Center for Action and Contemplation: Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation "Universal Amnesia" for Monday, 17 February 2014

Center for Action and Contemplation: Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation "Universal Amnesia" for Monday, 17 February 2014
"The True Self"
"Universal Amnesia"
Monday, February 17, 2014
At birth, we too are the one Christ Child, the divine child. Perhaps this is why we love to observe little babies. You can tell they’re still living out of pure and natural being. They can switch from a full-faced, million-dollar smile to crying in one second, because it doesn’t process through their head. They are just in immediate connection with pure being, which is also pure spirit. That’s why we can’t take our eyes off of little children. We know they’re living in connection with the Big Self and their True Self. But we start losing access to it around the age of seven, the so-called “age of reason.” 1
I remember hearing a story, reportedly true, about a young couple putting their newborn in the nursery for the night. Their four-year-old son said to them, “I want to talk to the baby!” They said, “Yes, you can talk to him from now on.” But he pressed further, saying, “I want to talk to him now and by myself.” Surprised and curious, they let the young boy into the nursery and cupped their ears to the door, wondering what he might be saying.
This is what they reportedly heard their boy say to his baby brother: “Quick, tell me where you came from. Quick, tell me who made you. I’m beginning to forget!”
Could that be true? Have most of us forgotten? Is this what Jesus was referring to when he would often teach that we have to become like little children to “get it”?
Most spirituality has said that, in one way or another, we have all indeed begun to forget, if not fully forgotten, who we actually are. Universal amnesia seems to be the problem. Religion’s job comes down to one thing: to tell us, and to keep reminding us, who we objectively are. Thus, Catholics keep eating “the Body of Christ” until they know that they are what they eat—a human and ordinary body that is also the eternal Christ. 2
1. Adapted from True Self / False Self, disc 2 (CD)
2. Adapted from Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self, pages 10-11
Gateway to Silence: Becoming who I am
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