And the band plays on.

Day in and day out, we hear the cries of many bemoaning the facts of our existence. We act as if the one we are can be seen in the eyes of others. As if to say “our very humanness is not decided by ourselves but what others think of us.”

Thus, the brouhaha which all of us have witnessed and experienced when we discussed the recent economic meltdown.

It is interesting to note that some people did not suffer because of the meltdown but managed to increase their personal wealth. They were not caught up in the torrential screaming and howling prompted by the meltdown.

They were inner rather than outer directed. They listened to their own inner voices and honored them. They refused to be part of the chorus forever ready to castigate themselves and others.

It is true, there were culprits — people who were not prompted by codes of caring for others, codes that taught “no man is an island unto himself.” Our great spiritual teachers put aside the codes of the outside world and drew upon the code of the inner world, a code that said “we are all tied to one another, all of Nature is one, harm one bit of it and you harm the entire body.”

These teachers were not driven by the need to amass and possess, to claim for themselves that what belongs to all of us — the things above the ground, the things below the ground, the things in the skies and the things under the water.

It is the inner world that can boast of eternity. For the inner world is governed by eternal, never-ending Truth. The inner world has been with us ever since the human appeared on this Earth. It is the world that understands the human’s place in the panorama of existence.

It is built on the foundation of caring one for another, of being bound one to another — the “true meaning of love” — forever thinking of the possibilities that each one of us contains. It does not speak in terms of right and wrong but rather in terms of what can yet be, a possibility of hope.

Fear, despair, defeat is not its cup of tea. If the inner world would stage a “tea party,” it would be filled to overflowing with hope for the future. It would shun the artificial prescriptions so many of us indulge in when faced with life and its many challenges.

A great teacher once said, “the world has totally few righteous people and totally few evil people. Most of us walk the middle course trying to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The way of the inner life is sometimes challenged by the many moments of “what more must we endure.” Those doubts are overcome when we realize the eternity of the middle way. It is the middle way that links us to the source of all being. It is the middle way that contains the great code of DNA.

It is the middle way that says to us, “never fear, never tremble, just look ahead. Never say the road upon which you are embarked is the final road.”

Finality is not part of the middle-way vocabulary. The middle way realizes what began will forever continue. The middle way says to us in clear and vibrant tones, “today’s chaos has the seeds of tomorrow’s order.” The middle way says, “whatever has been destroyed will somehow reappear in another form.” There is no end, no beginning, just a continuation.

We, who have become involved in the meditation center in South Portland, know in that safe haven, middle way expresses itself.

As you can see, we again have chosen to live on the side of hope, of life and the future. No matter what we may face, it is only a steppingstone of what is yet to come. We refuse to say “finis” to anything in life. We are like the eternal farmer, forever planting seeds and watering them, awaiting the seasonal blooming of our plants.

We draw strength from all that lives, we draw hope from all that we believe and we find peace in knowing that life is so.

 

Rabbi Harry Sky is a resident of Falmouth. He can be reached at rabbi@maine.rr.com.