No Travel, No Destination

 

 ** The most profound journey is not one that involves traveling to exotic lands, but rather the path of unfolding discovery that allows us to clearly see what is always and forever right in front of us. ** 

When I was very young, maybe eight or nine, something extraordinary happened. But it wasn’t in the form of an event in time or a notable experience. It was instead something that just sort of arrived on the scene unheeded and didn’t ever depart: curiosity took me by the throat and wouldn’t let loose.

What a glorious friend to have, and she went everywhere with me. “What is this; why is that; how does this thing connect to that other thing?” she would whisper. “What are all those things that are not plain to the sight and which remain unseen?” was her higher-level examination question. This urge to look under every rock simmered for a while, but at some point it boiled over, and its beckoning call would eventually dictate the arc of my young life.

Yes, such a brilliant guide to have, growing up as I did in the segregated South with all sorts of inherited assumptions about race, gender, class, acceptable behavior and supposed success. One day, sitting in a classroom at Myers Park High School, a thought arrived in my mind stream, “They haven’t told us everything.” I knew at once that the way I was being educated by the society around me could not be the be-all and end-all.

But where to turn? Who would know whatever it is that “they” haven’t told us? The books and professors at my university were a support along the way, but my search wasn’t satisfied by learned lectures. “Well, the folks up north at those prestigious universities, maybe they know.” Not really. “Well, maybe it is in Europe; they’ll know what it is.” But it was more of not really knowing, just with a different accent.

Fortunately, the loyal sister of curiosity is persistence. Looking, looking, looking—being intensely interested, picking up each rock, examining it carefully, not finding what was being sought, putting the rock back down and going to the next one. Over and over again, and again, and again. Lots of questions, thousands of books, many stamps in a passport, numerous brilliant conversations, endless retreats and meditation sessions . . .

As I move into old age, there is not one speck of regret for any of that, because you see, I have been allowed an insight. Every bit of my seeking and longing has led me to where I am today: clarity that this journey I have been on is not to a place, or a state of mind, or to a finish line where there is total certainty. No, none of that. I walk in different shoes now.

The most profound journey is the path of unfolding discovery that allows us to clearly see what is always and forever right in front of us. A key part of this discovery is becoming aware of the miseducation which initiated us into a confused world of hearsay and misperception. In seeing this, we can relax our grip on all the misbegotten concepts and presuppositions that have solidified in our lives. We become humble enough to not-know-but-what-to-know. We are alert to what teaching each moment brings, and we are courageous enough to heed what is being revealed. No goal, no destination—no travel needed, no further knowledge required. Resting as pristine primordial awareness for short moments many times, we are all already fully arrived.

 

 

    

     

 

 

 Unexpected Gratitude

 For all of us around the world, my goodness, what a time it has been over these past years and what challenges we have all faced. And yet, even amidst overwhelming anxiety, care and worry, let us not forget:  there is a place of rest for us---ever-present, ever-available and untouched by any of the descriptions we could apply to it. To be able to rest in this basic space of bliss, peace and clarity for short moments many times is a blessing beyond compare. In the great natural abundance which is our birthright, we are embraced by beauty, and not only reminded of our many gifts, but brought into full appreciation of them.

   On this beautiful morning in this beautiful place, I am surrounded by the reminders of these gifts.

   So, so many things that we can't even account for which have been given to us...... A man whose head is being held underwater for minutes has forgotten everything else but breath, and once his head emerges from the forced imprisonment of the water, he breathes with delight and joy, gasping in appreciation for something that he had taken for granted for the whole of his life.

   A village woman in a war zone in the Sahara gets up early each morning to fetch water from a well six kilometers away and hopes to avoid the rape, robbery and murder that could await her along the way. Upon her safe arrival back home, she revels in the good fortune of the tenuous safety that has been provided to her on that one day. She would have difficulty imagining people whose source of water is only a few footsteps away and whose access to it is without any impediment.

  There are circumstances in which one feels trapped and limited and unhappily dictated to by the course of fate, and possibly in that circumstance cannot see the benefit. And yet, AND YET, as we look back on those same circumstances that had been labeled unfortunate or sad, we can come to feel gratitude for all that we were given---even if those gifts were hidden from us as they were being given.

