Our whole business...

"Our whole business, therefore, in this life, is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."

-- St. Augustine

Where do you see God? If your answer wasn't "everywhere," you, like me, have some work to do.

Sure, it's nice to see God in nature and in babies and in the saintly acts of others. But what about seeing God in whiskey-breathed panhandlers who get right up in your face, in stone-hearted old women who practically snarl and hiss at you in line at the grocery, in the shallow, bubble-headed teenagers who laugh like hyenas at stuff that isn't even funny. And I could go on and on. Can we see God in those whose behavior seems far from God-like? That's the real, acid test.

The "eye of the heart" is clouded by hurt, desire, and fear. We develop what Eckhart Tolle has termed "the pain body." The pain body is an emotional constellation that keeps us self-obsessed and unable to see the Divine, both in us and around us. Clearing the pain body, cleansing the eye of the heart allows us to really see that all is sacred, that there is nothing outside the Divine.

Be careful, though. Years ago, in my early twenties, while sitting in a coffee shop I decide that I would not leave the shop until I could see God in the each one of the 20 or so people seated there. Some people were easy. They had a smile, a look, or a gentle manner that easily and graciously expressed something greater. One woman though was a bitch! She was this sassy, loud, brash waitress who just totally rubbed me the wrong way. It took me almost as much time to see God in her as it did to see the Divine in the other 20 folks combined!

But here's the kicker. After I did finally see God in her, I fell totally in love with her! And she with me. And we lived together for two wild, tumultuous years which were kind of like relationship boot camp for both of us. I'm convinced the whole relationship never would have happened had I not undertaken that little cleansing the eye of the heart exercise back in the coffee shop. I don't regret it, not a bit. But it sure was a powerful exercise!

In a very real sense, seeing God in everyone is the entire spiritual path. I may meditate or read spiritual texts or attend worship services or whatever, but all of those practices are preliminaries, a means to an end. And the end? Seeing God right here, right now, in everyone and everything, ever and always, the eye of the heart clear and shining. One practice, one people, on heart, one God. One and only in all and every. That's it. All of it. Our whole business.