This Week’s Quotation:
“Our Master took a basin and a towel and proceeded to wash His disciples’ feet. Peter objected. He did not feel it was right; he thought this was too menial a task for his Lord… If we restrict ourselves in any way, in relationship to any need, then we are saying in effect, ‘I’m not going to let the Lord come into the world at this point in my expression.”
~ Martin Cecil, “My Cup Runneth Over,” May 6, 1962.
The Mountain Beneath your Feet
Why does kneeling down look like losing power, when it’s so often exactly the opposite?
A waterfall doesn’t lose force as it drops — it gains it. Snow doesn’t weaken coming off a mountainside — it gathers weight and speed the whole way down. Power, it turns out, isn’t only a matter of height. It’s a matter of what’s descending from a vertical reality.
There’s something in that for the basin scene. The Master’s kneeling is the current, arriving exactly where it was headed. Stillness up on the mountain doesn’t do anything for anyone until it’s willing to come all the way down from the snowpack to the river.
Was the Master diminished by washing his disciples’ feet?
Identity that has to be defended by the size of the task is a costume, swapped out scene by scene, and always at risk of the next scene not measuring up. It’s exhausting. Always calculating, always adjusting, never quite arriving.
There’s a truer ground available. The sense of being a living presence that doesn’t rise or fall by what it’s currently doing, that shows up completely whether it’s kneeling with a basin or seated at the head of the table.
Attunement, practiced through the day, keeps returning to this quieter kind of choice. I can’t decide whether the sink is full of dishes or the meeting runs long.
I do have absolute sovereignty, moment to moment, over the inner reality brought to meet any circumstance: Distracted or present, resentful or willing.
One needs the moment to go a certain way. The other is simply, quietly, already whole, and free to meet what is from an authentic, empowered, and receptive place.
Where in your life is the mountain asking to come down?
Attunement Teacher and Practitioner
What Is Attunement?
Attunement is a consciousness practice and an energy medicine practice that leads to personal spiritual regeneration.
The question “Where in your life is the mountain asking to come down?” speaks deeply to me.
I am discovering more and more that true power is not found in maintaining a position, identity, or appearance of importance. It is found in allowing the truth of who I am to descend fully into the moment, meeting what is here with presence, love, and willingness.
Kneeling does not diminish the Master. It reveals the Master: identity no longer needing to be defended, free to serve what is required. Whether I am leading, kneeling with a basin, or simply being still with another, the point of spiritual expression entrusted to me remains whole.
Perhaps this is the courageous surrender to let the mountain come all the way down, allowing the highest truth to take form through all moments of my life, even the most ordinary.
Thank you, Oren, for stimulating this exploration.
Beautiful, Oren. I kneel with you. Love, Tom C.
“Where in your life is the mountain asking to come down?” I spend time every day cleaning restrooms and doing other “menial” janitorial work in the Administration Building. Nothing is really “menial” when the person doing it is centered in the Truth of Love and flowing that Love into every action from the High Place of Being. Thank you, Oren and Martin, for your beautiful reminder of this.