Subj : The Miracle Of Awakening To : All From : Jacques Montagne Date : Mon Dec 25 2000 12:44 am Dear friends, The original title of this morning, this Christmas morning essay, the one that has been turning in my head for about an hour and a half was: THE MIRACLE OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING In the last of the 12 Steps of AA it is said that as a result of the practice of all the previous steps a spiritual awakening will happen to the willing practitioner of the 12 Steps Way of Life. Back in the summer of 1741 a British subject by the name of George Frideric Handel composed a series of music pieces that became known as Handel's Messiah. It was only on the 24th of December of 2000 that I was enthralled by the depth of faith exemplified in that piece of music. I had listened to it dozens of times, just about every year since 1984, when I first taped on my old Beta VCR a world class rendition of The Messiah by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, choirs and 4 top classical singers under the direction of Charles Dutoit. Last night starting at 10pm, I started listening to the complete tape, a 24 hours presentation; I listened until 2am. I followed in detail 44 of the 53 music pieces of that performance; the other 9 had been omitted, by Dutoit most likely. And I could not help but feel the power of the Unnameable Energy that inspired the over 100 performers of that concert, plus how many other human beings over the centuries. How amazing that such an event as the birth of a modest Jew 2000 years ago, and his later life's examples and teachings still keeps inspiring human nature to go beyond all the beyonds; even those that appear insurmountable one moment and are surpassed the next. As a 12 Stepper and practical Buddhist, I have experienced the power of surrender; the moment one acknowledges one's temporary and humble powerlessness, such abundant power is given one. Such a power I have found by saying the words of the 1st step over and over, and surrendering to the Great What Is, as I like to call my HIP-HOP god. Amazing Grace wrote John Newton in the 18th century when he exclaimed himself in the presence of all those good things that came to him, and that come to us, without us having to think or ask about them. Grace as the 5th function of nature has been with me for 17 years. As a writer on computer networks for 12 years, I can honestly say that I never wrote anything on my own; I was and still am, only the scribe to the Inspiration, that keeps emerging from me when I wake up. This is why I refer to my 12 steps chronicles as my personal wake-up journal, even if it is a "minimally public" personal journal. How graced I am when I receive correspondence from readers, often unknown to me, whose comments make my day. My only sadness for the moment is not to find the energy to send back out to all the other readers what I receive. After this apology for my slothful behavior, let me correct myself and say that when I received one, like the one I received last Tuesday, when I got a chain letter containing a message from the Dalai Lama, and I send it out, I'm all surprised at having taken action; it was not planned; it was at most, inspired. Of course, I sent it out because there was a promise of good coming to me if I did send it back out. I BELIEVED THAT PROMISE; I made an act of faith and I have been blessed by great spiritual gifts even since that moment. Magical thinking, is it? Of course, it is; absolutely wonderful magic is happening to me. Imagine, feeling depressed, I was ready to die from hypothermia in my cold building because of a power failure last Monday; yet, I've produced a text of sharing just about every day since, in the WARMTH and TRANQUILLITY of my writing studio in my great abandoned building. A couple of nights ago, I received a friend and had him listen to my favorite music; we also listened to a 4 track cassette I had produced back in 1986 in order to have background music while I was working as the Santa Klaus receiving children in a large Montreal area shopping center. Great Chrismas time music on that tape! How graced was I to meet my first real Tibetan at that moment. One afternoon while receiving children, I noticed an Asiatic looking man looking at me; when our eyes crossed, he had a sparkling trickle in his eyes, a characteristic of Tibetans I had been told about, and then he pointed to a jute bag I had behind me carrying the name Tibet. This is a small shoulder bag I was using to carry various necessities I might need for my long days of receiving children. This was a bag that I had been giving me my a great friend who had brought it back from Katmandu, Nepal in one of his many travels in India. The asiatic looking fellow was the lama of the small, 76 strong then, Tibetan community in Montreal. This was the start of my learning of the profound teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Just one more occasion to go beyond what I already knew about human psychology from my studies, but so much further beyond. "Om Gate Gate ParaGate, ParasamGate Bodhi Svaha" goes the great prajnaparamita mantra; it says, that it is beyond, beyond, beyond all the beyonds that lies Ultimate knowledge, the Unnameable, the Dharma of Buddha (at least, as I understand it!). Is that not what spiritual awakening is all about in daily life? The miracle of Grace! One minute I am ignorant, and out of nowhere I become knowledgeable through Inspiration. In Siddha Yoga, we sometimes mention the Guru principle and that refers to the passage that mind keep crossing all through life when it goes from a relative state of ignorance one moment to awareness the next. From darkness to light is the universal movement of mind; it is the common experience of all the human beings I have ever met, from the most slow intellectually, to even the geniuses. Yesterday, I did not know what I know now, today, on this Christmas morning, yet here I am sharing it in writing, in the spirit of the 12th Step for the second time this month. Probably the greatest miracle of spiritual awakening is that it happens without the need for our conscious will. It happens on It's own; all I can do is acknowledge it's manifestation within me. And I find that the more I transmit the Emergence from within, the more come. Imagine, a former anonymous reader, a lurker he called himself, compared my writing to that of 16th century French author Michel Montaigne. Thank you Sam for manifesting your existence and thoughts to me. Yes, I am showered with spiritual gifts this Christmas. May your life be as filled as mine is this year. This is one more time for me to wish you the best of Christmas and MAY IT LAST ALL YEAR FOR YOU TOO. * May there be Good for All ! * Jacques copyright 2000, JM ___--------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. If you feel like answering, commenting or asking questions, BUT IN PRIVATE MODE, please leave me a message at any of the following electronic addresses: A.O.L. Internet E-Mail: for ACA: MonTang@aol.com (with or without other topics: JacMonta@aol.com capitals) BBS NetMail on Fidonet: 1:167/133 Voice & FAX: (450) 659-3417 ___ X SPEED 2.01 #1504 X --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS, Telnet:juxtaposition.dynip.com (1:167/133) .