  As we continue on our way and our vision becomes clearer and less distracted, we won't have to artificially create thanksgiving and fix it for a time or place. We will become closer companions with the wisdom which embraces us and the sweetness of experience unfettered by wish or expectation, and the fragrance of these blooms will be so present and evident for us that no summoning will be necessary. 

May it be so. May we rest in our essential being.

  

                                                               Abundant Life

 “To live life more abundantly.” Isn’t this a call that so many of us want to heed? In all the many shapes it takes in our lives, don’t we hunger for greater meaning, understanding, love, insight and connection? Even in the misshapen forms that seem so foreign to genuine abundance—greed, mindless consumption, utter self-focus, competition—there is the same wish to live more abundantly . . . only misperceived.

Throughout our lives we have been so grossly miseducated about our true being and what this “abundance” is that we are searching for. We have been trained to seek within the limited context of a mere human individual looking out at a separate world of objects. We have been trained to think that we are enclosed within this skin suit of a body and that we were born, live and then will die within that body. But, dear ones, is this ultimately true?

I have no conclusive or satisfying answers to give you, no guaranteed steps to take. All I can offer is an invitation, to myself and to others, to simply be humble and open. Humble and open. Maybe also courageously available to the possibility of being shocked into recognition by the wonders that surround us—hidden as they have been by the erroneous, inherited assumptions we have cultivated.

Yes, open to what we don’t already know, and extremely skeptical about what we think we already know. To be gifted with the amazement that comes from gently resting moment-by-moment as the settled basic state of infinite intelligence, where there is no goal to be accomplished, no improvement that needs to be made. We can take instruction from a rainbow which both is, and is-not. Teachings surrounds us on all sides. We are not lacking.

I See You

 Almost a decade ago I was writing a blog titled "Read, Relax, Recognize," and then somehow I fell out of it and moved to other things, but these present times are so fraught with conflict and confusion---it's time to get back to work!

And so, with that short introduction, here we go again!

                                                                  "I See You"

Many years ago I was on the adventure of my life, driving in a VW van with friends across the Alps, through northern Italy and into southern France. On the Saturday night before Easter, we arrived in the beautiful ancient city of Arles. We parked the van and quickly found a seat in a café in the main square, close to the ancient Roman amphitheater, very eager to observe the holiday crowd doing all the interesting things that crowds do.

Many of the local men had been drinking heavily throughout the evening, and all around us was noise and mayhem. Suddenly, two guys began shouting at one another, and as they grew angrier and angrier the conflict escalated into a right violent fight with lots of flying fists. As they were too drunk to land many blows, they ended up grabbing one another’s shirts and continued the struggle that way.

Both of the men were completely lost in their anger, and this sad episode was surely not meant to have a peaceful outcome, but then something quite extraordinary happened. One of the men happened to glance into the eyes of the other, and then amidst the struggling, he kept looking. His opponent could sense that the other man was actually seeing him for the first time---not as an enemy but as another person. At once both men looked deeply at each other, they held their gaze, smiled, gave up their struggle and began to dance together in one another's arms. Yes, they danced together in one another's arms!! How amazing and unexpected a change of attitude it was. 

In the whole of my life I will never forget this, and it is not only because we were saved one bloody fistfight on an Easter evening, but also because this is such a grand metaphor of how life can be. When we actually SEE one another as fellow human beings, our apparent differences look a lot different. We can have wildly divergent opinions, be of different ethnicities, have opposite views of politics and have no language or culture in common, but we can surely see one another despite all of that.

There is a beautiful greeting in the Zulu language: “Sawubona.” It means “I see you,” but this lovely phrase is not meant only in the common way of, “Oh, there is a body standing there,” but rather, “I see you in all your humanness and in our commonality as people.” When we see another in this way, we are seeing the essence, and we are not being distracted by all the labels and distinctions. When we have this clear vision, we allow our recognition of the oneness of all things to be sustained. We hold this truth to be self-evident---that there is only One thing here, and when we see, that One-ness is what we are seeing.

