Waiting for the Dawn

Whatever names we use to describe our hope for the future, for real change in our world, we are together waiting for a dawn, for a new light. But we have been standing on the edge of this dawn for so long now, our souls dreaming of its coming, that when the dawn does finally come, will we notice it? There is a danger that our eyes have become so accustomed to the present darkness, to its attractions and distortions, that the dawn could easily pass us by. That our patterns of avoidance are so entrenched, our pursuit of self centered pleasures or problems so pervasive, that we will not be able to see something as simple as sunlight?  Or we will see something, but because our attention has been for so long in the half light and shadows we will pass it over, presuming it is just another mirage, another false dawn.


Image courtesy : Malik ml Williams, nasaimages.org

Personally I no longer know what to wait for. My own dreams have been discarded, torn up and thrown away. Maybe I am just another soothsayer speaking prophecies that are blown away in the wind. Unlike prayer flags they draw no attention either in this world nor the next. I have waited for this dawn for far too long. I have seen and spoken of our present desolation, our forgetfulness and failures until my words have fallen into silence. And now? Could a coming dawn be real? Could the sunlight ever return? Or is it all just another empty promise of which we have heard so many? Maybe laughter is all that we are left with, a laughter at the futility of any dream, because what is Real is so other, so completely different, so unavoidably present.

Yet in the depths of our hearts, in the recesses of each of our souls, we long for this dawn. We know, even if we pretend to our self and others to have dismissed it, that we cannot live without it. We are starving, destitute in ways we no longer are able to articulate. The symbols that used to nourish our souls have all gone and only slogans remain. Our desolation has been present for so long we pretend that it is normal, acceptable, and so we cover it with desires and fantasies—not the dreams of our real imaginings, but fantasies that are best forgotten. And each day our soul and the soul of the world is crying, and we do not dare to hear it.

And yet this forgotten and longed for dawn is coming, either within our hearts or within the world or both. Otherwise the darkness and the endless distortions it creates would be all we have left. Otherwise our breath would no longer carry the possibility of remembrance, or a return to the source that is our real Home. Otherwise…. it is too terrible to think of a cycle that has stopped turning, that remains fixed in this darkness, in this polluted and fractured landscape we have created in this inner and outer worlds.
But what is this dawn we hope for and have forgotten? Will it come with a cry of heralds, with angels of light and glory, with devastation and blazing light? Will it arrive with the soft caress of a lovers touch or the kindness of a mother? Will it creep into our consciousness, unannounced, as our attention is attracted elsewhere? Will we even be allowed to see it, or have our failings been so great we are to be veiled from our own and the world’s redemption, like Moses not allowed to walk in the promised land? It cannot be dependant upon us— we have passed over so many opportunities—again and again we were distracted when the moment to participate was present. We have avoided our real responsibility. But is it possible that it is not about us at all, despite our hubris that makes us think that we are the center of every event?

It will come in its own way. The dawn will belong to the day that belongs to God, to that secret that is at the core of everything that exists. How can it be otherwise? A dawn that belongs to humanity is not worth waiting for, crying for. The dawn must belong to that Being we call Divine. It is not our cycle of existence, however much we think that we are the center around which the sun moves daily. This world with all of its chaos and beauty is something so divine we would tremble if we could glimpse it. And it is this divine that is the dawn that is coming. This is the song for which our hearts are waiting, the song whose chorus we may be allowed to sing together with all of creation.

Yes, we have missed every opportunity. Yes, our arrogance has claimed that it is our world to rape and pillage as we like. We have done so many misdeeds. But how significant are these failings compared to the wonder and mercy of That Eternal Being? Only that One Being is real, and we have suffered from the illusion of separation for too long—it is time to remember and return to the oneness from which our myths tell us we were banished. It is time to hang up this cloak of separation that has caused the hubris of our contemporary ideology, our fixation upon ourselves. The dawn is a return to oneness as much as it is a bowing down before God, a recognition of a sunlight that is real and cannot be covered even by the clouds of our ego selves.

There will be a price to pay, there is always a price to pay for forgetfulness such as ours. We cannot dismiss the Divine and allow our greed to ravage so much of Its world without there being some retribution. We are no longer children living without responsibility or consequences. But this should not be our central consideration. We should be grateful to be allowed to be present when the dawn comes, to be a part of this dawn that is breaking—because the mystery of oneness means that like everything else we belong to this dawn, even if we have the free will to turn away. Our real need is as always to be awake, to be attentive, to be present as the light comes into our hearts and into the world. It may come so dramatically we cannot ignore it, or it may come so quietly, so hiddenly, it will steal away the darkness like a thief we do not notice until afterwards. Or it may be something as simple as birth, where pain is a passage into joy and love. All that matters is that our eyes are open and we are present at this moment, and hopefully, that our hearts and minds are turned towards God.

 

Reference:

Working with Oneness

Article Copyright : ©2011 The Golden Sufi Center

 

Comments

The dawn is alive in all of us, it just needs a little extra love. So may love flow to all the corners that are ready to receive. And to those corners that are not ready, may the mercy of God be with them.
To this Sufi Sheikh, may all your dreams come true.

Though the darkness is dense and sometimes it may appear overwhelming - when the night is deepest there is the turning pointand it is coldest before dawn. Thank you for encouraging to not being caught in looking back to the passing darkness of the night, but rather searching for the emerging dawn. It seems that in in the densness one gets a glimpse of light - and hoping that it is not an illusion - one wants to respond, to relfect it, because it causes such joy and brings peace to the worring heart.

The sadness and the weariness is from him taking upon himself and bearing some of the great sorrow that the world carries from being abused.

How is it possible for a sufi master to give up on humanity's aspirations? This sadness and weariness you exhibit confuses me somewhat. Having attended your lectures in Tiburon, and read every online article, pdf download and interview I can find, I wish I could invest light and hope into your voice again, to give to you for a change... I am grateful for all I have received from your Heart. Just finished reading "Daughter of Fire." Ms Tweedie's star not only twinkles, it blazes! Love and Peace to you.