November 29 - Shepherds and Wise Men

     In the Nativity story, the shepherds and the wise men both arrived at the same place. The shepherds just got there first. Their presence was the result of being awake, outdoors and in nature, while other people were indoors, in bed and fast asleep. Night after night, the shepherds were out under the stars. Unlike most people they were awake and conscious in the darkness. Their arrival at the sacred place was largely the result of simply living so close to nature. Nature is the first place to look for the sacred. There's no need to be literate—like the shepherds we can read the universe's entire story of death and rebirth in the cycle of the seasons. It's all there when we turn back from darkness and the sun is reborn on Winter Solstice. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it just changes form. The shepherds lived this mystery. 

     In the story the word "wonder" is used to describe what they were feeling. In the old sense of the word, "wonder" suggests contemplation. Was it used to suggest that they came to a new level of consciousness as the result of their experience? Humankind evolved over thousands of years. There were many moments when our consciousness took a great leap forward. This story suggests that those of us who stay closest to nature, are most likely to eventually look beyond the cycles of the earth and turn our eyes to the stars.

     Shepherds = nature, simplicity, reverence

     The magi, or wise men, were already contemplatives. Their observation of the stars led them back to earth, to nature, to a mysterious light born in the darkness of a cave. Through their intellect, by their observation of the patterns of the stars, and by their wit, arrived at exactly the same place as the shepherds. The shepherds found their way by looking up from the earth to follow a star. The kings looked down from the stars to find their way to a cave in the earth. Did they appreciate what they saw in a different way?

     Kings = thought, intellect, appreciation
     Neither path is any better than the other, and both lead to the same place. This is cause for wonder.
     If the shepherds represent oneness with earth, and the Kings represent consciousness and an appreciation of the patterns of the stars, what do the cows in the stable represent?
     Breath. The breath of cows in a cave, warm and moist as the breath in our own bodies. What a mystery is breath. It is what gives us life. With no thought at all, the cows breathe as peacefully as a zen master.