“Namaste” is another lovely greeting that exemplifies what I am pointing to. This is a greeting used in India; the word comes from Sanskrit and is a combination of “nama” and “te.” "Nama" means to bow, make reverential salutation or have adoration for, and “te” means “to you.” Its deeper meaning is “the god in me bows to the god in you,” and the greeting is done with the two palms brought together in front of one’s heart to symbolize the oneness. How wonderful a way to greet and be greeted, and how brilliant a reflection of the way things really are! 

As noble and as inspiring as these customs are, it is so easy to forget this practie of clear seeing, isn't it? Surely we need reminders as we move through our day-to-day existence. We are constantly coming into contact with people with whom we wildly disagree, people who we feel are getting it totally wrong, and we sense the need in ourselves to make them see their wrong-ness. It may well be that at some level, yes, they are getting it horribly wrong, but where is our attention directed? Are we seeing only our disagreements and their wrong-ness, or are we truly able to SEE them as essentially non-different from ourselves?

When we observe a passenger at the airport shouting and cursing at the employee because the plane was late, we can be pretty sure that the passenger has lost sight of what really matters. If, however, we can bring forth loving support, respectful relating and gracious kindness---even in the midst of grand disagreement or upset---then we can be equally certain that the important things are being acknowledged.

I look at the present political landscape in the US and I observe people expressing points of view or supporting theories that seem to me, well, crazy. But I have to pause. My first reaction upon hearing these things was to resist and make the people wrong and to get angry that they could think and behave in this way. Then, thank goodness, this practice of seeing somehow came to the rescue. I could still disagree with them, but I did not need to disdain them or make them "other." Instead, what I found myself doing was introspecting: "The things these folks support truly do seem crazy to me, but, BUT, what are the ways in which I am equally deluded?" Seen from the vantage of absolute clarity and wisdom, how many of my long held assumptions are crazy, that is, totally misaligned with reality? Humility is crucial; we should never assume that we have it absolutely right, for who knows how very much we don't know?  

When I first came to study, live and work in Germany, it was only a few decades after the war. The older Germans I was meeting who were so kind to me, what had they done in the war? Likely many of them had personal stories that they were not very proud of. The priest in the Catholic dormitory where I lived had been in the Wehrmacht and in an American internment camp. The administrator at the tennis courts where I taught tennis in Munich had been in the SS on the Eastern Front. What horrors had he seen, and committed? It was an education for me. I could condemn the actions and want them to take responsibility for what they had done, but I could not hate the person. 

And now for the most extreme example; please bear with me. This horrible war in Ukraine which Russia has unleashed not only on Ukraine, but in a sense, on the whole world. We see Russian soldiers committing atrocities; we see civilians dying in the streets, children blown apart by bombs, the grandmother of a friend of mine, 91 years-old, killed by shelling in Mariupol. I am struggling here; how can I make peace with the anger I feel for the Russian soldiers and their leaders who are doing these horrible things? 

A friend recently posted a YouTube video of 220 Russian musicians really rocking out to the song "The Final Countdown" in a park in Moscow last year, before the war began. Look at all of these beautiful young people and this gloriously happy scene, viewed 2.7 million times by people from all around the world. These young Russians are laughing, singing and playing their hearts out. We can all share their joy and feel the commonality with them. And yet, maybe some of these same young Russian musicians have been conscripted into the army, and they are the ones who are now raining death and destruction on civilians in Ukraine. I surely cannot justify or support their actions, but no, I can't hate them. In my mind's eye I see them there playing their instuments in the park in Moscow---living a human life with all its twists and turns. I know there are many ways to respond to the tragedy that they are participating in, but hatred is not the way.

As with all things, the decision to maginalize, or to include, is a choice we have. No outer circumstance can force us to forget our commonality; we decide that for ourselves. As for myself, I know for sure that I want a life that is filled with joy and peace and which aspires to find the end to conflict, both in the world and in myself. Only by each of us making that choice in each moment and in each encounter will the war-ravaged world we live in be transformed. 

Hmm, better to dance than hate, wouldn’t you say!