The Spirit of Christmas Past,
Christmas Present
and
Christmases Yet-To-Come
The Spirit of
Christmas Present: It’s two days before Christmas and we’re having
an absolutely gorgeous day. Clear blue skies framing a gloriously
radiant sun above my head and crunchy white snow beneath my
boots. As I walk around the final bend in the road back to our
By Michael J Tamura
house, our Swiss neighbor’s grandkids’ giggles greet me as they
12/23/15
swoosh down their perfect nature-built sled hill. Reaching our
driveway, I pause as a young mother deer and her fawn look up to
say, “Hello,” from a few feet away in our yard. The little one cocks her head and watches, while I
resume my trek to the front door. As I enter our house, our celebration of Christmas welcomes
me home.
The spirit of Christmas is very present in our home, even though, this year, we don’t even have a
Christmas tree or decorations gracing our living room. Rather than putting out more things with
which to celebrate the Holy Days, Raphaelle and I are packing away everything in boxes this
week and the next. Twenty-one days ago, as we were driving out of our driveway for our 8-day
teaching event trip, the one before this last trip from which we returned just two days ago, we got
a phone call from our real estate broker. Great news. After over 14 months on the market, there
was a solid cash offer for our house. Finally. The one catch seemed to be that the buyer wanted
to close escrow in 27 days. Since we couldn’t possibly pack, clean and organize a move out of
our 4000 sq. ft. home during the few days we were to be home between trips, we asked for
escrow closing to be pushed to February 1. Even with that closing date, we would only have
Christmas week and the week after to completely pack and organize the move and only four
days after our next 3-week trip to have the movers and cleaners come to clear us out of here the
day before escrow is to close. Overnight, we’ve had to completely rearrange our lives to plan on
packing our house day and night for the next two weeks, starting today.
But, wait! There’s more. Before you start congratulating us for our house sale, there’s a new little
twist we’re just starting to discover. It’s probably not a house sale after all even though the
contract has been signed, sealed and
delivered! In fact, it’s starting to
look a lot like a scam. The strange
part is that the apparent scammer
doesn’t make a penny out of all this
rigamarole, so who knows what
the purpose for all of this has been.
However this may play out, we’ve
decided that we’ll continue to pack our house and get everything ready for our move - whenever
that may be. And, the great news is that we’ve done all our paperwork and know exactly what
we need to do for the sale and move, so it’s been a good dress rehearsal. Even if all the scammer
wanted to accomplish was to make life more difficult for others, the only one who got
shortchanged is the one who tried to take away something from others. Perhaps, this person
forgot that the spirit of Christmas is in the giving and that spirit is always the giver. Whenever we
believe that we must take to get something, we fall out of the grace of spirit. On the other hand,
when we live in the spirit of givingness, no matter what situation or condition we face in life, we
are filled with joyous peace and we become the beneficiaries of grace.
The Spirit of Christmas Past: My first thought goes to the 5-foot tinselbranched Christmas tree with a turning, four-color-wheel projector
that made the aluminum strips on the thin, wood-dowel branches
sparkle alternately red-blue-green-white. Each year, my Dad would
stick the branches into the little holes in the silver-spray-painted
broomstick trunk and put up the tree and my Mom would hang the
simple, colored glass balls and a few blinking plastic lights on it. My
parents were nominally Buddhists, but, Christmas was an American
tradition and my Dad was Nisei, a second generation JapaneseAmerican. They had no problem having rib-eye steak next to their
sushi. However, there were no baby Jesus’s, manger scenes, or three
wise men in our house, other than on the Christmas cards we received
from friends and relatives in the US. Even so, the spirit of Christmas in
our home was that of givingness.
