Namaste Revisited
Namaste, revisited
My understanding of “Namaste” – hands together in prayer- used to be “I bow to the Divine within you.” Now I look at it somewhat differently. This new understanding has brought Namaste more alive, and helped me relax and let go of worry, each time I put my hands together in Namaste position.
The left hand represents our Humanness. The right hand represents our Beingness. Together, we are Human Beings.
Specifically, the left hand represents all our human conditions. The pain, longing, joy, patterns, ways we feel not enough, relationship dynamics, scarcity, abundance, sexuality, power, expression, all the tiny nooks inside our awareness.
Most of these conditions have embedded within them a subtle (or not-so-subtle) voice that says we are not enough how we are. This is not because there is anything wrong. It’s because it is the nature of being human to want more, to seek expansion, to experience a dissatisfaction with what is, at least from time to time. It is also because as humans, we have an awareness of separation from other, separation from the whole. And yet we have a deep knowing that we are not only connected to the whole, we are that whole. I believe that this is by design. The spiritual “big bang” is a conscious separation into the forms of life. Embedded within each form of life is a hunger for the original oneness. And this hunger is a spur for expansion and love. In short, the feeling of not being enough is not only ordinary, it is built in to our DNA, at least on the human side.
The right hand of the Namaste is our Being. It is our oneness with Source, with God, with Goddess, with Spirit. It is our ultimate center, an awareness that all is well, and that love is real and present.
When we hold our hands together in Namaste, we are meeting all our human conditions with our own access to vast unconditional love. The conditions don’t need to change. They just need to be met with Being in order for the alchemy of wholeness to transpire. As we hold Being to Human, the human begins to see itself as whole, just as it is, without having to accomplish anything, without having to earn or achieve Grace or love. Grace is part of who we are. It is woven in, as Being, in all the conditions that we encounter in life.
The Being does not need to heal the Human. It doesn’t need to dominate, take charge, or set the record straight. There is no doing. All that needs to happen is for the Being to be present with the Human. Right hand meeting left hand. The alchemy of wholeness arises, as we allow both our Human and our Being to be present together.
One of the simplest ways to bring our Being into contact with our Human is through the breath. Breath is a bridge between Spirit and matter. After bringing awareness to particular human conditions, whatever they are, I often take several long, relaxed breaths, with a slow vibratory sound (like a sigh) on each exhale, as I put my hands into Namaste position, allowing Being and Human to be together in my breath and hands. And the magic inevitably happens.
This act of Namaste and breath together is a form of prayer. The prayer is not for anything specific; just a remembrance of our Divine and Human nature, and the beautiful stretching that being a Human Being entails.
Namaste