Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 305
“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)
Rising above our false pride and ego needs is a challenge to us all, climbing across the abyss of falseness, mendacity, deception, looking good, wealth, power, fame, is, difficult all the times and seemingly impossible at others. As Rebbe Nachman says, a narrow bridge and the foundational element is to not be paralyzed by fear. Yet, it is fear of truth, fear of climbing across this “narrow bridge” that causes many people to give up, to make sense of the non-sensical, to go along with the prejudice, hatred, fear, anger, etc that is inside of them because of their need to compare and compete.
Many years ago I discovered a difference between truth and honesty, my personal experience and my experience with many people had shown me that we all were mostly honest, even as thieves, because we spoke and acted as we were feeling and thinking in the moment, with the lies we tell our selves, wearing our blinders, believing our bias’ and having poor ‘vision’. Yet, we were sure about everything we were saying, just as so many people today are sure of what they are saying about the FBI, the government, etc all of which they call upon when they need it, the people protesting about the government staying out of their health care are many of the same people whom are on Medicare and Medicaid. They are not lying, however, they are being honest with all of the truth blockers I mentioned above. This is an important point to make, let’s not just write people off because they have different views than us, let’s not write people off because they have a different ethnicity, different skin color, different religion, etc. We have done this for millennia and it has only bred more hatred, more separation, more prejudice and spread a “cancer of the soul” as Rabbi Heschel defines prejudice. Having compassion and finding ways to speak with one another in a way that both can hear is essential if we are to heal the rift and climb across our small needs to walk on the bridge to wholeness, truth, harmony and the Promised Land.
As I said yesterday, God is truth and, to me, this means that truth is the whole picture. We cannot ever know the entire picture on our own, we get glimpses and there are prophets, like Rabbi Heschel and Rev. King, who speak truth to us because they have “been to the mountaintop” and been blessed by God/Higher Consciousness to have the vision of truth planted within all of us, brought out. So, how do we climb across our own pettiness and pride, envy and enmity? We do this in community, we do this by wanting to learn, wanting to be and acting like the student rather than the smartest person in the room. When we no longer need to prove our point, when we are open to what is happening and what we are learning, when we are able to communicate, argue for the sake of learning, when we seek God, when we act Godly, when we take the eye patches off and “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts”, we are able to walk on the narrow bridge in balance and in joy. We are able to climb across all of the differences and meet everyone we encounter with curiosity, kindness, openness, reverence, respect. We are then able to learn together, allow their honesty to penetrate our souls, our minds and come together to see more of the whole picture, to see more paths to move forward on and choose the ones that, together, make sense and help us explore more and dig for more truth.
In recovery, we are aware that the search for truth is like peeling the membranes of an onion, they are very thin and strong as are the lies and deceptions we have held onto. We have to, like a sailor scraping barnacles off of a boat bottom, have to peel one membrane at a time, carefully and with our full attention and intention to this endeavor. We are acutely aware of our propensity to lie to ourselves, to engage in self-deception so some of us begin each day with the lies we are telling ourselves and then let them go so we can seek truth this day. We ask for help in our prayers, meditations, meetings, and from those close to us. We are aware we cannot do it alone, we cannot live as if we are on an island anymore, we seek and crave connection, we walk on the narrow bridge with courage, strength and a lot of hope and humility.
I have found seeking and speaking both truth and honesty is a narrow bridge that seems to sway a lot over the abyss of mendacity, optics, popularity, etc. I do not have a corner on the truth, I know I seek it every day, I learn more of what truly is in this world and in the spiritual world beyond the physical one, I am overwhelmed with the beauty, awe and spirit I am able to imbue each and every day. I learn the truth of relationships a little more each and every day, I learn the real difference between covenantal ones and transactional ones and I learn more about my need to confuse these two at times. I am aware of the search for truth that I have been on for most of my life, interrupted by my experience of loneliness and being bereft of connection I gave in to the ‘dark side’ of self-deception and mendacity. I continue to “circumcise the foreskin of my heart” each day, I strive to “love mercy, do justly and walk in God’s ways” a little more and I am wearing a “new pair of glasses” so I can walk on the narrow bridge with joy, excitement and see what truly is. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark