Our New son's circumcision talk

My Dear Zohar Yehuda Yona

I have chosen to write to you from father to son, sharing my feelings and thoughts on this day and I invite you to keep this letter and read it during your teens and beyond.

Had things worked out differently and your Bris had turned out to be on a Sunday, I would have insisted on having it on my territory as opposed to your Mums – i.e at Speakers Corner. So I have brought along my sign to at least bring a flavour. Just in case you are not watching the dvd (or whatever format you have now) but are listening to or reading this (Do they still read in your days?) it reads ‘Don’t believe anyone including me’

This in a way sums up what I wish for you as you continue to evolve and grow from child to adult and to greater awareness.

So please read this in that vein. Do not give it any value just because I wrote it (I know that during large parts of your youth you will illustrate this amply) but also do not dismiss it for the same reason. Instead you are invited be with these ideas and see if they work for you. If not then let them go for a while or forever.

I believe we are all messengers, teaching each other about life through life. My prayer is that we both remain open to each others teachings. That we both find ways to help each other to remember who we really are.

You are teaching me already. You have started reminding me. As you entered the physical world, it seemed obvious to me that you entered into perfection – i.e you were just as you were meant to be. It seemed obvious to us. And I regularly forget that I too was born into innocence. And that I too am exactly as I am meant to be. And that you will always be ok as you are in any moment despite the fact that you will try and trick me into thinking differently !

You teach me about peace. When you lie peacefully not needing to do anything or be anyone other than who you are.

You teach me about love and in particular the ability to accept love freely. How many of us, myself included struggle receiving love ?

You teach me about oneness for still you have not created an illusory sense of self, of ego. Instead you still experience the world as one.

You teach me about expression of feelings – when you feel something, you let it out and let us know.

Your brother Uri and Sister Adina have taught me the above and more.

Adina teaches me about all this and about joy – still jumping up in joy to this day.

Uri teaches us about all this and about affection, still showering us with it to this day.

They also constantly reveal unhealed parts of myself which I can then choose to attempt to heal. You will do that too.

So what can I offer you ?

All my offerings are not just offerings to you. They are reminders to myself too.

My intention is to be open with you as I can. To give you the space to ask anything and talk about everything. (Yes – even about things like death sex and God shhhh) My purpose in your upbringing is to facilitate your independence. Independence of mind, of body. To help you create the life of your dreams. A life that will bring out the best in you. To wake you up to who you really are so that you too can awaken others to who they are. Despite the fact that who you are can never be contained in the poor vehicle of language, I am talking about helping you recognise your divine magnificence. To remember that you are eternal life expressed in this physical form but nevertheless eternal.

Sometimes I will fall short of my purpose. Occasionally I will do things which are the antithesis of my intention. Forgive me if you can. I will be doing my best at any time as will you. We can certainly teach each other about forgiveness.

As you were approaching your emergence, Michelle your wonderful Mummy was in such intense pain, she could hardly find the noises to express the agony. I felt powerless to do anything. It was painful to watch and I felt sad and perplexed about all the pain in the world which seems an inevitable part of life. But the pain of birth is different to most other pain. It is not a pain with which ‘suffering’ is attached.

And this can be so with your life. Suffering is not the same as pain – its how we interpret pain. I invite you to accept pain as a gift. It is the gift of expansion of awareness. Sometimes it is the only way life can awaken us.

And then you actually took your first breath as you entered this reality – the illusory world of the physical – for a short sojourn of 100 years or so (or maybe much more by the time you read this) And it was amaing to see this life breathed into you. I whispered to you as you emerged – ‘welcome to the world. It is a beautiful place.’ If I would be more truthful I may have said ‘Welcome to the world. It is.’ But I wanted to share with you a beautiful concept. The world actually is neither beautiful nor ugly. It is how we choose to see it. Many will have already tried to persuade you that it is dangerous or ugly. But I offer you a possibility that it is as you see it so you may as well see it as beautiful and magical. Perhaps you can choose your own beliefs.

Mummy and I were troubled today on the day before your Bris. We asked the question that many parents probably ask, explicitly or implicitly. What on earth are we doing, hurting you like this ? You don’t have to be a top philosopher to understand that its not because God wants this. To suggest God wants anything is to suggest that He is lacking in some way.
Then I thought, it is a bit like having children. Anyone thinking straight would never have a child. The risk, the costs, the sleepless nights, the struggles of parenting etc etc. But sometimes we rise beyond the rational. We transcend those questions so that we can experience love. So that we can be part of the mystery.
So in a sense it is a mystery why we are even doing this.
We live in a world which often does not like mystery. Scientists want answers – want to fit things into boxes. But God doesn’t fit into a box. Life doesn’t either. We will never have all the answers because life itself is the mysterious unfolding of the answers only to reveal more questions.

So I invite you to embrace the mystery. Because the mystery, the unknown is God, is Life. To avoid the trap of a busy life which can often put us into a semi conscious trance. And yet I invite you to never stop asking questions. Too many of us don’t question enough or at all.

As regards to the Torah, it is said that we each have our own Torah. There are some who do not teach their children to learn the commentaries so that their children create their own. So my personal meaning of Brit is this.

We remove a small part of our body to remind us that even without that part, who we are is unaffected. Whilst we honour this body which is the vessel of our soul, we are reminded that we have a body but we are not our body. Who we are cannot be touched with a knife. This is because who we are does not exist in time and space. The Brit is a covenant with God but in reality a covenant with ourselves. That we remember who we really are.

There is an amazing thing about babies. You just want to eat them up..- they are just so cute, and most people can see that. Now if I produced a robot that could do the same as a baby (like those electronic toys) do we feel such love and connection ? what is the difference ? Spirit. Humans have something beyond the flesh and bones – its just easier to see it in children than in adults and in ourselves for some peculiar reason.

We live in exciting and potentially dangerous times. Times that I believe require a shift in consciousness if we are to continue life as we know it on the planet. A shift away from a material , moneycentric world into a love centric world. If you wish to be a part of the shift, I will support you all the way. But the shift always has to start inside.

I bless you with an abundant mindset so that you welcome in the abundance of the physical and spiritual. I bless you with an open heart to let in the love which you are. I bless you with an open mind to let in the wisdom which you are. I bless you with open eyes with which you can see your own magnificence and then others too. And as I bless you, I bless myself for you and I are not separate.

I hope this will be one of many communications and that you will take time away from your virtual reality games you play these days to read and write back.

Love
Daddy