chanukkah. lights within and without.

The menorah ablaze in full glory is an expression of the light in my heart, your heart and everyone's everywhere.

okay, so, here's a question. why do we celebrate the first day of chanukkah, not 8th day? here's what comes to me. it takes a lot of guts and faith to start lighting menorah with just one day of oil while more oil won't be available in another 8 days. just to refresh, the main thrust of chanukkah story is this. menorah in temple was lit 24/7. so when people reclaimed temple they wanted to get menorah lit up asap. there was one day of oil on hand. btw this oil was prepped from fresh olives in a certain method. it's an 8 day process. so, to light or not to light? evidently the people did.  what a remarkable leap of faith. indeed this teaches me that i can only keep my eye on doing the right thing, however you call it, dharma in sanskrit, tsedek in hebrew, it's the same thing.  lighting up menorah is the right thing to do. just do it. start doing the right thing with whatever i have. let go of worry. that's poverty consciousness. i show up, do what i can and let grace takes it from there. in bhagavad gita lord krishna says to arjuna, yoga is skill in action. it really just means throw yourself into the task at hand and let go of expectation of outcome.  such ancient wisdom still shines bright of truth. how lucky we are to have such guiding light 24/7. halleluja.

inner self is the one constant through yo-yos

awakened from a dream of gripping anxiety, all about getting lost, can't find my way home. it feels so real that i forget that it's not real.

meditation this morning is bright, clear and a deep sense of security. looking at the dream from this state i realize all those times when i was caught up in worry and fear in their whole range of shapes and sizes i forgot that they were all but dreams. the one who is aware of the dream is the one who is watching this meditation. my own inner self is the one constant through all the yo-yos.

i come out of meditation bursting into my favorite song after torah study meal. 'the entire world is a narrow bridge. the main thing is not to fear at all.' halleluja.