The sense of our movement through the ever-changing flux of life’s events as a journey is certainly an almost universal human experience. Our life is a journey, with a beginning, middle, and end; it is a going out, extending into the world, and a returning, or settling down. The process of self-transformation is a journey within that journey, a branching out from the main trunk, a new growing. The seeker who returns to her family or tribe, bringing gifts of power, healing, or vision, is a transformed individual. Many teachings, however, warn of too much striving, of the spiritual ambition so characteristic of the Western psyche. A poem by Kabir tells us: ‘What is this river you want to cross? There are no travelers on the river road, and no road. There is no river, and no boat. There is no ground, no sky, no bank, no ford.’ This seems to be a caution not to get too caught up in the external trappings of transformation, not to make it an ego-achievement. Remember that everything is within you…….Ralph Metzner
this beautiful paradox invites us into the hungry mystery of our inexplicable existence….in the down to earth living of it, we are asked to acknowledge the chaos, laugh, and be grateful for the longing, and to see love as the way…..this, again, is why love, where love, and how love carries us….
We are walking a tightrope between two very different perceptions of ourselves. One perception says that we are perfect as we are: we don’t need to be fixed or changed in any way. The other perception says that we make mistakes and we need to learn from them to realize our full potential. In the unity perception, improvement is not necessary. We are each perfect just as we are right now. In the dualistic perception, improvement and psychological growth are essential if we are to become ourselves more fully. But we can breathe and let life be just the way it is. We stop trying to make things happen. We accept things as they are. We surrender the problem. We surrender our need to surrender the problem. We let everything be okay the way it is….Paul Ferrini
Our disasters come from letting nothing live for itself,
from the longing we have to pull everything,
even friends, into ourselves,
and let nothing alone.
….Robert Bly