I learned about wrapping presents and packing and
preparing packages to ship from watching Dad every
year wrap and package gifts he would ship to his
mother, siblings and other relatives in California
during the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Unbeknownst to him, that and
watching him get up first every morning in Winter to go around the house filling
the three kerosene stoves with fuel and lighting them to warm up the house for
the rest of us, were probably my two most cherished
Christmas presents that he gave me. Naturally, as a
child, I delighted in any presents having to do with
driving and cars - from my first plastic dashboard with a
steering wheel, gauges and lights to motorized driving
games to slot cars and tracks. I also loved plastic model
kits - the more intricate, the better. Of course, action
figures were great, too. Yet, all of those toys were only
exciting and fun for a while. I couldn’t take any of them with me where I was going in life. But,
what I learned from watching my Dad spend hours over those Winter days each year in
givingness, I’ve carried with me everywhere I go, over all of these decades. Today, each time I
make the bed and miter the corners of the sheets, I do so with the same care and givingness with
which I saw my Dad folding the corners of the wrapping paper as he neatly packaged them for
shipping, all those Christmases past. To this day, I delight in getting to wrap gifts in the same way.
Not only has wrapping gifts, packaging things, making beds, and folding napkins been a kind of
peaceful meditation for me over the years, it’s been a joyful experience. And, I know that we
only experience joy when we are truly giving.
This year, my Dad will spend his second Christmas at an elderly care home in hospice. My Mom
continues to watch over him from heaven. No shopping, no wrapping, no preparing packages to
send to family and friends. Two days ago, when we visited him, he repeated, like a mantra, “I
just want to rest and sleep.” Little by little, he’s been preparing for his departure over the past
few years. His new mantra was his way of telling us that he’s made peace with dying and that
he’s going to rest and sleep until he slips away. It may be a while longer or it may be soon either way, it will be on his schedule. I’m happy for him. He’s gone from being tired of living,
but deathly afraid of dying, to being at peace with the long sleep, perchance to have a better
dream. It will be a quiet, peaceful Christmas celebration for him. Perhaps, he will come to see
in his passing all the gifts he gave to many that truly mattered, rather than all that he didn’t or
couldn’t do that he believed to be his failures. I ask for that to be the gift he finds this year under
his Christmas tree.
“I have no gift to bring, that’s fit to give our king.”
Like the Little Drummer Boy and my Dad, many may look to the glitter of the
coolest toys or the glory of worldly success and accomplishments and, lacking
them, feel inadequate or that they do not have anything worthy to give others,
especially to those they hold to be greater than themselves. But, just as the boy
comes to realize that he is a drummer and he can play the drum, even for a
king, each one of us needs to discover what we are and what we have to offer
one another regardless of our financial status, health, education or stature in
society. Whatever our drum, we can play it to make one smile. It is especially true for one who
has everything, since, it is in having everything, that one doesn’t need for anything. The only true
gift for one who has no lack is your sharing of love. There can never be too much of
limitlessness. And, that requires no money or time, but only that you be true to yourself, the spirit
that you are. That’s what the little drummer boy learned.
The Spirit of Christmas Present: We thought our house was finally sold, but it was just a scam.
My Dad has been in hospice and is preparing to make his departure. We have several friends
and students who are currently facing the challenges of healing themselves of serious illnesses.
Many others we know are struggling to keep afloat in this economy. Meanwhile, terrorism is
escalating and candidates running for the highest office in our nation are debating the political
correctness of religious persecution. Some people may see all of this as contrary to the Christmas
spirit - or maybe even as a sign of the apocalypse. Yet, Raphaelle and I are celebrating Christmas
even more when situations in life seem to demand defeat, disappointment, and discouragement.
After all, the true spirit of Christmas shines most brightly when we choose to give, when all
appears lost and we have nothing left to give. Christmas offers us a chance to gain our “second
wind.”
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet, not my will, but yours be done.”
The miracle of the Christ is born within each of us, whenever we relinquish our fear of losing
something crucial to our survival in favor of having the joy of loving. We are living in a time
when it seems to us more and more that we don’t have enough time for all that we need to do.
What are we to do if so many of the things we need to do now seem to be a priority demanding
our immediate attention? At times, we may even feel as if we are being asked to choose, which
of our children shall live and which we will abandon. Today, many people are living on the edge
of overwhelm, regularly.
