Sun-Days – Who am I?

“Realize that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.” -Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s

This past Sunday marked the largest community dinner we have had the entire semester as the host, Jason, prepared cuisine from India, a culture that he holds dear in his heart.  The dinner was more than a nice gathering to consume organic food as it felt more like a crash course into various aspects of the culture, teachings and practices.  Making connections between seemingly non related actions and ideas is one true mark of knowledge in my eyes and this dinner was full of these symbols.  For example, the host chose to bring out each dish one by one, instead of the typical community dinner style of bringing all dishes out at once.  He relayed to us later that this method of serving the guests was a teaching in and of itself about an important idea that is prevalent in many Indian teachings, and teachings across cultures.  This way of serving was a reminder to fully taste and appreciate your dish when it is there and then to completely let go of it when the next dish comes out.

Letting go seems to be one of the most popular topics among the interns and residents this semester as we try to figure out universals, constants in this human experience and keep arriving at the same point. The only constant is that everything is in a continuous flux.   So much strife seems to stem from our habits to create expectations for something to be exactly how it was and this is revealing itself as the ultimate reminder to let go of past regrets and future expectations to become ever more engulfed in the present moment. As the present is the only time anything is ever alive.  From naan to red dahl, from jasmine rice to mango lassi, the cuisine came and went as we all got a microcosmic experience of the practice of letting go and syncing up to the natural flow of the dinner and on a broader scale, life.

After the physical feeding was over, we engaged in spiritual feeding practices with a mediation at the table and a typical multi-religious Sunday night service in the chapel.  Jason took us through self-inquiry exercises and we shared our feelings on the question which is the most basic and most unknown all at the same time, Who am I?.  The variety of answers were amazing and the host connected all of our answers together at the conclusion of the exercise by reminding us that simply I am…, We are…  We can fill in anything after the 2 word phrase but when expanding our perspective we realize we are a person, an existence of limitless potential.  The chapel service was highlighted by readings from four scriptures: Confucian, Hindu, Jewish, Christian.  The Confucian text offered one temporary answer to the question who am I and I thought that this one best sums up how the Myra House community would answer the question.  We are…

“Heaven is my father and earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst.   Theorfore, that which extends throughout the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature.   All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions…” -Chang Tsai