18. Fractal
These days, as I observe a teenage, recently homeless mother with a history of severe abuse and neglect offering simple, genuine, ongoing tenderness to her baby, I trust that I am seeing the hardwiring we all share. Over the years I've observed dozens of young mothers choose to dig deeper than a personal history of pain. In every case these parents find an innate capacity to become increasingly secure and lovingly available for their (increasingly) secure children. I fully trust that these courageous souls are manifesting what D.H. Lawrence called, "the living, incarnate universe."
Rebecca Templin: Spokane Moms & Children
Love is given, not taught. AND emerges naturally, rather than being learned. Original presence is always awaiting discovery.
Catholic theologian Henri Nouwen once described our capacity to love as "the most divine captured in the most human."
Seen in this way, the universe is a fractal. The smaller is a direct manifestation of the Larger. Like Russian nesting dolls, the Larger-as-original pattern is contained within the smaller. At every level: everything is the same, only different.
Tenderness is a fractal. Being-with is a fractal. Presence is a fractal.
Is it a coincidence that Jesus used the word Abba to describe the ultimate nature of the universe? (Abba or "Daddy" is the most intimate term for father in Jesus' native Aramaic. Who knows, he may also have used the word Amma.)
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
— Philip K. Dick
Fortunately, for many of us the ultimate nature of reality is infinitely larger than our early experiences here on planet earth. As a clinician and one who meditates, I have come to trust that my (and your) hardwiring for presence isn’t some random occurrence within a cosmos empty of compassion. Rather, this deep coherence is built into who we are. We are, as James Joyce said, living within the "Mama matrix most mysterious."
Holly Hunter Peterson; Kim Krull; pinterest
Throughout history, the originators of the major faith traditions have sought to offer a path to this hidden-in-plain-sight deeper dimension. (Sadly, their followers have often been swamped by the same procedural strategies for self-protection and control that blunt or fully block access to this hidden reality.)
A man had spent years in search of what he described as "the key to the universe." Seeking only the world's greatest teachers, he continually found himself disappointed in their answers. He was finally led to the cave of an old monk secluded deep in the mountains of Tibet. All who knew this monk assured the man that his answer would finally be found here.
"Most Revered Master, please, I've traveled for years in search of the key to the universe."
"Well," said the Master, "I have some good news and some bad news."
"The bad?" inquired the man with a very worried face.
"There is no key."
"And the good?" the man blurted out, now desperate.
"It was never locked."