“Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saves a wretch like me
I was once lost and now I’m found
Was blind but now I see.”
According to Judaism, the Days of Awe are upon us. The Days of Awe are ten days that prepare observants for the Jewish New Year on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. It will be the year 5783. Yom Kippur is not just about fasting. Making atonement is key during these days. Atonement is to make right. For me it also means at-one-ment - seeing that we are part of a greater whole and that what we do makes a difference.
Days of Awe means not only to let go of grudges and hurts, but to reach out to someone you may have hurt and make amends. It means to make things right - what we call ho’oponopono in Hawaiian culture.
A regular practice of meditation, of looking deeply within, helps us to first see what we are doing: the opinions we keep, the actions we take. One can get comfortable in habits that are not helpful. The practice also helps us cultivate courage to let go of a pattern of behavior that doesn’t work.
You can feel that everything is against you, that you are facing an immovable mountain in the person you are at odds with. It is at that very moment you can choose to remain stuck in that opinion or find true courage to let it go.
I think that all of us are born with an innate kindness, love, respect and joy that no one can take away. It’s hard to see with all the distractions around us. I see it when I practice meditation regularly. If there is even any self that you are trying to defend, you are breaking the vows and precepts of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is an awakened being who has vowed to save all beings from suffering, transform delusions, and see reality as it is.
It takes courage to let your opinions or thoughts go and make amends. Atonement is about humility and seeing reality as it is. It is valor because you must wrestle with that small self that has grown so Big. Grace follows from letting go - liberation from a very small view of self into the great interconnections and interdependence of Wholeness.
Happy Yom Kippur!
Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Sensei