The only way out is through”
The obstacle is the way”
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” ~Marcus Aurelius
Have you heard those before?
I certainly have, and if you’ve been reading along, you’ll know I’ve been struggling with them for a while now, trying to figure out how to get through this, how to find my way through that, how to make peace with what is going on here, so I can find my way out, my path forward.
Then it occurred to me, perhaps there is more than one way?
I was listening to a streaming video from one of my favorite teachers, the minister of the church I attended in California, Reverend Michael Beckwith, and he was talking about transcending the world of appearances, and experience, in order to be able to see, and know, the divine truth of a beautiful world that is in the same place and time.
The message of the service discussed opening up to the beauty of God’s vision, that is right here, and right now, and that we’re just not noticing it.
It was really beautiful, and moving, and inspirational…. But it was also frustrating.
Why couldn’t I see the beautiful world, right here, right now, occupying the same space and time as this frightening one? Why can’t I yet transcend the world of appearances?
Video here: http://agapelive.com/streaming-archives/wednesday-february-1st-2017/
But maybe that’s not the only way?
What if I don’t need to transcend it, but to go through it?
What I failed to realize at the time is that when we try to resist feeling something painful, we often protract the very pain were trying to avoid. Doing so is a prescription for continued suffering. There’s also something about the action of searching that blocks us from what we seek. The constant looking outside of ourselves can keep us from knowing when we hit the target. Something valuable can be inside us, but if were not tuning in (turning in) we can miss it.”
~From the book It Didn’t Start With You, by Mark Wolynn
So maybe what I was trying to do before, to fully feel my fears about what could be in the process of unfolding in this world, the possibility of fascism taking over democracy, and then making peace with the worst case scenario, or, finding a way to not feel so afraid of it, might be another path to entry?
What if, by making peace, and not feeling so frightened, and consequently not so attached to the world of appearances, if that might release the shackles, cut the lines to the ballast, and allow me to rise up to that transcendent world, even if I couldn’t just jump there from where I had been?