One of those lightening bolt moments just happened for me while listening to Tara Brach interview Lama Rod Owens about his current book, The New Saints..
This is the first time Lama Rod has come into my sphere www.lamarod.com and I am beyond delighted he has. I sense I’ll be doing some serious sleuthing getting to know him as I felt an instant kinship. A familiarity and knowing that always gets me so amazingly excited and piques my curiosity.
In an interview that he had with Tara, he discusses suffering and trauma. To dive right into the heart of the trauma(s), first requires a faithful practice of preparation. I couldn’t help but equate it with running a marathon and the hours of training and toe nails lost before the actual big day. It would never be advisable to begin such an endeavor nor would it be sustainable for any length of time without conscientious planning and training as a prerequisite.
He speaks of how he created well curated containers of safety, resources, community and his practice of prayer and meditation too before making his descent into the center of the trauma. This really has me thinking as I believe many of us might be tempted to take the dive into the deep end before we have practiced in the shallows. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:”We can’t go any faster than the slowest part of us can go.”
Perhaps we’ve had it upside down and side ways? Foregoing the necessary practices and preparations first.
Which often resemble paddling around in the shallow end where we can still stand and hold onto a side to steady ourselves when needed.
The inner tension that is experienced when one believes we are right there, yet perhaps our training wheels are not quite ready to be removed? This is where reminding ourselves and trusting that we possess an incredibly accurate inner barometer whose job is to inform and to guide. Our task with others is simply to hold the space and remind them that their timing is perfect.
The building of a safe and trusting relationship takes time. This is when a companion may be able to slow things down long enough for us to try to remember who we were before the trauma. Before it was normalized and became our narrative when perhaps it was never ours to begin with?
Lama Rod is onto something very valuable as we do our courageous diving into the depths of our trauma/wounding. It is not to be taken lightly and perhaps an inclination to be hasty in seeking relief quickly misses the essential prerequisite training period. I believe he’s really onto something crucial and life changing. We are called to prepare and practice first, before diving into unknown waters without our safety nets and life preservers.
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