September 17, 2002
(A Meditation)
Oh, my weary soul does ponder the imponderable!
Though the world presents to me as an arid desert–
with nowhere a drop of righteousness to drink nor a
scrap of righteousness to chew on–save me, my Lord,
from losing my faith in humanity, and hence my faith in the Divine.
Though my soul be parched and pinched with hunger,
let this condition not cause me to withdraw in judgment
upon my brothers and sisters, merely from constitutional deprivation
and cantankerousness.
The deprivation of righteousness must be acutely felt in the soul:
it must create a condition of *yearning* [hungering].
Righteousness does not come to feed and slake the thirst of one individual
soul. It comes as a cleansing rain, as manna falling from heaven to feed the
multitudes, and as holy water from the Fount of Life, to purify and saturate
the souls of the many.
Righteousness comes not as a cresting wave to lift up one man’s surfboard,
but as a tsunami which sweeps over all humanity and lifts it up to catch a
glimpse of heaven.
We could try to satisfy our hunger and thirst by being self-righteous,
but that would be akin to dipping one’s hands into the pool of water
created by a mirage in the desert: It will not satisfy.
Indeed, the imagination can be most deceiving and create the most alluring
of illusions for the unwary soul of the traveler upon the Way!
Beware the pools of righteousness glinting and beckoning to you, and *only you*,
lest you end up with a mouthful of sand.
It is difficult to spit out a mouthful of sand–
almost as difficult as it is to retract a self-righteous
pronouncement or judgment.
The sacred watering hole of righteousness will appear
in the desert in the most unlikely of places:
It will appear to the multitude of hungering, thirsting humanity,
and He will beckon to all to slake their thirst and hunger
in its pure and holy water, and those who have upheld their faith
in Him and in humanity will be deeply satisfied.
Those who have no faith in the goodness of man will drink and drink,
but remain strangely thirsty, with pangs of hunger beginning to stir
more fiercely in them than before they tasted these holy and righteous truths.
