Dedicated to the indigenous people of Palestine.
Dhikra an-Nakba, Memory of the Catastrophe.
A continuous experience of violence and dispossession.

During my time in exile, with the hand of the 主¹ upon me, She brings me out by the Spirit of the 主, and sets me in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones.

She leads me back and forth among a great multitude of bones on the floor of the valley. Mass graves of carpet-bombed hospitals, families buried under the rubble, and the severed skulls of infants demand my witness. These bones are desiccated. All their 髓,² nutrients, and life force have been stripped away by their harsh living conditions: violence, forced starvation and thirst, freezing cold, and dire heat. These bones are pulverized and scattered such that some cannot be distinguished from dust.

She asks me, “Child of 人,³ can these bones live?” I say, “O Sovereign 主, you alone know.”

Then She says to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the 主!

This is what the Sovereign 主 says to these bones: I will make 气⁴ enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach 筋⁵ to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the 主.’”

As I am commanded, so I prophesy. As I am prophesying, I hear a noise: a rattling sound, of the bones coming together, piece by piece. The pulverized remains of martyrs, unrecognizable to their loved ones, return to whole.

As I watch, 筋 and flesh appear on the bones. Skin covers them, but there is no breath in them. For these bones are corpses of the slain, and the 气 has not entered their marrow.

Then She says to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, child of 人, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign 主 says: Come from the 四风,⁶ O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”

So I prophesy as She commands me, and breath enters them from the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Tortoise of the North. 气 enters their marrow, and their bones are thoroughly changed.⁷

They come to life and stand on their feet — a vast liberation army of resistance and resurrected hope.

Then She says to me: “Child of 人, these bones are the whole house of my people⁸ who have been colonized by the oppressor. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off from the world and displaced from our homes.’

Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign 主 says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of olive trees, from the river to the sea.

Then you, my people, will know that I am the 主, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.

I will put my 神⁹ in you and you will live, and I will settle you where the land is in your bones. Then you will know that I, the 主, have spoken, and it is I that has done it.”

Footnotes

1.  主 (zhǔ) refers to the Lord, who uses She pronouns in this piece. ↩︎
2.  髓 (suǐ) refers to bone marrow and also the brain. The Bone Marrow Washing Classic, or 洗髓经 (xǐ suǐ jīng), accompanies the Muscle and Tendon Changing Classic, or 易筋经 (yì jīn jīng), as a set of Buddhist internal practices that can reconfigure the structure of bones and tendons through the guidance of 气 (qì) and improve overall health, strength, and flexibility. ↩︎
3. 人 (rén) refers to the ungendered Human or Man, i.e. Child of Man. ↩︎
4. 气 (qì) is used as an equivalent for the Hebrew word, Ruach, meaning wind or spirit in this text. It has a similar function to Qi as a form of life force, vital energy, breath, or vapor. ↩︎
5. 筋 (jīn) refers to tendon, muscle, and sinew, a crucial component in Chinese medicine. Its importance is exemplified in exercises such as the Muscle and Tendon Changing Classic, or 易筋经 (yì jīn jīng), mentioned previously.  ↩︎
6. 四风 (sì fēng), the Four Winds, represent the four cardinal directions. In Chinese mythology, these four directions are associated with the Four Symbols, or 四象 (sì xiàng), which are heraldic animals/asterisms on war flags. In Hebrew, these winds symbolize divine power and judgement that can bring the power of resurrection, used in specific prophecies such as Ezekiel 37:9; Daniel 7:2; Zechariah 2:6; and in the New Testament, Revelation 7:1. ↩︎
7. 脱胎换骨 (tuō tāi huàn gǔ) is a Daoist phrase meaning to be thoroughly born again. The direct translation would be  “to change one’s mortal body and exchange one’s bones.” ↩︎
8. “My people” refers to the house of Israel in the source material, which refers to those who carry the spiritual legacy of honest and vulnerable wrestling with the Divine (Genesis 32); it is not to be confused with citizens of the modern nation-state of Israel. In this feminist Buddhist interpretation, God is in solidarity with the indigenous people of Palestine, which is also known as the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and the biblical Land of Israel, which refers to an area of the Southern Levant between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. The author and editors reject the Zionist co-optation of this prophecy. ↩︎
9. 神 (shén), or Spirit, is the final component of the Three Treasures, or 三宝 (sān bǎo), which are 精气神 (jīng qì shén) or essence, breath, and spirit. ↩︎