As I was putting together yesterday’s post, I was drawn to take a moment and search the net, using “Daskalos” (1) for my query. On this particular site – Theosis – one of his “followers” shared about how he was/is impacted by this man’s life, even after his passing. The following excerpt is my focus for today:
Daskalos sought to engender in us a deeper, more focused commitment to the truth. And not necessarily the Christian truth; ‘If you come here as a Buddhist,’ he would say, ‘or a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim or whatever, please leave here as one; but a real one, who knows and practices his faith. For the truth is like a many sided diamond, and each of the great religions reflect another face of the Truth of the Absolute Beingness.’ Although he encouraged his students to study the other faiths ‘to draw nectar from the other Gardens, you’ll find all the same flowers in the Garden of Christianity, perhaps even finer ones.’ For his advice, to young and old seekers alike was to stick to a faith so as not to become ‘like a person digging little holes in many places; [that] you will never go deep enough to find water.’ (emphasis added)
When I first encountered Daskalos in the book, “The Magus of Strovolos,” Markides shared a story of a girl who was brought to him by her mother. She had been taken to many healers, but she remained tormented by her illness. My intent for the moment is not to get into the illness or the healing, but to point out something that impacted me then … and still does.
As this young woman sat before Daskalos, he commented to her (p. 13) … “you have a talisman on you, right at the heart. It is a six-pointed star.” No one, other than the woman and her daughter, knew that a necklace with David’s Star was lying out-of-sight, under her dress, over her heart. But his “seeing” this is not why I mention it. It’s where he went from there. He knew she was Jewish … but as he moved along with her, he made no attempt to proselytize. He did need to know if she “genuinely believed in God or not” because he said he “could not have helped … otherwise.” (p. 14) … but aside from that, he started where she was …
This may seem insignificant to some, but it struck me then and remains a reminder of what is important … a soul’s journey … recognizing there is purpose in each of us being “where” we are on the path. We play our parts in varied moments, instruments for Spirit’s movement if we allow. And as we do, we tune in better to what’s going on … how we can be of assistance to others, as well as what we should not do. I suppose one could boil it down to:
Do the work.
Seek from where you are.
Accept another wherever they may be.
Go forward from that place … listening.
