Falling into the Arms of God

The great Chan master of the Song dynasty, Da-hui Zong-gao said, "Just let go and make your heart empty and open.

translation by Dana Dunlap

Autumn

The leaves fall, fall from afar
as if faded from heaven's gardens
they fall with negating gesture.
And in the night falls the earth
away from all the stars in its loneliness.
We are all falling. This hand here falls
And look at the other one. It's in all of them.
And yet there is one who holds this falling
in His unendingly gentle hands.

Rainer Maria Rilke, translation by Robert Cornell

Introduction

This book is basically many variations on one central theme: how to let go and fall into the arms of God. Or, to put it in Buddhist terms, letting go of the small self and realizing our Buddha Nature. The greatest challenge in life for us all as the imperfect human beings that we are, is to be able to let go of our fears and self centered desires, our limiting stories about ourselves and the world around us and to open up to a bigger picture of what Life is about besides me, mine, and myself. The individuals that we, as a healthy culture, most revere are the ones who were able to transcend their personal situations, identify themselves with humanity and to give themselves to a purpose that framed their lives of service and undergirded their inspirational leadership.

In order to expand our sense of who we are and what our calling is beyond our limited sense of ourselves, we need to let go of many things that do not serve us or our world. A deep faith in God or some other transcendent entity such as what Buddhists call the True Self or Buddha Nature or the Twelve Step traditions speak of as our Higher Power can support us in moving beyond our character defects, our psychological complexes and our all too human limitations. These religious and spiritual concepts and the sacred texts, writings, rituals, traditions and cultures that they are embedded in become, for those of us who commit to a particular faith journey, the wind in our sails, the safe ship that conveys us to our ultimate destination; the other shore, the Kingdom within.

The image of letting go and falling into the arms of God can elicit some fear in us as to whether or not there is Someone or Something there to catch us when we do let go. After all, fear of falling is one of the basic instinctual fears we humans have! And falling is a great metaphor for the challenges that are part of spiritual practice: to let go into the unknown, let go of our need for too much control, too much self protection and to move way beyond our comfort zone. For our ego, this letting go can feel as if we are going to fall into a bottomless abyss of darkness.

This is why the spiritual journey requires us to develop an ever growing and deepening faith in order to make possible this inner movement of letting go of our fears and allowing ourselves to be held by Something Greater than our little egoic consciousness. This faith journey that we are on is one where we regularly remind ourselves through meditation, prayer and ritual of our being held by/within the Beloved, the Tao, Divine Spirit, Buddha Nature. As the imperfect, conditioned human beings that we are, we need these ways of worshipping and practicing to grow and strengthen our connection with and trust in the Beloved.

Many years ago, my Zen teacher talked to us his students about throwing ourselves into the House of the Buddha. Several times a year we would renew our vows at the Zen Center as both lay members and monks. We would recite as we bowed, "Namo Buddha, Namo Dharma, Namo Sangha." I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the teachings, and I take refuge in the practice community. Every religious tradition reminds us that we have to give over our self centered ways, because our self centeredness is exactly the cause of our own suffering- and the suffering of mankind in general.

Personally, I like the image of falling back into my Big Self – my deep and true Self that has let go of fear, of self judgment and is playful and relaxed. Sometimes I picture myself...