and the Oneness of All.
T’ai Chi
T’ai Chi, that I have studied since 1976, beginning with the Chows, begins with the physical body.
It has, for me, become an analogy of this process of connecting all of the various body parts to work together, and by which the Whole may become more than the mere sum of it’s parts.
This happens not just within our bodies, but extends beyond to connect us all as a part of a larger organism that continues out, from Humanity and beyond, to possibly include the connectedness of the entire Universe.
By means of this Path, we may become a part of all that we see.
Perhaps it may connect us with all that we can conceive within our Minds!
As we may connect with this through our actions, we may possibly even connect with the immense energies available to the larger organism.
The Garuda that protects this process is that it requires a Cosmic Perspective to access.
The personal, us/them perspective that we usually view the universe from cuts us off from acting from the “Oneness of all“ condition that might allow for so called Miracles.
In the Arthurian Legend, (T H White, The Once and Future King), Sir Galahad says, “My strength is as the strength of ten, because my Heart is pure”.
Wishing to All a Wonderful Year Ahead!
Daniel
