Sacred Space Sacred Time
Laurence Harrould - Sunday, November 21, 2010
You're probably familiar with the idea of sacred* space. Have you considered scared time?
Synagogues, churches, temples, mosques etc are designated as holy or sacred. We understand that when we're in these places we change our behaviour, dress, way of speaking accordingly.
This applies not only to buildings but places as well. Uluru is an example. The traditional custodians of this landform, located in the centre or heart of Australia, consider it to be a desecration to walk on the rock. Unfortunately, many people don't understand the significance and see it as a badge of honour to climb it. However, it's likely that these same people would be highly offended if someone where to use the alter in their church, temple etc as a common table to have a picnic on or for preparing lunch.
When building sacred places we often use the landforms in the area to select the location. This may be the top of a hill, the presence of a significant object such as a rock or tree, laylines etc.
So we understand the concept of sacred space. What about sacred time?
In the same way as we can mark out a building, landform or even a room as being sacred, we can do the same thing with time.
Many people have daily rituals. After waking they may spend time in prayer, meditation, jogging etc. During this time they refrain from mundane activities like checking email, answering the phone etc and attempt to focus on those deeper or more personal things which give meaning to life which may or may not be religious.
In Judaism there is a lot of emphasis on sacred time. The core of this is the Sabbath. The seventh day of the week (Saturday) is set aside for contemplation and interaction with the divine.This day (defined as the period from sunset on Friday evening to the appearance of three average size stars on Saturday night) is marked on by special rituals, prayers and behaviour. By inculcating this into our lives we learn that taking "time out" is important. It gives us a chance to refresh, to renew our thinking, to gain clarity and insights into how and why we do what we, why we behave the way we do and where we truly fit into the world and the universe.
How is this time spent? As I said it is usually marked by specific rituals at the beginning and end of the period. Often candles are lit, special music may be played or listened to, prayers or chants can be used to initiate the process/period.
During the designated period refrain from normal activities. Don't use the phone, don't allow distractions like TV, radio, computers etc This may not necessarily be a time of personal contemplation or introspection, although it often is. It may be time with family, friends etc.
The important element of sacred time is that it's about spending time properly focussed on those things which have a high degree of importance in our lives but are often overlooked or overridden by those things which are urgent. It's very common in values surveys for people to rate family amongst their highest values and yet when you look at the amount of time spent in that area it's often not given much importance.
One very important aspect of sacred time is that it's regular. In the same way as sacred places are fixed on the Earth's surface (they don't generally move around), so too is sacred time fixed in time. The seventh day is sacred whether you use it appropriately or not in the same way that a temple is sacred whether anyone attends services or not. Certainly, people's involvement strengthens and reinforces the state of holiness or sanctity but that state exists with or without us.
What do you think?
* What do we mean by sacred/holy? According to Wikipedia, sacred means "considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe or
reverence among believers in a given set of spiritual ideas".
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It's Not All Bad
Laurence Harrould - Friday, May 14, 2010
If you listen to the news on the radio, watch it on TV, read the newspapers and news magazines you could be forgiven for thinking the world is "going to hell in a handbasket" (whatever that means). While there's a great deal which needs addressing it's not all bad. Here are a couple of examples.
Gen Y is often criticised for being selfish, disloyal, have unreasonable expectations and more. However, if we shift our paradigm we can see the same group as being self-motivated, take responsibility for their own career development, have great personal networking skills, are globally connected etc. In previous blogs I've talked about the shift from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius. The underlying paradigm of Pisces is that the value of an individual is determined by what they can contribute to society. The paradigm for Aquarius is that the purpose of society is to support the individual in achieving the best they can be. This means that society provides the support, infrastructure, technology etc to enable people to achieve things they couldn't do on their own. Jessica Watson's solo world sailing trip is a good example.
In the 1970's a some friends & I set up an evening college in Katoomba. One of the courses we ran was called "Domestic Survival". It was aimed at building skills and knowledge in self-sufficiency. One of the classes was on use of solar energy. We had a researcher from NSW University who helped build a solar water heater. This consisted of copper pipes attached to a sheet of copper, painted black and encased in a box with a glass cover. At the time this was "bleeding edge" technology. 30 years on we have an incredible range of sustainable and renewable forms of energy generation available. Our challenge now is to implement this technology on a scale that will have a real impact. Israel is an interesting example. It is the first country to be introducing fully electric cars in the near future. Approximately, 90% of all homes use solar water heating and Israel is the only country in the world where there were more trees at the end of the 20th century than there were at the beginning. This is happening while existing in a constant state of war and under existential threat.
So, while there are a huge number of challenges (finding competent, capable and visionary political leaders being one of the greatest - but that's another story) there are also many wonderful things happening. We need to shift our thinking so we're focusing on the positives while being mindful of and working to address the challenges.
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