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The World is Waiting for us to WAKE UP!

By: Rev. Dr. Kathleen A. Bishop

May 4, 2019

Henry David Thoreau wrote: We Must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.”

Arthur Zajonc wrote in his book Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry, these words about Being Awake, Fostering Peace:

In his remarkable record of two years at Walden Pond, Thoreau wrote of the morning: “Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudging’s of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, instead of factory bells…The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.  To be awake is to be alive.  I have never met a man who was quite awake.  How could I have looked him in the face?” (page 9-10)

Arthur goes on to write:  If not by “factory bells” or other external means, then by what… Thoreau pointed to our genius, that high principle of us, as the force that can awaken.  Our genius lives in expectation of the unknown as we expect the new day.  It prompts us to be awake to the subtle dimensions of experience, to meet the sufferings and joys of life with equanimity, and to sense the unknown that continually invites us after her.

The Buddha means “one who is awake.” Together with wakefulness, the Buddha is said to have radiated peacefulness.  In other words, if one is to be more fully awake, then the burdens of such wakefulness require steadiness of mind, largeness of heart, and a deep equanimity in the face of new and significant experiences.” (Page 10)

And thus you are here reading this post looking for equanimity in the face of serious and dangerous challenges in America today, a growing division between races and religions where the followers of these faiths and philosophies, and prejudices are appearing in our schools, and places of worship, and our shopping malls, and movie theaters with guns and hatred and death on their minds.

And yet there is hope, hope because you are all here with your faith, and your prayers, and your scriptures, and your hearts and your love for each other.  Which is not based on the color of our skin or the clothes we wear or the food we eat but on love.

We may not be Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, or even Rosa Parks but Arthur goes on to say, “They were awake to the suffering not only of themselves but of their entire communities.  Both have become exemplars because they met suffering with compassion and because together with truth, they sought reconciliation instead of revenge (page 11).

We must wake up! We must give up our fears as individuals and stand up to hate and bigotry where ever we see it, where ever it pops up its ugly head. We must write letters, march in the streets, stand up when we see injustice in our White House, or our workplace.  We must stand up when we see it in our communities, and our supermarkets, and yes, in our homes.

The Buddha’s teaching implores us to WAKE UP. 

The dawn awaits for us to speak up. Are you awake or in the soundest sleep?

If not me who?

If not now when?