The Waiting World
Here is a translation of a detail of an old song:
there is the mark of the wind upon my fingertips
it is a mark of the winds
i feel the mark of the rain upon my open hand
it is a mark of the waiting world
This idea became like a bright sound inside my mind. Meditating on this idea has given me many ideas and insights. It is very subtle, the meaning.
we are all in the waiting world. we are waiting for you.
we are waiting for each other. we are waiting for the rain.
what i know is what I carry inside of me with these songs and ceremonies, with my relationship to my sacred objects. when it is my turn to speak I think of the waiting world. I think of life waiting for water, the earth waiting for the rain….the old man waiting with his hand outstretched.
i thought once to go to the southern gate of the pueblo of taos and waiting there one hour with my eyes closed and my hands open and outstretched. I was hoping someone would give me back what was stolen. Hundreds of cars drove by. I could feel their eyes and their questions. being the people of taos pueblo it was also easy to feel their outrage. When your hands are open you are never invisible.
when i talk with people about awakening inside the dream, i remember that the world is waiting for them. we have an old idea, that one day a young person will dream where the sacred that was hidden is buried and protected. when he or she has this dream, not only he or she, but you and we need to be awake as well. when I am with the people I see and eel the waiting world. this thought encourages me to do my best to be clear and create a ceremonial moment where something actually happens.
the waiting world is that part of the world that is listening. It is a little like Atlantis this Waiting World. It is filled with wonders and advancements but also it is sinking into a dark sea.
we wait together. we wait for the dream.
we wait for admission to where we have never been before
Waiting World is an action phrase. It is a kind of waiting that has power and interest and love to what is worthwhile. It is a force like the wind, like fire…..like water falling on your open hand. It is waiting with your heart beating, your dreams on fire, your hands open, and your life in motion in eight directions.
The old song talks about how the waiting world are the ones waiting for the ceremony. ceremonial work undertaken for these people. it is the final law of the old indians. it is the desire for and taking responsibility for doing these ceremonies. the law applies to the teacher and the student…. between the ceremony and the ones receiving the ceremony. it is food which stretches from the roots to the seeds of the sacred tree.
People have the right to know everything. Why do religions and schools and institutions insist only what they know is what can be known? Living in Italy I meet so many people who know nothing at all about the religions of the world, or about the ancient religions before the Church. They seem to know rather well what the Church wants them to know. Why is this? Why does the church only want you to know about the church? It makes no sense. People have the privilege and the power to know about many things. Knowing about the ancient religions and philosophies of ancient people is a good and valuable pursuit. It is ok to have knowledge of things outside your immediate culture, outside of your schools and families. Why not? Who can say what information is useful and what information is useless. This is a choice you can make or yourself. It is a choice you should make for yourself. The idea o the waiting world can also show us how we limit and deny ourselves. It shows how we allow the church and the sate and other people in general to make choices for us, when we should be making our own choices.
There is a Taoist concept which states that to know one thing very well, you should know the 10,000 things which surround it. To understand what the waiting world is you need only understand what you want and that you have the power, and perhaps the responsibility, to want to know more. This is what it means to have your hand open inside the mystery life.
An education about the world used to be nearly impossible for the average person. At this moment in time it is possible for every person to learn more and more. There is no limit to the fountains of knowledge which flow through our modern society. These are riches, not problems to be suppressed by authoritarian bosses.
In this idea of the waiting world you are not allowed, or at least not encouraged, to give up your privilege to know more.
Those people who make the ceremonies are not allowed, or at least not encouraged, to prevent you from knowing whatever you can know which will carry you, carry your life where it needs to go.
A good ceremony is really only a journey into yourself, into realizing your resources for finding yourself in this world. This is a matter more of personal science than religion. More about feeding the source of your soul than it is for protection of an institutionalized idea. It is a returning to the beginning. Return to the beginning of the birth of your mind and the motion of your life into society.
