June 21
Mt 10, 26-33
The great wisdom and spiritual traditions constantly invite us to live in trust. The reason, according to them, is none other than the full and benevolent nature of the Ground of reality. As if they were saying: “Trust, because you are in good hands”.
The opposite of trust is fear, which we humans, needy and vulnerable, know firsthand. “The day I was born—the philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote—my mother gave birth to twins: me and my fear”. Fear is the other side of need; it is understandable that it be our traveling companion.
The invitation that comes to us from wise people—like Jesus in the text we read today—consists in directing our gaze beyond the mere surface, to reach the Ground of reality. Our concrete form—person—, needy and fragile, is an expression and unfolding of a Ground—our identity—that is stable Fullness.
And it is not a matter of belief. It is something we can experience when, thanks to practice, we learn to silence the mind and, in that silence, remain in the Spaciousness of presence.
We discover then, firsthand, that very often fear is born of the mind which, by virtue of its past experiences—in the manner of trauma—, constantly keeps creating frightening scenarios. As a product of the mind—when it is not merely an intelligent alarm signal—, fear can be crossed and overcome—transcended—in the moment when we learn to observe thoughts and stop believing in them.
Enrique Martínez Lozano
(Weekly Bulletin)