Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 206
“Events and the sense of surprise are not only inherent in the quintessence of reality and authentic consciousness, they are the points from which misunderstanding of human existence proceed. (Who is Man pg. 115)
Quintessence is defined as “the intrinsic and central characteristic of something” and comes from the Latin meaning “fifth essence”. Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that events and surprises are “sticking to” what is the central characteristic of “reality and authentic consciousness” and so many people are unaware of this truth, bastardize this truth and use this truth to enhance their own personal power, wealth, while contributing to the ruin of another(s).
We have lost this sense of daily surprise and of the daily events that occur in our lives. Sometimes we are just too tired and too overwhelmed with our problems, sometimes we are taught to ‘stay in your lane and accept your lot in life’, sometimes we are lied to that we are “miserable in this life to be happy in the next” as a control mechanism. Whatever the reason, we are missing out on an essential element of reality, we are missing out on an intrinsic necessity towards living a more authentic consciousness.
Every day is an event and a surprise whether we are aware of this truth, whether we recognize this truth or not. I woke up this morning and this is a miracle, whether you want to call it a miracle of science, dumb luck, ‘not my time yet’, etc-to me it is an event, I am surprised when I wake up in the morning because there was no guarantee I would. Yet, most people, even if they recite a prayer upon awakening do so routinely. We have come to regard our daily living as mundane and routine and in doing so we are in grave danger of losing what is an essential element of our humanity-surprise and awareness of the events.
We are in a terrible situation as human beings, we seek and crave certainty, we always want to know what is going to happen and what’s next, we want to see the end result before we take the first step. Yet, we also know being surprised and making each experience a unique event is the central characteristic of being human. We are always in the tug of war between what our minds want and what our souls know. This is another quintessential event in the life of every human being. We get afraid to have the experiences of surprise and event unless it is one that we decide we want-how many people really enjoy ‘SURPRISE’ birthday parties? We want the surety and the safety of our routine because we never have to move beyond our ‘comfort zone’.
Yet, going to sleep is uncertain, waking up is uncertain, death and birth are uncertain, etc what is certain is that we can have an authentic experience and engage in authentic consciousness whenever we are willing to see the events and surprises in our lives. We are taught to say blessings for everything; earthquakes and rainbows, birth and death, wins and losses, to make these daily occurrences special, make them events and mark these surprises so we can remember what is truly real, what is truly important and what is truly happening. Doing this helps relieve ourselves of the false stories we tell ourselves and is a wonderful coat of armor against the bows and arrows and gunshots of the liars who want us to follow them and their lies, serve the lower interests of self and them as well as enslave ourselves to boredom and dullness. We are alive, we have the capability of awareness and the strength to be authentically our unique self. We no longer need someone to ‘rain on our parade’, we are able to experience our daily lives with awe, reverence, joy, etc as well as being surprised and celebrating the events, big and small, that occur each and every day.
In recovery, we learn about what is intrinsic to reality and stop trying to make what we see, think, feel, etc our reality and the reality for everyone. We learn to give gratitude for what we have, who we are and what we can give. We learn to be surprised and joyful at each and every occurrence in our life rather than bitching and meaning all the time. We pray for guidance, wisdom, acceptance for our selves and for all selves.
I have struggled with this intrinsic and central characteristic of being human at times in my life. From 1966-1987, I couldn’t find authentic consciousness nor be connected to reality, I was only connected to my pain and my trauma. Rather than seeing the death of my father as an event, I experienced it as the end of hope for myself. I no longer cared about the dreams and aspirations we had talked about, I was angry, fearful, sad, bereft and vulnerable to the lies I told myself. Events, surprises, experiencing reality for what it is, not what I want to make it, and having more moments of authentic consciousness are the hallmarks of my life since 1987. I am more aware of all these things and have a heightened sense of when I check out. My daily work is to be present more often, check out less and pay attention to the important things in my life; family, friends, ideas, new possibilities, service, teaching, and, of course, golf:) God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark