Dharma Glimpse by Paramita

Some months back, as I was considering my next career move after an unexpected complication had uprooted me in my then current employment role, I experienced a moment of synchronistic alignment that influenced my decision about how to proceed.

The sudden interruption to my life plans had sent me into a panic. I didn’t feel ready to start a new job or venture into a new, or indeed, old and familiar line of work.

I was working long hours in the care industry, and had felt quite settled. Steady work, decent money and reasonably predictable working relationships.

On a regular night shift that I was working I would often listen to podcasts or watch videos of interesting spiritual teachers unpacking esoteric concepts and tying them into everyday living scenarios.
On this particular night the speaker was making predictions about the near future effects of climate breakdown and when they might begin to seriously impact on our day to day lives.

As I was putting an entry into the company communications book and writing the time as 20.35, the speaker was making his prediction of the year 2035 being a tipping point, beyond which normal life would change unrecognizably. The exact moment that I wrote the time, was the exact moment that he said the date.

Now, this might not seem like a big deal on face value but, to me, this was quite a shock. I had had similar experiences in the past, whereby my attention had been drawn to something important in exactly this way. Like a poke in the back or a tap on the shoulder, intended to nudge me into a new train of thought. Which it certainly did.

I can’t really do justice to the moment here but can say that I felt inspired to investigate the significance of 2035. Eventually I found myself scouring the Bible, as I knew that scripture was organised in this numerical way in the Testaments, in fact I had some personally significant ones memorised for the purpose of spiritual sustenance.

Eventually, I put it into the search engine on my phone and it came up with a variety of different translations of the passage: Acts 20:35, which states:

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. (King James version)

This sent a shiver down my spine and even now gives me goosebumps, and a sense of warmth and comfort, like I’m being guided in quite a specific way, towards quite a specific purpose.

The instruction to “support the weak” could surely never be better fulfilled than in the day to day activities of a care worker, who helps elderly people do all the things that they can no longer do for themselves. And quite obviously, in this way, it surely is “better to give than to receive”.

This moment of religious inspiration informed my decision to remain in the care industry and I am now working for a different company, under more reliable conditions.
I can’t say that I understand the deeper or wider meaning or reason for the shift that led from one care job to the next, but I definitely felt the hand of Amida at play here. And the importance of inter-faith resources has not entirely escaped my attention either. I do, and have always, drawn great nourishment from the teachings of other religions and faith systems, which invariably, in my experience, point us towards the same benign principles and a unified spiritual purpose.

Namo Amida Bu.