Your Only Need: The Light of Love & Truth in Your Heart
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
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Readings
Jeremiah 31:29-34
“In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Read the written message below with music videos
Despite some’s belief in the all-pervasiveness of original sin, scriptures throughout the world point to the fundamental health, love, and truth at the core of the human spirit and at the root of our minds – albeit, sometimes covered over with hurtful tendencies from ignorance and fear often rooted in generations past. The Christian and Hebrew Bibles themselves indicate that we are fundamentally connected to God’s loving truth within, that it forms us, and that she can transform our minds if we but actively reconnect with the inherent nature of our internal light from her (no matter our tradition). This Divine light of love and truth within is the only thing we every need, although we seek for it outside of us. It invites us to identify with and experience the light of loving truth at the core of everything as part of ourselves, opening our hearts to our collective unity in diversity and what we always truly are.
We all pick up tendencies from our parents. Whether it’s my penchant for wisdom texts or my love of music and cooking, I see both of my parents expressed in my habits. We should celebrate these communal connections and expressions of life we learn and adopt from each other. But the most prevalent generational gift we all share is that of awareness itself, what the world’s scriptures tell us is intrinsically loving, compassionate, and wise – even when we’ve forgotten this and layered over it with our distracted yearnings and divisive thinking!
From scientific studies, we see that the impact that generations before us have on our habits and tendencies are only partially learned, and, as we know, only partially healthy. These studies indicate that humans and animals pick up genetic or epigenetic (or spiritual?) tendencies to literally do and think certain things: such as building certain nests, fearing certain sounds or creatures, or becoming addictive. Interestingly, these aren’t always tendencies picked up long ago across many generations – some studies strongly indicate that certain fears or tendencies can be picked up from only a generation or two before. Meaning that your tendency to freak out at the sight of spiders maybe thanks to your grandpa – thanks, Al!
Like in our scripture reading for today, from the Hebrew Tanakh’s Jeremiah 31, sometimes “‘the parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’” This seems like a similar phenomenon to what the 18th-century esoteric theologian Emanuel Swedenborg believed was indicated by the Hebrew Bible in the story of the fall from the Garden of Eden. That instead of “original sin,” we suffer from an ancestral or generational tendency towards selfishness on this planet – in all its varieties. And since we also know that such a thing as generational trauma and pain can be handed down, we have all the more reason to find healthy ways to let go of some of our hurtful intergenerational and personal habits if we can!
What’s grand is that both Jeremiah 31 and Swedenborg agree (as do some mystical Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others) that this generational disconnection and selfishness – often called a hardened heart – can be transformed by our intrinsic connection to God at our core. Scriptures tend to describe this process as turning back toward the love of Divinity, letting hurtful habits and perspectives fall away. However, sometimes we don’t know what this means, believing it to be just a matter of thought or a passing belief. This is where some generational and scriptural good habits are helpful!
One such practice often uplifted is music-making – “making a joyful noise unto the Lord!” This is meant as a meditative or prayerful practice, letting ourselves express worship as it comes to us while centering our attention on the peace and truth of Divine Love within. Like sound, this truth at our core is mysterious, wonderous, shared, and expansive, but also the root of everything. Other practices in this vein can similarly empower us toward our powerful centre of loving awareness, whether it be dancing, meditating, praying, gardening, reading, watching, listening, and on.
Although these can be quite vital and important in our reconnecting with the inherent truth and love that is our spirits, we can of course employ these practices in our typical “fallen” orientation: believing we are separate from Divinity and all things as we follow our minds’ endless wanderings and outward fancies or anxieties. We must remind ourselves of what to let go of during these practices (letting every thought, limiting idea, and mundane desire come and go). Using the words of Christ and our scriptures as guideposts, we can turn back to centre on our unity in Divine Love and Wisdom, to centre on our childlike and infinite compassion and awareness sourced from God.
We are called to remember that at our core is love and truth, distinguishable and yet one (as Swedenborg would say). The only thing we truly know is that we are aware, what we are aware of is always questionable. Is this a dream? Am I thinking about this correctly? How long will this last and what does the future bring? Are all questions that might remind us that awareness itself is our root and life, not all the passing external things around it (including the thoughts in our minds). Remembering that awareness itself is the core experience of truth can do wonders in relieving our minds, once tasked with carrying all the burden of truth itself. Like Christ and as Christ, the shining light of our own intrinsic loving truth tells us, “My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30b) Coming to know that we are all-pervasive awareness itself allows our minds to let go of all the striving to fulfill it’s false-egoic desires.
The promise of scripture is that the more we settle into this reality, using worshipful and meditative spiritual practice and the art of releasing our distorted thinking and yearning to turn toward our own mysterious core of awareness, the more we’ll find our rootedness in the Divine Spirit and our infinite and eternal love and wisdom. In our humility, we often emphasize our fallen state and seeming separateness from Divinity, and yet – as both Christ and many of our scriptures highlight – we are a one in Divinity. Our apparent and perceived separateness fades as we more fully realize this eternal truth. The truth of who we are and ultimately, the only thing we ever need.
Peace and care to you,
Cory