A Mystical View of Death and Resurrection

Lakota elder and chief Albert White Hat, Sr. tells the story of the Creator - Inyan - who "began creation by draining its blood and from this blood created a huge disk around itself. Inyan called this disk Maka, the earth." Then, "Draining its blood for each new creation, Inyan became weaker and weaker. The last to be created was the Human nation." "When creation was complete, Inyan was dry and brittle and broke apart and scattered all over the world."

Similarly, in the Christian mystical tradition, we have a God who creates by kenosis - by self-emptying bliss. Jesus embodies this kenosis when he compares himself to a seed which must fall into the ground and die in order for all things to be brought to birth.

Tibetan Buddhists speak as well of releasing all thoughts, emotions and perceptions into spacious awareness - the Dharmakaya - and then presiding over their spontaneous reemergence - in all of their profound vividness - from that vast, transparent "Emptiness." During sitting meditation, we watch in spellbound awe as this process occurs in all of its magic and wonder, over and over again.

I'm reminded of this principle of death and resurrection as well in the lives of so many of us. Because of some early trauma, each of us has ended up going into a field of work that will help heal others who've been through similar sufferings. In this way, the "death" we've experienced truly leads to the "resurrection" of life in others!

Photo: Scene from the High Park Fire, Larimer County, CO, July, 2012
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