Namaste

• Namaste

  
  

  My dogs have the great gift of namaste. The light in me sees the light in you is one way to think of namaste. It could be phrased, “the Christ in me sees the Christ in you” or “the Buddha in me see the Buddha in you” or “the divine mind in me sees the divine mind in you.” Namaste recognizes the equality of each person within the Divine. My dogs are great “seeing” dogs. Whenever I walk in the door my dogs greet with me namaste and there is something very fulfilling in having the light that is in me be recognized.

  
  

  Being seen has been an important element in my life the last couple of weeks and not just for me personally but I have witnessed the importance in other’s lives as well. I believe that in relationships there is an acute aspect of seeing. We want to be seen and validated for who we really are and not for what others perceive us to be. A friend of mine told me that she had heard this phrase: I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am. I am what I think you think I am. When we choose someone to love, underneath that choice is recognizing that the other person really sees who we are. In the movie “Shall We Dance” the character played by Susan Sarandon states that to know that our life matters and the other person in the relationship plays the part of acknowledging that the partner’s life matters. The partners really see each other.

  
  

  Michael Bernard Beckwith in the movie “Spiritual Liberation” greets visitors at the Agape Center during the service with the statement “We know who you really are.” How freeing! How liberating to have who you really are acknowledged and accepted. The light in me sees the light in you. It is, I believe, what we all want.

  
  

  I am blessed to have four little bearers of light in my life who see the light in me as I see the light in them. Two are my dogs and two are my grandchildren. The other day I was feeding my granddaughter her bottle and my grandson was sitting beside me. I looked down and smiled at this lovely little being that I held in my arms and she looked up at me and smiled so wide that she couldn’t suck on her bottle and then she started to laugh. She was laughing so hard it was a belly laugh and I started laughing. Then my grandson started laughing and we all sat on the couch laughing at the sheer joy of life. In that moment we experienced the divine. We saw each other for who we really are. In my grandson’s eyes, all I am is grandma. There are no perceptions, no roles as they will be defined later, no definitions by clothes, hair, physical body, etc. Just simply the sharing of love and being seen. There is something very pure and accepting in being looked at by a very small child who does not yet have “history.”

  
  

  It is the easiest and, I believe, the hardest thing we may be called to do on this earth; to see each other for who we really are. Marianne Williamson says in her book Return to Love “It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us...we are all meant to shine as children do.” Because it frightens us, it is hard to acknowledge it in others. But, I believe, that when love is reduced to the simplest terms it really is all about seeing; about seeing the light that is another. It is about validating it and making it important. It is about saying that who each of us is really matters. Not the perception but the reality.

  
  

  And what do I think the reality is? I have heard it phrased that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I have heard it explained as the divine matrix. I have heard it described as we are a bucket full of ocean. We are not the ocean but we are part of the ocean or a sunbeam from the sun but not the sun itself. We are a divine part of the Divine. I know that at the moments when we recognize that, then we “see” each other.

  
  

  Peek-a-boo. I see you.