Friday, March 9, 2012

Ki Tisa: Contagious Holiness

Exodus 30: 27-29
....the table and all its implements, the menorah and its implements, the altar of incense, the altar of the burnt offering and all its implements, the washstand and its base. And you shall sanctify them so that they become a holy of holies; whatever touches them shall become holy.

What are the table, the menorah, the altar, the washstand? They are the body, the intellect, the self-identity, the capacity for attention.
What are the implements? They are the senses, the intentions of will, and bodily actions.
How do we sanctify all of these parts and processes that make up a person? By paying careful, curious attention to each moment of experience.

As we become absorbed into rapt attention to the exact moment of now, something wondrous happens. The whole “now” is experienced as complete, as holy. There is no need to push any part of the “now” away or to yearn for anything more to happen. Each moment is wonder-filled just as it is.  This is entering into the holy of holies.

Then something more happens: any new sensation that touches our experience is itself absorbed into the now.  The next sensation, and the next, and the next is allowed to flow across consciousness without resistance. Each experience is seen as part of the whole. There is no need to push away or to cling to sensation or thought. Thus, the contact of sensation becomes a holy connection to the wondrous “is” of right now.

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