These are signs not, however, of impending doom and devastation, but, of a global awakening.
These are all calls for us to choose to live in eternity, rather than complacently remain hostages to
time. These are golden invitations for us to live the miracle, instead of choosing to define
ourselves by worldly demands and limitations. We are not being punished by a wrathful god.
We are being presented with opportunities by a loving Creator. It is said that you can lead a
horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink. We are that horse and we are continuously being
led to the water of truth and of life by the all-pervading limitless spirit within us,
yet, it is up to each of us to choose to drink of it.
Our ego points at the clock on the wall as proof that our life is ticking away
relentlessly by the second. All the while, spirit offers us eternity and limitlessness.
With our ego, every choice is an ultimatum of either-or: do or die, it’s you or me,
kill or be killed. Spirit gives us both-and: I missed the boat and there’s another
one on the way, it’s you and me, this is painful and I love myself. So, whenever
you feel as if you are up against an immovable wall, it’s definitely time to step
back from the insistent hammering and yammering of your ego and look instead
to the boon spirit is extending to you, lovingly, respectfully, silently.
Terrorism around the world will never be eradicated until we are each able to face the terrorist
within us. And, as are all manners of terrorists in the world, the terrorist within each of us is
terrified of limitlessness, of eternity, of being swallowed whole into isolation and oblivion by that
which is beyond its comprehension or control. Those who wage war on love and look upon
forgiveness as weakness suffer greatly, as they are unable to experience joy. Such is the ego in
each of us, the terrorist within. Only our commitment to seeking truth and sharing in love will
heal us and forever silence the ego. Our loving is the loyal doorman who holds open for us the
door inward to joy. Only through our loving will bullies disappear from schools and workplaces
and fanatical terrorists from the world stage.
“Those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword.”
All wars, both personal and global, are, by their nature, religious wars. For religion defines our
relationship to God. The ego ceaselessly battles against God. So, as any group of souls organize
to establish a system to learn to relate to God, the individual as well as collective ego
increasingly rallies its armies to gain an upper hand. If those of a particular religious
establishment choose to follow their egos’ dictates, they will begin to wage war against those
who sincerely seek to learn God’s Will. Even sects and denominations within each established
religious system may begin to fight for survival and control should the adherents fall hostage to
their ego desires and demands. Only if we begin to recognize when we are choosing to follow
the dictates of a tyrannical ego rather than the truth, will we begin to make new choices that
enable us to cooperate rather than compete with one another in the various ways we seek to
know and relate to God.
The essence of all religions and religious practices, is found in the Latin root from which the
word, religion, derives. Religare means “to bind.” We follow a religious practice or teachings to
learn to bind to God. The word “yoga” similarly derives from it’s Sanskrit root meaning, “union.”
So, whether we practice yoga or religion, we are seeking to bind to or reunite with Our Creator.
This is the basis of all healing, the healing of our essential relationship with That Which Is, That
Which We Are.
That religious intolerance is surfacing in our global consciousness in so many ways is certainly a
sign that humanity as a whole is beginning to awaken, to heal its relationship with it’s Creator. To
heal means to restore ourselves to wholeness. God is that wholeness or holiness. When we are
asleep, we are dreaming in ignorance of our creation, of our intrinsic wholeness. We assume we
are separate from the whole of life, that we exist independently as separate individuals in
isolation, and we suffer in loneliness and terror. The first stirrings of our awakening is our seeking
some form of religion, of yoga, of spiritual wisdom offered by our elders who have arrived at
their own healing. Their peace, their joy, their light attract us and we want to listen to them. As
with all learning processes, however, we all misinterpret those teachings, especially at first. Truth
is so simple, powerful and profound that most of us instinctively try to water it down to make it
palatable to our threatened and defensive ego. Very gradually at first, we begin to swallow our
pride, set aside a bit of our trepidation and proceed cautiously to see if anything about God
could be trusted. In ignorance, we always assume at first, “God doesn’t go to work to pay my
bills, I do.” The goal of every ego is to survive at all costs. Our goal as souls is to awaken and
return to our Creator.
