The following invocation is an expression of the importance love and gratitude. We chant this at the beginning of our Mindfulness In Healing meditation group on Wednesday evenings:
This life is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky, and many generations.
May be live in mindfulness in order to enjoy the wonders of life and awaken from our illusion of separateness.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” When we support this illusion, there will be hate and separation. When we awaken from our separateness, we will begin to love ourselves and other sentient beings, unconditionally.
This statement became much more significant to me in recent months because of three events: kidney failure caused by cancer in my bladder blocking the ureters in March, a visit with ThetaHealingKim (Kimberly Hanson-Romo) and Anita Moorjani’s book, Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing. The common theme of all these experiences reflect the importance of love in my life and probably yours. It was the love of my wife, family, friends and medical professionals that helped me recover from kidney disease. It was Theta Healing that taught me more about unconditional love. And it was Anita Moorjani who inspired me in her Ted Talk in the Bay Area with these words:
I learned the most important thing we have here to focus our awareness on is love. That is number one and when I say love it’s very easy to say or for us to say we need to love other people. But one of the things I learned is that one of the reasons I got cancer is because I didn’t love myself! That’s hugely important! When we love ourselves, we value ourselves. When we value ourselves, we teach people how to treat us. When you love yourself, you find no need to control or bully other people, nor do you allow other people to control or bully you. So loving yourself is as important as loving everybody else and the more you love yourself the more love you have to give other people.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is dealing with cancer or anyone who knows someone dealing with cancer. Her message is a paradigm shift from “fighting the war on cancer,” which instills fear in to the hearts of cancer patients and their families, to relaxing and enjoying your food and your life. Remember, “Love is letting go of fear!”
