Awakening ~ Posted by Antoinette Celle

Here on the farm, the lilac tree is one of the first to awaken after a dormant winter. The tree is budding out, and the buds are forming green leaves.  In a few months, beautiful purple lilacs will cover the tree. It will take longer for the wine grape vines and the walnut trees to start leafing out.

Just as trees and vines awaken after a winter of many 27 degree nights, humankind is undergoing an awakening. Just as the trees are opening to the sunlight of the longer days, we are opening to the light of a new dawn. The light is shining on possibility—the possibility and potential of a new way of doing things and a better world. A world where people are free to be their own best selves.

At Unity, we learn that the spark of light from Creator God is in all of us. We can get rid of and lose all the old thinking that no longer serves our highest good. When we realize this truth, we experience an awakening. We discard the old, and attain a new awareness.

I find that Unity embraces all paths of wisdom that lead to the same outcome: Love. In this spirit, I would like to share a text from the Buddhist Monk, Shantideva, who lived around 700 A.D.  I found this in an email from Nick Polizzi, who writes for The Sacred Science Team. 

“The Dalai Lama considers this text to be THE source for developing altruism in your character and the “Spirit of Awakening.”

---

Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity

​May I be a guard for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.