Now is the Time

Now is the Time

Now is the time to know
that all that you do is sacred. (1)
~Hafiz

Echoing from a distant past (this poem is many hundreds of years old), Hafiz’s words have taken root in my life, leaving me with some big questions. What would this world be like if we understood that everything we do is sacred? What changes would we experience if we chose to treat everyone as sacred? Can you imagine a world where all of creation is seen by heart – where we meet and greet each other as sacred poems?
Traveling through the Himalayas of India and Nepal, I fell in love with the word namaste. This is a greeting that people use much in the same way that we use “hello” here. But I have come to appreciate this word for its deeper spiritual meaning. An ancient Sanskrit word, namaste breaks into two parts: namas translates as “bowing” and te as “to you.”(2) One definition I have heard used several times is, “That which is divine in me acknowledges and honors that which is divine in you.”
Can you imagine being seen in this way? Hafiz continues in the same poem:

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

NOW is the time to “live with veracity and love.” Veracity is defined as “habitual truthfulness,” and is from the root verax meaning “speaking truly.”(3) Can we give each other the gift of speaking truly? Speaking truly is speaking from the heart – allowing love to move upon the waters of your heart and then communicating from that place rather than, and even in spite of, fear.
Looking at our world, with all the apparent despair, suffering, violence and separation, it’s easy to see that (as a whole) we must not be honoring life as sacred. There is a general climate of fear regarding where we are headed as a planet: extraordinary poverty, increasing war and international conflict, starvation, genocide, global warming, etc. And many people feel powerless to do anything about the current state of the world. How can that be? With 5 billion unique individuals with the potential to change this world for the better, how can we still have a world without peace (Nota bene: I realize we are 6 billion strong as a population on this planet – but 1 billion of us do not have the basic needs for survival and therefore conceivably do not have that “potential” available to us at this time).
When we are disconnected from knowing ourselves as expressions of divine Love, we forget our interconnectedness with all life. When we forget our interconnectedness with all life, we forget that we need each other to survive and thrive. When we do not see ourselves and others as sacred, violence is acceptable, even justifiable. Again, from Hafiz (same poem):

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

Every thought and action. Driving to work. Waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. Getting a cup of coffee. Putting your slippers on. Taking a walk. Responding to a spouse. Answering a question. Holding a crying baby. Washing the dishes. Scraping ice off the car. Raking leaves. How can we think and act in a way that honors all of life as sacred? This is a question I am living in right now.

Now here’s an even more radical concept: how amazing would it be if I treated myself as sacred? Can we even imagine what it is to love ourselves unconditionally, free of judgment and full of loving-kindness? Loving others as we love ourselves (which is an inter-faith concept, not belonging to any one religion) doesn’t count for much if we do not respect and honor ourselves – which is not to be confused with being selfish. And a world of people living undivided lives translates into a world that knows its wholeness, its sacredness.
I need you to honor yourself as sacred. I need you to show up as the succulent, radiant, magnificent sacred poem that you are, so that I may bask in the glow that only you can emit. You are sacred, right now, in this very moment. When you accept this and just let that light shine, others can grow in its radiant warmth.

Now is the time to know that YOU ARE A SACRED POEM. The sacred in me acknowledges and honors the sacred in you . Namaste.



(1) From the poem Now is the Time, in “The Gift” translated by Daniel Ladinsky.
(2)“Oxford American Dictionaries”
(3) ibid