We have been thinking about ‘sin.’ In my last entry we briefly explored the concept ‘Pesha.’ This morning we will briefly explore a second concept: ‘Avon.’ I invite you, Gentle Reader to read or re-read the first two entries so that the following might be more meaningful.
Avon. Avon is rooted in the concept of being twisted or of becoming crooked. As we travel our life path we hit bumps and pot holes (and craters) and these throw us off of our path – just a bit at first and over time they can send us off in a new direction. These bumps, pot holes and craters can be part of the external landscape or they can appear in response to an internal miss-alignment. Avon moves us off-center and this, being a bit off-center, moves us, again, away from our espoused path. Early on in our life we experience this as a mild shift in direction. Rather than walking the center line of our life’s path we begin to move toward the edges. A ‘straight-line becomes crooked’. Rabbi Louis Jacobs suggests that at times we discover that we have been traveling a crooked path by stopping, stepping back and looking back.
Sometimes we literally wake up one morning – or an event occurs that suddenly ‘wakes us up’ – and we realize that the path we are on is not the path we sought or the path we imagined ourselves to be on. This tends to be a bit disconcerting. There is hope. We are more likely to ‘stay the course’ if we develop, practice and integrate the disciplines that will help us ‘stay-awake’ and be more intentional and purpose-full as we travel along. What these disciplines will be will depend upon ‘Who I am’ and ‘Who I am choosing to become’ – they will be ‘self-specific.’
We are imperfect human beings and so we will not only be bumped off-center by some externals, we will bump ourselves off-center because of internal miss-alignments. Because we are, by nature, imperfect human beings it is crucial that we avoid the trap (pot-hole or crater) of ‘being perfect.’ Consistency, not perfection, is crucial. Re-alignment is crucial. We will not perfectly ‘walk-the-talk.’ We will, each of us, ‘stumble the mumble.’
It can also be helpful to invite others to walk along with us or we can walk along with another. The trap for each, however, is that my path becomes theirs or their path becomes mine. We will also meet others along the way who appear to be on a ‘better path’ than ours and this presents us with another trap. We might develop the illusion (or is it delusion) that their path is ‘better than ours.’ For thousands of years the great wisdom traditions have reminded us (and continue to remind us) that our path is ‘good’ for it is our path.
The great Japanese sage, Basho, reminds us that: Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. And the great German poet, Rilke, suggests that: The only journey is the one within.
Searcher-Seeker 