Sharing as a Sacred Activity

Lia's picture
2012 August 19
Posted by Steve Beckow

A lot of my life recently has been about what I call “sharing.” Many people may think I mean “giving” by that, but that’s not what I mean. Sharing is the process of sharing ourselves, making ourselves known to another in important ways, conveying our truth of the moment to another.

 

I know that people have their eyes on the skies at the moment. But I’ve been given a different assignment  and that involves going inwards and sharing what I see. It’s coupled with a second assignment, which all of us have, which involves clearing and a process of clearing also often involves sharing.

 

Sharing is for me an eternally-interesting process because it brings king and commoner together, on the same level. Your share is as important to you as my share is to me. And your truth is as valid as my truth.  Sharing our truths is the great leveller. Everyone is equal in their share.

 

And you see that in so many movies, for instance. There is action. All is up; all is down. Fortunes rise and fortunes fall. And then comes the scene in which two actors share and all inequality is lost for the moment. They’re equal in their shares.

 

All shares are born equal because all shares are rooted in truth. Truth, it seems to me, has no shades or degrees. As Gandhi said, truth is truth. It’s digital, not analog. On or off. Yes or no.

 

And what is true and important for you is what I want to know.

I actually don’t care very much for what another likes and doesn’t like. But isn’t that the content of many conversations? I don’t like purple but I do like green. I hate garlic but I craved curry.

 

The second most common conversation I call “howdidido?” We sit around the lunchroom and rehearse how we did with the boss, or coworkers, or our spouse.  We manicure our stories until we have them just right and then they substitute for the truth for us. Our object is to “look good,” rather than know the truth.

 

Ho hum. Nothing much elevating or liberating there.

Life doesn’t boil down to what we like and don’t like. It isn’t about what the Buddha would have called our cravings and aversions. It also doesn’t boil down to our estimations of how we’re doing.

 

But a share will set us free because the truth will set us free. So life was designed, in my view.

But what is true for you and me and what ground we stand on – life is shaped by topics such as these.  The truth I know. My “stand” is what I can be counted on for.  Truth and stand – these two are what’s there for me to communicate.

 

Some time ago, I wrote the following about shares and it remains true for me:

I use my “shares” as the major tool of my emergence. I use my shares to strip off layer after layer of the onion of self-protection until what is left is nothing but transparency.

Something shared is past. Yesterday’s share is dead. The value that I receive from sharing is not something I can put in a piggy bank. Release comes only from the next share. Everything rests on the share of this moment.  And this moment. And this moment.

 

I know when I’ve shared the truth because I feel release. The truth has set me free. I know when I haven’t shared the truth because I feel stress. Moving away from the truth has further bound me. I can use this fact to navigate towards the truth: more stress and I’m moving father from the truth; less stress and I’m moving closer to it.

My share, to be of any value, cannot rip your face off. If my sharing harms, there’s no value to it. Since a share is about myself, staying with myself is one sure way to see that harmlessness prevails. Sharing maximizes the chances of harmlessness.

 

Shares have their time and place. The traffic cop and bus driver may not want to share with me. Air traffic controllers don’t share with each other. I wouldn’t want a medic to collapse in tears at the sight of suffering, sharing how it is for him or her.

 

President Obama may, on occasion, not want to be transparent for the good of the nation. Not all the world’s business can be conducted in the open and through sharing, although an increase in sharing probably wouldn’t hurt.

 

Emergence is the name of the game for me. Your emergence is what I’m here for (mine too). I’m a space to receive your share and in which the truth of mine arises.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/sharing-as-a-sacred-activity/

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