ra, honey, compassion
Here for the sun god Ra: In Ancient Egypt, honey bees were believed to rise from the god's tears. It was said that upon falling from the sky and landing in the desert, the tears transformed into bees that pollinated the desert's blooms and gave us honey.*
A transformation. To me, the Ra myth offers a luminescent image of compassion. From rain on desert to fullness. From Ra's attentive, open-hearted witnessing to a practical generosity that reduces suffering. Intentional action. Knowing the reality of thirsting, hunger, yet responding from a radiant spaciousness. With this, to go forward with clarity.
Compassion long confused me. I feared what Pema Chödrön asks from us: "Only in an open, nonjudgmental space where we’re not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them (...). To the degree that we have compassion for ourselves, we will also have compassion for others. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves."
So what does it take? Ra shows me here. He gets it, the thirsting, craving. Owns it in his own body. Yet, he also remains the sun. Realizing then an irrefutable connectedness, atoms amid atoms. Alongside owning my capacity to witness clearly, to make wise choices, then rain, give.
“Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you,” wrote Walt Whitman. Compassion from this perspective then. Attentive through the universal. Yet also the courage to descend into the reality of human experience. Nothing to fix. Tears flow. A healing rain. It's not that hard, really. It's home.
And for the research:
* Fun fact: Evidence of honey hunting and harvesting traces back to the Mesolithic, 8000-6000 BC.)
* Pema Chödrön's quote is from her book When Things Fall Apart (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), pp. 78–80.
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