So many who profess to be spiritual seekers have waged war against religion that it’s become
popular to define oneself as “spiritual, but not religious.” Yet, maintaining any kind of spiritual
practice and path simply means learning and practicing living more as the eternal spirit that one
is rather than continuing to follow the dictates of the ego’s fierce divisiveness rooted in the fear
that without division, we cannot exist. If you fight against religion, you are falling prey to the
ego’s demands just as surely as the religions that you judge as being anti-spiritual is doing the
same. Yes, many, many times along our path, we all misinterpret the teachings of the wise ones.
Yet, truth shall always prevail and its light eventually shines through all such misperceptions. It is
only through our willingness to relinquish our guilt, judgment and blame, to forgive one another
in the light of that eternal truth, that we will, together, move beyond our self-imposed prison
walls of religious intolerance, of bullying and all forms of terrorism, and heal our relationship
with Our Creator. And, as long as we continue to see an enemy, we cannot accomplish this
alone.
The Spirit of Christmases Yet-To-Come: Spirit is eternal and limitless. That means it is forever
the same. It never changes from time to time. Eternity knows no time. So, the Spirit of
Christmas Past, Present and of Christmases Yet-To-Come is, but one Spirit. What seems to change
in our experience of Christmas is only the way we see it. And, the purpose of Christmas and all
forms of celebrating Holy Days is to remind us in whatever manner amenable to us that we are
here but for one purpose: To realize that we are all of one and the same purpose, for in Oneness,
the All, there are no distinctions of color, of gender, of race, of ethnicity, of political preferences,
of nationality, of the way in which we choose to live our lives and, above all, the way in which
we choose to find our true relationship with the Oneness in Whose Image We Are All Created.
Along the way, in this world as part of the human family, we each seem to make myriad
mistakes. Some we judge as small mistakes and others as horrific failures. Yet, in Spirit, there is
no sliding scale of judgment assessing the magnitude of our mistakes. In truth, mistakes do not
exist in Eternity. What is, always is. And, all that we experience in the world are but signposts to
our next steps to our freedom and healing. Mistakes and the judgment, blame and guilt that they
imply simply are only in the isolated consciousness of their producers.
All true religion and spiritual teachings necessarily are based on loving. All the tenets, guidance
and even dogmas are merely our attempts as humanity to find our way to our Source of Life.
Hating can never take us to the truth, for hating is our refusal to loving - and living life as we are
meant to live it. In fact, any and all unhappiness that any of us may experience comes from our
refusal to love or from our unwillingness to share our love. After all, how many times have you
been at least fairly content or even happy until someone who you were unwilling to share your
love with walked into the room? It’s that simple. Loving is only a choice we make - and, it isn’t
a choice predicated upon what is happening in the world, what someone did or how we may be
feeling at any given time. It is a choice based only on our own willingness to face God.
"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have believed."
In Dickens’s Christmas Carol, Scrooge finally believed when he was shown the consequences of
the various choices he had made in his life and how the choices he was about to make in the
present would play out in the years to come. Yet, rather than waiting for the ghosts of
Christmases Past, Present and Future to spell it out for you, if you proactively develop your
certainty in Divinity and act more upon your own intuitive knowing every day, the wholeness of
Spirit will grace you amply in the world with the blessings that flow out of the very choices that
you’ve made within you. However, when you evaluate what happens in your life, make sure that
you see it in the more complete context of your whole life so you don’t misinterpret what
appears difficult or unpleasant as a mistake or failure and end up invalidating yourself.
Remember, if you pay attention, Spirit ceaselessly provides the signs that guide you, step-by-step,
through your life. Learn to follow it consistently and it will lead you to the miraculous life that
you were meant to live.
May you each dance joyously in the Eternal Spirit of Christmas (whatever your chosen religious
practice may be) and in All The Undivided Wholeness that is Life!
With gratitude, love and celebration,
Michael