Dear friend
The weather is strange. On Thursday the sun shone, Friday buckets of water emptied from the heavens. Today you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the beginning of Autumn.
The inner weather is similarly changeable. Sometimes we are full of energy and other times, as it has been for me today, a wall of fatigue envelops you. I set my alarm and sat down for meditation. At first the mind protests. My body urging me to surrender to sleep, but you sit with eyes closed turned to the point of light between the eyebrows and time begins to melt.
I imagine myself travelling upward, through the point of light and found myself in space looking back at the earth, a shining blue dot a million miles away.
Here you can rest. It’s like taking a holiday from the earth.
The mystical traditions tell us that earth is not our home, but a place we come to learn. In the world but not of it. What do we come to learn?
That life is one. Whole. We learn to recognise ourselves in one another.
In mystical Christianity it is to see the Christ in the other.
What is there to fear when we perceive the light of consciousness in everyone we meet?
Chiara called from Tuscany.
She asked me for my thoughts on the recent elections and the state of the world in general. She reflected on the American friends she’d hung out with last night. They along with other friends in the States have serious and legitimate concerns about their safety, and the instability of American society.
Wherever there is inequality there will be tension between those who benefit from those who suffer. How can we be truly at peace when our fellow human beings are suffering?
These are big questions without easy answers.
It would be unwise to pretend otherwise.
The divisions we witness will continue for many years to come. A mind that is set on particular beliefs has no reason to change. If the world is working out for you and you have fame or fortune or easy pleasures, what motivation would make you change?
It is when things go wrong and the old ways no longer work for us that we are forced to re-examine our ways of living. There have always been those amongst us who seek better alternatives, urging us to change.
To respect the sanctity of life for all living things.
To be kind.
To reach for loving thoughts.
Think about the word kind. In german means child. In English its root is kin. Meaning family.
We are all relatives. How we relate to one another forms the basis of the health of our cultures and societies.
We are spirit.
Immortal.
Only the physical passes away, the spirit returning to the one life.
It’s not about belief in one code of ethics or another. In dogma and rules and empty rituals, but rather direct experience.
Whether I’ve sat with Muslims, Hindus or Christians in meditation and contemplation the inner experience is the same. Peace and love are inside of us. We cannot find stability in the outer world because it is always changing. We can love what we find in the world, but in the end we must let it go.
Deep down we all know that we must mourn the passing of the outer forms of life.
But there is something here now that is stable, that never changes and never leaves us.
It is inside us.
In Christian language it is the kingdom of heaven within. Peace and unity. When you have it in you, you have it without.
The media amplifies the human mind to deafening levels.
Consume less of it.
Be informed but not overwhelmed.
My friend Jeremy shared this youtube channel with me. It’s by Sam Bentley.
I like to watch it to remind myself of the good people working to make our world a better place on the level of form. They are organising, working together and making a difference.
The message of the media is often that we are powerless to make our world a better place. This is not true.
We cannot find lasting stability in an ever changing world, but we can find stability inside. We can work together to understood one another. It is worth the effort to make things better, but at the same time there will always be contrast in the physical world.
It’s a paradox.
Light and shadow.
What matters is how we use our time here.
Refusing to judge.
Seeking unity.
Practicing gratitude.
Forgiving ourselves when we blunder and fail and offering the same kindness to those we meet.
What we put out returns to us.
Learning and growing in peace and love.
Evolution is not done.
What will make our world a better place for all?
The evolution of consciousness.
We all stand at the very cutting edge of it. Each equally powerful to play our part.
No act of kindness is insignificant, no matter how small it may seem.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey