Clear Path to Peace

In the last few days, I’ve come even deeper into a realization about the connection between anger, violence and sadness. It is grief that lurks behind destruction…and the willingness to feel and release sadness is the cure and the balm for our pain.

Where does this grief come from, you ask? It grows from our collective refusal to live in accordance with Divine Love and its ways: union, blessing, expansion, mercy, comfort and caring for each other and our beautiful green planet. There is a shared, tragic and fearful howling that is constantly baying a mournful melody beneath our sleepy awareness. This is the grief I’m talking about, although we rarely recognize it and even more rarely give ourselves some breathing room to feel it.

I recently came across a short Buddhist tale about a monk who was crying at his master’s grave. When asked by a traveler, “Why are you crying? I thought you were enlightened!” the monk replied, “Because I am sad.” (from Everyday Grace, by Marianne Williamson)

When I read these poignant words, I thought about how much violent behavior could be transformed if we really take this story to heart. Just think - if we all gave ourselves permission to feel sad - what would our world be like?

We’d no longer answer, “Fine” to the ubiquitous question “How are you?”

Instead, we might say, “Oh, I’m feeling the tender stabbing and ripping feeling of my heart as it opens to grief.” Then we’d both pause, and take a breath together, standing by each other as we released our sadness into pools of trust and love. And it wouldn’t have to be a problem, or a drama, or a cheerleading session — just a quiet recognition of suffering as it appears here on Earth.

We could breathe and relax and feel together, and then feel a whole lot better, and closer. We’d go on about our days with more creative energy and more compassion for the next sisters and brothers who came along…and when we asked them, “How are you?” we’d pause to listen to the ringing truth of an answer that might, or might not, contain some sadness or discomfort of any kind.

I hold a vision of this world where joy, elation, fear and sadness are recognized as inner markers for how close we are feeling to God at any moment. If we want to feel closer, then we simply release our grief and in doing so, make room to expand our joy.

Notice how no violence of any kind is necessary or desired in this honest world. Connections between us just dance deeper, until someday, we’ll be done with releasing grief and the forgiveness of all deeds will be complete. The At-Onement, which lives eternally inside us, will be manifest on Earth, and we will notice that we’ve created a garden, you and me….a delightful, heavenly garden of peace.

I recently had the great blessing of traveling to the Indonesian island of Bali. It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to be there, and I came home deeply moved by the beauty and spiritual depth of the Balinese people.

One day while I was in Bali, I had a wonderful stretch into new territory for myself. I was learning how to scuba dive, and I asked my teacher, “How many dives have you done?” He had to think about it and then he said, “Well, within the last 20 years I’ve probably done at least 4,000 dives.”

Here I was in the pool, basically a raw beginner. I admitted to myself that I didn’t know what I was doing, and my gratitude for his experience, trust, and confidence went very deep. I thought, “How wonderful to have someone who’s had the experience of 4,000 dives to guide me.”

My dive master held onto my body, anchoring me while I floated around, explored my equipment, and tentatively began to relax into trusting that I could breathe under water.

Like my aptly named dive master, Siddhartha, I hold onto people and guide them through emotional waters. At the same time, I, too, am learning.

I came to understand that my gratitude for this man and his expertise is also the gratitude that others have for me in my work. I felt soul satisfied at the thought.

I began to think about what I do and how I am a guide for people in the deep tides of our emotional lives. Knowing how much I have committed my life to this work and how much I’ve done it on my own, I realized, “I’m a dive master!”

I’m an inner dive master, demonstrating the connection between our Spirit and how we live in our emotional bodies, and of course, our mental and physical bodies as well.

We dive in all of these bodies, and very often we’re in denial of the depths to which we need to go in order to find the truth about ourselves. It can take a while to realize how much sincerity is required in order to dispel what is not true, to see what we have been holding as a veneer, and impressing it upon the world.

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I use this metaphor and it helps explain the territory and the journey. I help people to dive within. I guide and support; I hold their hands.

I learned to scuba dive as a gift to myself, so that I could have my own experiences with the animals and plants of the sea.

I help my clients to have their own experiences in their interior, personal aquatic environment, given as a gift to themselves. They learn to accept and include all of it - the amazing corals, the tropical fish and the Loch Ness monsters that may be living down there.

Once we’ve learned to dive, we may then return to the light, into the Oneness that we are. Just traveling around under the water is not the full picture.

Offering what we discover on our journey to the One Life Essence…to the One that creates us, and gives life…this is the full picture.

When I told my dive master about my realization, he said, “Yours is a much bigger ocean.” He’s a wise man. That’s why they call him Siddartha.

Thank you, Siddhartha, for showing me the way.