08/30/15 Rev. David McArthur
Finding Our Laffin’ Place
I have made the connection to my heart; I have made it into my heart. I saw that the blame thing was gone (as much fun as it can be) and I made the connection to the compassion in my heart for the other person. But there was still something uncomfortable in my heart. I knew it was time for the graduate course.
Symbols are often more effective than just words alone. Today Br’er Rabbit is snoozin’ in the woods. Awaking slowly he realizes he’s not in the woods any more, but a deep dark cave and there’s a fire cracklin’! There’s Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear and he’s tied up and they’re talkin’ ’bout eatin’ him for dinner! Now Br’er Rabbit symbolizes the part of ourselves that can shift our awareness. The cave symbolizes our subconscious. Something captures us in there. We’re fearful and it controls us. Br’er Rabbit shifts his attention to a place where he is free. He opens his mouth and laughs out loud.
Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear are stunned. “We tole you we gonna roast you on this here fire! You otta be skeered!” Rabbit laughs even louder. “Why you laffin’!?” “Oh, I been to my secret place.” Now what happens when you say you’ve got a secret? Yup, Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear just have to see this secret place. They mostly untie Br’er Rabbit, but leave a long rope to keep hold of. He leads them out of the cave into the woods all the way to an old tree with a big hole in it. Laughing loudly he cries, “There it is! My laffin’ place!” Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear say they don’t feel like laffin’. Rabbit has them stick their heads way deep inside. “Do you hear?” They heard the buzzing of thousands of bumbly bees! With the bees swarming after them they bolt from the tree and drop the rope. The bumble bees are small but cause the release, symbolically, of what controls us. They go to places of beauty between the upper and lower. The rope is dropped and we are free.
It’s a part of life to have fear and discomfort in our subconscious. But we can be free, no longer caught by that stuff, by focusing our attention on the divine. From the Bhagavad-Gita, “Therefore, having been born in this transient and forlorn world, give all your love to me. Fill your mind with me; love me… always…”
It is a connection with the divine. Jesus said, “Our father that is in heaven” (“heaven” symbolizes the exulted state of consciousness greater than we know on Earth) “hallowed be thy name.” (Name” is the nature of something; “hallowed” is the divine, the pure love.) “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” We experience that connection all the way down to where we are and what we’re doing.
What helps me make that journey going down the road tied to the rope is gratitude. I am grateful for all the loving goodness of God always waiting for me. I am grateful for the all-loving goodness of God! I am grateful for the all-loving goodness of God! I am grateful for the all-loving goodness of God!
It puts us in touch with who we truly are—that oneness. Lao Tzu said that when you realize where you come from, you become tolerant…kind as a grandmother, and you can deal with whatever life brings you. Tolerant. Free.
Have fun at your “laffin’ place”!