Throughout these precious years I have come to discover that our humanness is not ‘less than’ our divine nature; it is her expression and her fulfilment. Spiritual awakening has very little to do with transcending thoughts and feelings, denying our vulnerable humanity and attempting to escape into some state of pure awareness, some higher realm, some other dream.
Instead, we bow to our sorrow, embrace it tenderly in our arms. We hold our doubts close as we walk the path of today. We see the sacredness in our fear, the joy in our confusion, the freedom in our anger. We bow to life in all her forms, not just the ‘pretty’ ones.
The most alive people I have ever met are actually the most human. The most ‘awake’ ones often talk little of spirituality. Often they are not the teachers, spouting stale words about the separate self, the ‘truth’, and making promises of happiness they cannot actually live.
In my humble view, the most ‘awake’ ones are the ones who have cultivated a deep warm compassion within, a profound self-kindness, and who radiate that delicious empathy into the world.
One foot in awareness, the other foot dancing and playing in the glorious mess of relative existence; courageous enough to receive both ecstasy and agony with the same kind of humility.
I know no spirituality that is unwilling to bow to the broken heart and saturate it with attention, breath; to flood the darkness with light.
So we are no longer numb.
So we can meet each other in the fire.
