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By Ronald William Cadmus
One who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment. ~ Meister Eckhart
This week in New York City a 48-year-old woman was killed by a subway train, after jumping onto the tracks to retrieve her handbag she accidentally dropped. Bystanders screamed as the train approached, while she frantically attempted to climb back onto the platform. Frozen in fear, she was crushed to death. The picture on the front pages of the New York newspapers, showed her handbag, held by transit agents and police officers. The bag contained her gym clothes and CP. She risked her life for clothing and her Blackberry. Riding the subway this morning I read the ad: “Your life is worth more than your belongings – If you drop something onto the tracks summon a booth agent or policeman.” A life lost over two pieces of clothing and a technological gadget. Sometimes grasping onto things makes us lose all sense of rationale.
The soul that is attached to anything, anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.
When attached to any one thing, that obsession becomes our idol. Our god. We cannot be attached to any one entity and expect to arrive at the liberty of divine union. We are made prisoner to that attachment. We might strive for that harmony, but attachment to any one thing, no matter how much good it affords, will make us fall short of complete, spiritual attainment. When we are possessed by things, we are entrapped by them. Imprisoned by them. Controlled and manipulated by them. And in the case of this woman on the New York City subway platform, we are destroyed by them. A strong wire rope hold or a slender delicate thread can attach us to a false sense of security. The attainment of serenity and purity of spirit will elude us. There can only be “the liberty of divine union,” the freedom in that One accord, when we place our lives in the stillness of that One peace. Not in our attachment to things or to that one “cord” from which we receive our false identity.
A story of a Monk and a traveler clearly reveals the hold that “things” have upon us and how “things” prevent us from attaining that divine union, until we realize that the attainment of “things” is no guarantee of inner fulfillment or happiness.
A monk in his travels once found a precious stone and kept it. One day he met a traveler, and when the monk opened his bag to share his provisions with him, the traveler saw the jewel and asked the monk to give it to him. The monk did so readily. The traveler departed, overjoyed with the unexpected gift of the precious stone that was enough to give him wealth and security for the rest of his life. However, a few days later he came back in search of the monk, found him, gave him back the stone, and entreated him, ‘Now give me something much more precious than this stone, valuable as it is. Give me that which enabled you to give it to me.’
The request the traveler makes of the monk, to be given the secure, inner peace, serenity or contentment that the monk possesses, is something the traveler has been searching for, but which he was willing to forfeit for a fleeting sense of security.
Peering into the Monk’s bag he coveted all that sparkles, glitters, all that is gold and costly. In a few short days, he was still wandering around, with a valuable gem in his pocket, but with emptiness in his spirit and soul. He still found himself deprived of serenity. The gem was contaminating his soul, because, the attachment to this precious jewel was in actuality a possession that was adulterating the more desirable quality of his own life, a purer quality that was being impaired by possessions, things, that held him like a wire rope and slender thread.Still, in One Peace.Image may be NSFW.
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We must be freed from anything that adulterates, taints and impairs. The subway rider, who lost her life, was impaired in her thinking. Things can adulterate our lives. No matter if we are wearing Hope Diamonds, driving the most expensive cars, residing in multimillion dollar homes and apartments, sailing our yachts, or fitting ourselves in expensive designer clothes, all these “things and attachments” cannot compare to the value of who we are as human beings. They offer no lasting benefit. We cling to them and permit ourselves to be tainted, adulterated and impaired by their delusion. We contaminate our truer, deeper selves, and like that bird, whether through slender thread, or wire rope, we are suppressed by them and cannot fly until we can free our grasp from them, allowing ourselves to find the serene, pure place of life, where we can be free and Still, in One Peace.
Ronald William Cadmus was ordained a United Methodist Minister in 1975 and is presently a member of the Reformed Church in America. His anthems have appeared at major choir festivals and his writings based on experiences as a Chaplain at Ground Zero 911 appear on the Artists Registry of the 911 Memorial Museum. He lives in Manchester, New Jersey.
Still, In One Peace is published by Circle Books June. ISBN: 978-1-78279-474-5 (Paperback) £9.99 $16.95, 978-1-78279-473-8 (eBook) £6.99 $9.99