The full show notes for this episode are available here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origin-99490898
In this episode, we return to the Contemplations chapter in The Connoisseur of Time, specifically “Step 4” (Origin). Readers are asked to contemplate the origin or source point that led to the birth of seven inspirational passages about time and timelessness. What inspired Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, and others to speak these words?
We discuss the struggle to be special, the mistaken conception that it is only in our “Originality” that we may be loved. When we surrender to the fact that we are all uniquely configuring waves on the same vast ocean, we can be more present to what is happening rather than scheme, be creative, or find ways to stand out as original and usually separate. We are all part of a larger unfolding.
We discuss the role of parenting in attending to the child's specialness. This part of the conversation mentions Proverbs 22:6, typically translated as
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”
In our conversation, we turn to a different Hebraic interpretation. Please see this article as well. “Train up” or "Dedicate"? The Hebrew Gem in Proverbs 22:6.
“Dedicate or help cultivate a child according to his way: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
A key phrase is “the way he should go” or “according to his way.” The focus is less on the parent’s training or upbringing – and whatever skills, guidance, or formula a parent might use. Instead, the proverb asks us to deeply discern what makes the child unique—What is his/her destiny? What are his/her unique gifts? What makes them original?
In other words, there is a recognition that the child’s own time on earth belongs to them, not to us. We want them to wake up to their own unfolding—throughout their lives.
This discussion of parenting connects to the origin of the seven passages as follows:
Each of us is here to develop what is already wired into the DNA of our souls. The universe (and we are part of and reflect the universe) has a starting point in a time beyond time that is still there. It has never left. It is an eternal source point. The spiritual passages ask us to remember this, and the proverb asks us to remember this when we tend to the education of our children. We hope that, as they age and approach death, they will be happy to see how they cultivated their own way.
This, it appears, is the common message across all the passages: to cultivate sense of the eternal while we are living in clock-time.
REFERENCES CITED
Richard Rohr On the Threshold of Transformation: Daily Meditations for Men
Angeles Ariens: The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary
Definitions of Divine Origin in the Enneagram
AH Almaas: https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-holy-ideas
Integrative Enneagram Website: https://www.integrative9.com/media/articles/51/the-enneagram-of-holy-ideas