It is the darkest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. It feels like winter now in Southern Oregon. It’s been raining down here in the valley, and there is snow on the mountains. Before long, it will be snowing down here as well. A thin skin of ice has formed on the pond, the trees are mostly bare, and there is that wonderful mulchy smell in the air from wet leaves on the ground. In a few weeks, the light will start to return, but right now, the days are short and often dark.
There is immense darkness in the world as well—so many beings are suffering in countless ways. And at the same time, there are astonishing acts of kindness and generosity going on worldwide. The light and the dark go together—they cannot be pulled apart. We cannot have one without the other. Some traditions even speak of a dark light or the dazzling darkness.
In the face of human cruelty, it’s easy to fall into hatred and rage, bitterness and despair, shame and blame. It’s easy to meet hate with hate, anger with anger, insult with insult, and to seek retribution and payback. We all know this habitual chain reaction from our own lives and from the world at large, this reaction rooted in fear, self-defense and the attempt to be in control. It’s not easy to break that chain. It requires a letting go, a surrendering, an opening of the heart, a dissolving of the thought-sense of separation, a relaxing of the instinctual protective contraction, a risk-taking, a leap into the unknown. We cannot say exactly how that happens.
It rarely, if ever, happens once-and-for-all or forever-after. It only happens NOW, and sometimes it doesn’t happen, because we are conditioned human beings, evolving from apes, still learning how to live with our complex brains and our capacities to get ourselves into troubles no other animal can. Opening in this way requires both the aspiration to leap and forgiveness for all the times when we (and others, and the world) fall short.
As I see it, this pathless path of waking up now is about finding the radiance and the love at the heart of this one bottomless moment. That doesn’t mean adopting some facile, feel good belief to buffer us from pain. It comes not from closing down and turning away, but from opening and including. It calls not for toughening, but for sensitivity, intimacy and openness of mind-body-heart. It is a direct, present moment, experiential realization, a making real, here and now of this bright light at the core of our being. It is about living from that light to the best of our ability—bringing love to those wounded places (inside and outside) where it is most needed.
I want to share two things with you. First, some writing by Pir Elias Amidon, a Sufi teacher who has been to Israel and Gaza and who met with a senior Hamas leader back in 2003. What Pir Elias shares in this writing is so different in spirit and wisdom from anything else I’ve read in these last two months about Israel and Gaza that I strongly encourage you to read it. And second, I want to share an excerpt from Dorothy Hunt’s December newsletter—Dorothy is a poet and a satsang teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti. And after all that, there will be a short housekeeping note from me and a few brief closing words.
A heart-opening contribution to understanding Israel-Palestine-Gaza:
As it turns out, the American Sufi teacher, Pir Elias Amidon, whose beautiful article on “The Mysticism of Music” I linked to in my previous Substack, has worked for many years in the fields of peace and environmental activism in the Middle East. He has spent time in both Israel and Palestine, as well as in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
What I want to share are three "Letters from the Road" that Pir Elias wrote from Israel/Palestine back in 2003. Two of them are on this page, titled “One Holy Land” (December 2023) and “Talking Nonviolence with Hamas” (Nov 2023). The third is the piece called “Jesus Wept” that he links to in the introduction to “One Holy Land.” In these three letters, Pir Elias describes the situation in Israel-Palestine, his meeting with a Hamas leader, and a vision for peace. Is it really an impossible dream?
In addition to being a Sufi, Pir Elias has studied with Zen and Dzogchen teachers, Native Americans, and Christian monks in Syria. He has written several books, and there are a few talks and interviews with him you can find on YouTube.
From Dorothy Hunt:
Sunlight, starlight, moonlight, candlelight: None of these can be seen without the Light of Awareness. Nothing is known without the light of awareness. Nothing exists outside of the light of awareness. It is a holy light, a light that dwells within each of us. In this light, the world appears. In this light the unborn is born; the timeless dances as time; the unmanifest becomes manifest. The light of our awake beingness is profound, luminous, and intimate with what is here. It is not something we created, yet because it is so near, so simple, so present, we often overlook its gift.
December is a month of celebrations: Bodhi day, (the day of the Buddha’s enlightenment); Hanukkah’s Festival of Lights; the Winter Solstice; Christmas, and Kwanzaa. But whether we Light nine candles, seven candles, a single candle, or candles on a Christmas tree, we are honoring the Source of light and love, the source of the harvest and the return of light in winter’s darkness. This light shines out of something deeper than what we call light, deeper than any thought. It shines out of a Mystery that is empty of self and empty of definition yet shows up as everything we think we know or can name. It is the source of what we imagine is a “you” or a “me,” beyond our ideas.
Amid holiday busyness or challenging emotions that may arise, let us stop often to remember our true nature…
May you be blessed to return again and again to what is most profound and beautiful in the Heart of Awareness—Love Itself. Let this love touch all that is unloved in yourself and in our world.
—Dorothy Hunt, from her December newsletter
Housekeeping:
My long-awaited, long-delayed new computer has finally arrived at the store, and on Monday, I will be taking in my old one for the data transfer. My old one has been having some serious problems, so there may be data repair work needed before the transfer. This could take a few days or more, during which I will be offline. So after Sunday, I won’t be seeing or responding to comments or emails for perhaps the rest of the coming week.
Closing words:
Writing and reading go together—it is a relational act. I’m deeply grateful for all of you who read my writing. It isn’t really mine, of course—like all writing, it comes from that dark light or infinite potential from which everything comes and to which it all returns. We are all waking up together as one whole being, and we all need one another. We all need love and encouragement and reminders about what really matters. We’re all doing the best we can and the only possible in each moment. We all contain the light and the dark.
This is true of you and me…it’s true of Hamas and Israel…it’s true of Putin and Zelensky…it’s true of Biden and Trump…it’s true of all beings. Love is what transforms, not hate. Love doesn’t mean agreement or passivity, but love acts in a very different way from fear and hate. We all know this. May we honor the light in each of us as we find our way together through the radiant darkness.
Love and blessings to all….
Yes, dear Joan,"we all need love and encouragement and reminders about what really matters" and to me you are a very precious spiritual friend and your writings often are a true refuge, a lantern in the sometimes very dark places my mind goes to.
Thank you Joan❤️
https://greendharmatreasury.org/2023/11/01/gaza-catastrophe/