The Most Radiant Gift

Birth has been faithfully present over the past 10,000 years of modern civilization and it has remained unchanged. We have advanced the process of fertilization, and the timing and methods of the deliveries of our babies, but the result has remained the consistent miracle of birth. In a normal, full-term gestational birth, we witness the wide-eyed wonder, the flexed extremities, the redness, the cries, the need to feed, the beauty and pure love with awe; it is all part of that thing we call the beginning of life. It appears that every individual in the human population arrives in this world when they are supposed to arrive, despite our best planned or unplanned efforts; odds of a person being born on this planet from a specific fertilized egg and sperm are about one in 400 trillion, which is essentially zero. Given these overwhelming odds, each infant is truly a miraculous gift from the Most High. It is interesting to note that despite our technological achievements, the process of arriving when we are supposed to arrive has also remained unchanged over thousands of years. The unique and profound phenomenon of a baby's conception, in utero development and birthing process elicits feelings of profound joy, love and peace as if this were the first birth ever. Their glorious presence as new members of the human species remains unchanged. We examine the outside- the cute, soft, innocent appearance and marvel at the newness and delight of welcoming our babies to our individual families. We share the baby with other loved ones who appear happy while holding and caressing this lovely being. The baby shares an opportunity for all of us to offer a living expression of our highest being, our best selves within as well as toward everyone else. He or she would be comparable to Manjushri, the highest Bodhisattva, embodying transcendent wisdom. They are, in fact, our "divine" teachers. There is no hesitation to the baby's offering. It is genuinely unconditional. It is our blueprint of living. We must not unconsciously disregard its expression and blame our ignorance on "human nature". The nature of man is that blueprint that the babies embrace consistently. We need to take it upon ourselves to return to our "true" human nature and communicate it freely and consciously. Our true human nature would be natural and normal to convey. A spiritual definition of normal would encompass an understanding of balance, wholeness and uncompromising purity. Normal is reliable; the standard of living a good life. True friendships are normal. Good human beings are normal. All of our babies are normal. Let us move forward toward the standard of normality. Our normal human need is to truly feel at home. Home, not a physical swelling, but a sense of spiritual awareness and its connection to all humankind and the universe. During an uncomplicated fetal development, the warm, comfortable womb is the home and the environment is stable. The womb is our universal home to bathe in our well being. We are developed in secret, in darkness, and in "living waters". What is developing? The seed of the womb, a "star" with an individual expression of luster that shines in the darkness while being prepared for its life journey. Though the stars have uniqueness, they are recognized equally favorable by their Creator. At some point in time, each star is aligned facing East toward the dawn of new life. When it is time for the nurtured seed to be presented, the curtain rises and a star is front and center; a star is born. The fetus is guided and guarded while growing, and very familiar with his or her surroundings. There is a definitive order in feeling at home, and after the transition of the fetus becoming a baby, the baby is delivered into the world and would like to feel as welcomed as he or she felt during their developmental stages. We all need to feel at home wherever we are in our lives. Our internal 'home' needs to remain in order and we need to stay familiar with it. If the babies are placed in the middle of a hot desert, in a frozen tundra, or in a prison camp, they would still feel at home. They understand that our destination throughout our lives is to find our way back home. We are not born to work an eight hour day, have a dependency on others, become a superstar, or take a trip to the moon or Mars. The baby knows the way back home and we need to follow that lead. Return to our true human nature, and again, allow nature and the universe to reveal our answers through our babies' perspective.