Written on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
This morning I read the story of Naaman, the Syrian general who was cured of a skin disease by washing himself in the Jordan River seven times. It got me thinking how thrilled the general must have been to see that his skin was clean, that he was completely healed, that he could start over with a brand new life. He probably went around in a stupor of joy and wonder for many days. He might have asked himself many times, “Did this really happen? Am I really cured?” What’s wonderful, to me, about this story is that this kind of feeling could – and should – come to me constantly, for I am literally cleansed and made new every moment of every day. I have meditated countless times on the wonderful truth that the only moment that ever exists is the present moment, that this moment is always mental, and that therefore it is always new. (Only material things can age and get “old”.) I am always living in a completely new moment, and it follows that I must always be entirely new, fresh, sparkling, clean – and cured. I hope I can remember this truth throughout this chilly, rainy day. Wherever I am at any particular moment – at school, driving somewhere, at home reading the newspaper – I hope the truth of my total newness will be present to me. I hope I have, moment after moment, the same feeling Naaman had after he was cleansed of his disease. I should go around in a stupor of astonishment: Am I really brand new, fresh, sparkling, and clean – right now??
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