Chapter 3: Reverence

“Reverence is engaging in a form and a depth of contact with Life that is well beyond the shell of form and into essence. Reverence is contact with the essence of each thing and person and plant and bird and animal. It is contact with the interior of its beingness. Even if you cannot sense the interior, it is enough to know that the form, the shell, is merely an outer layer, and that underneath it the true power and essence of who a person is, or what a thing is, is present. That is what is honored in reverence.”

GARY ZUKAV

Alexandra:

Speaking of Our Agreements, particularly to this week’s chapter on REVERENCE which is my favorite so far as well, I wanna ask you a couple questions. Can you have reverence for someone else if you don’t have reverence for yourself? Like, think about it, Gary talks about how reverence is seeing past someones’ shell of a form and into their essence, but isn’t it when you begin to see the deeper aspects of yourself that you can truly see the deeper aspects of another person or plant or thing? Even looking at how our relationship has progressed over the years, I’ve grown to understand the deeper parts of your essence by the deeper reflection I’ve been doing within myself! This deeper reflection into my own essence is what allows me to not see you as a victim, or someone who got the short end of the stick or even just someone who needs to ‘be saved.’ Speak to that for me, please.

Brandon:

I say emphatically NO!!! For what may appear to be reverence for others, would turn out to be appeasement at the very least. Cause when the other party fails to reciprocate this reverence, while not looking or demanding it, you allow yourself to be subjected to less than admirable conditions. Plus, you may see yourself as unworthy in this reverent exchange. I can’t see someone recognizing the authentic power of someone else’s, but failing to admire and exalt their own. It starts with the cognition of their own essence, similar to how psychologists say when a baby is able to recognize themselves in the mirror is when they are able to really start doing complex mental calculations. So I would say no, they must acknowledge their own reverence first, and this is how you have a full and complete reverence and honor for others. Do unto others, as you have them do unto you!!

“The reverent person cannot consider himself or herself superior to another person or to any other form of Life, because the reverent person sees Divinity in all forms of Life, and honors it.”

GARY ZUKAV

Alexandra:

I know you spoke about having an imaginary friend as a young boy and how you spoke about him to others which is very true for many people when they were kids. But do you consciously remember at what point you no longer acted with reverence for others around you or things around you? Like what statements do you remember hearing that were in the tone of “it’s time to grow-up now” or a “those things aren’t important anymore” type of tone. I remember being told that I had to learn how to cook and clean and take care of a husband when I was in middle school! Meanwhile, I just wanted to go to the beach, soak up the sun and just enjoy hanging out with my friends but I was being made to feel like I had to understand this thing called “Life” in this particular type of way. Do you remember that board game “LIFE?” Now that I look back on it, where was Reverence in that game? A game that was supposedly teaching us about what was awaiting us when we become adults!

Brandon:

I never really had a defined and palpable sense of what it meant to be reverent anyway, except in a God-The Father, The Son, and Holy Ghost way. So it was not a far leap when my teenage years came, and I started to engage in more destructive deeds. I can say that as a teen I looked up one day and did not have remorse or regret for doing atrocious acts, and it was a lil scary that I could feel that way, but it was what it was. I don’t think it was so much what was said to me, but more of seeing my parents marriage melt right in front of me. It was almost as if their lack of reverence for one another fed my increasing reduction of what reverence I did have. Compounded with seeing neighborhood ruffians be indulgent in heartless and indifferent lifestyles, it created one “irreverent” gumbo, which I kept sticking my spoon in. The point you made about the game of “Life” was spot-on, and I started to think about school. How a student is “fed” classes and subjects, as opposed to ascertaining what subjects are close to the natal expressions of the student. How is stuffing shit/topics down a student/child’s mind reverence?? Something to think about!!