Namasté, Namasté
I greet you with my heart wide open.
I bow to the place in you where God dwells
In light and love
We are one
Music and lyrics by Trish Bruxvoort Colligan
Copyright 2006, RainDancerMusic
My first encounter with the world Namasté came when I was a 20-year old young woman tentatively exploring spiritual direction. I must admit, this introduction was a bit bumpy. What was this word, anyway? From what language did it originate? And just how did I pronounce it without sounding like a fool, or worse, freaking out my more "this-train-is-bound-for-glory" friends? (Hint: It's NOT pronounced nuh-MAST.) But three was not getting around it: my spiritual director was founder and director of Namasté Healing and Spiritual Guidance. It would literally greet me at the door every month for two years.
Once I learned to pronounce it (nah-mah-STAY), the word became far less scary. Good thing, as the word Namasté has entered my life on numerous occasions since: yoga classes, email signatures, magazine articles, songs, clothing labels, book publishing houses, NBC Thursday night TV, and websites alike. More than a decade later and over a thousand recitations since, its significance greets me on many doors of my life.
So what's it mean? The online information site Wikipedia says this about Namasté:
In a religious context this word can be taken to mean any of these:
- The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you.
- I bow to the divine in you.
- I salute the Light of God in you.
- I bring together my body and soul. focusing on my divine potential, and bow to the same potential within you.
In other words, it recognizes the equality of all, and pays homage to the sacredness of all.
I can imagine how tempting it would be to assume Namasté means we must "be nice" to people, or pretend we like them even when we don't. I'll admit it: I've fallen prey to such ideas in the name of religion before. But human differences will always arise. I think Namasté is less about feigning deep admiration for every person we meet on the street and more about recognizing the quirkiness and oddities of those we encounter -- every day or once in a lifetime -- and choosing compassion anyway. Choosing to see another person in a grace-filled light. Choosing to recognize the intrinsic spark of the Holy within each being. This goes for our own selves too, by the way.
A center of my spiritual understanding lies in Story: the Universal Story, the Individual Story, and all the places they intersect. In addition to the intrinsic spark of the Holy within each being, it is my experience that the same holy spark comes to us in the layers of stories that knit together the cosmos. What if we could greet each particle of our own Stories with a deep and reverent bow?
January 2006 marked the launching of Spirations Institute for Interspiritual Formation, a women's two-year spiritual direction training program of which I am the founder and program director. As the first weekend retreat approached, I knew I wanted a song of honor and blessing to welcome each woman to the group. Over and over, the word "Namasté" returned to me. Thus, the song was born. Ten women gathered with me for our opening circle. By way of introduction, each woman shared elements of her journey that had brought her to this circle. Then, she carried an object to the table centered in our midst. In honor of her story and her presence, the group stood and sang with bows and heart-opening actions: "Namasté, Namasté! I greet you with my heart wide open!" While yet strangers to one another it was sung out in affirmation. With intention. As an announcement, to borrow from Mary Oliver, of each woman's place in the family of things.
Now I invite you, O lovely one of the cosmos, with my heart wide open.
Deep bows,
Trish