Because of world events, I think it is most important to open to the deeper meaning of Passover. Passover is a holiday celebrated by the Jewish world. As Jews, it is our duty to remember our enslavement in the telling of this story.
Tonight, I would like to do something a little different, a little more inclusive. This journey is all of our journeys. I would like to take this time together to honor humanity's journey from personal enslavement to conscious awakening and freedom. Tonight as we eat this dinner together, I want to honor each of our strivings to release ourselves from attachment and to honor our longings for spiritual growth. This holiday is a time of renewal and rebirth. It is a time of healing and transformation. I would like to take a moment to sit in silence..... in gratitude.
Passover is a time that embodies our desire to connect with all facets of our lives, to remember that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. This time (holiday) helps us to remember all the ways that we imprison ourselves by lapsing into our reactive automatic and addictive thought patterns. By taking the time to remember how and when we have done this, we take the next step towards freedom.
We enslave ourselves when we insist upon being unconscious and disconnect from our own essential and others' essential natures. We make ourselves the victims of a "Pharaoh" when we do not take responsibility for our own longing and blame others for our unhappy circumstances. It is time that we own our own negative intent, and move beyond the prison of our fears. That is what we as a committed community of conscious lovers are doing.
As we light the candles this evening, let us do so with a prayer to reach the Light within each of us. In this conscious lighting of the candles tonight, we are moving beyond history, beyond the grievances of yesterday, and all of us who are present are stepping toward freedom and liberation.
"Blessed are you Oh! God for making us holy through your teachings and for teaching us to mark holy times by lighting candles."
The first cup of wine is dedicated to our forbearers. We affirm our continuity with all of our ancestors and promise to keep alive the vision of freedom.
As we drink this first cup we think about our parents and grandparents who nurtured and formed us the best they were able. Please, if you are willing, call out there names. It is time that we acknowledge, all of us sitting here, that our true sense of self, beyond the images, came from our parents as a gift and as a legacy.
Take a moment to think of where your grandparents came from, or your parents, or you. For everyone, it was a leap into the void, into the unknown. Tonight I am asking you to consciously use this evening's ritual to create forward motion in all aspects in your lives. On this evening we are asked to support those who need our help, and to accept the and be aware and take responsibility for what is happening everywhere in the world today. We can no longer turn away.
Let us raise our cups to signify our gratitude for life and for the joy of knowing our divine self, and to acknowledge our great courage and willingness. One step along our path is to be mindful, and to know that in each moment we have free will. With each choice, we are blazing our own path. With each decision, we choose to align with our own authority. We are liberating ourselves from the tyranny of historical shoulds. The task to free oneself from the behavior of the inner tyrant is a long and committed one, and it is the task of every incarnated being.
We have chosen this life to learn, to do this personal work, to love and to be in this circle of friends this evening.
Welcome to the Promised Land.
Amen
Barbara
barbaraazzara@gmail.com