The Earthworms of Synchronicity

Here's a little shot of my Green Tara painting spending some time at the sand mandala ceremony last week. She was honoured when Lama Tenzin Tsundun found her a spot right behind him.

I am still reading "Buddha Recognizes Buddha" by Daishin Morgan of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Several comments in the chapter on Faith popped out for me. How about this one? "... true faith is not the opposite of doubt, as faith does not exclude doubt. Rather it is the willingness to let doubt, along with every other thing in the universe, show itself fully. Faith does not oppose anything, since it springs from enlightenment itself."

Faith, trust, I use the words interchangeably and perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I am missing some subtlety in my generalist inclination to life. Just last week I was thinking about trust and how my inclination is to rush around and do things, make things happen. It is a deep seated tendency to think that things happen because I make them, but at a deeper level something in me knows this to be untrue. There is timing and flow and synchronicity and karma always working in the background while I'm out there with my hard hat and shovel, slogging away.

When I started thinking about trust I realized I needed lots of reminding that I am simply a small partner in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't mean I shouldn't act but it means I need to be more mindful of all the other factors at work. I need to keep my ear to the ground as the earthworms of synchronicity are always tunneling about. And out in the ether, mixed with sunset and thunderstorms, subtle messages about timing and just being ride the breezes. I need to remember to do more listening. I need to remember to stop clutching after what I think I need. I need to take off my hungry ghost mask, halloween isn't for a while yet. I need to sign up for a course in trust, the one offered by the squirrels and the trees and the little stream down the road.

And I can savour the sweet scent of truth when Morgan reminds us that faith (trust) has no opposite. It holds our doubt gently and lovingly as it holds all things.