The Door to God

"Where is the door to God?

In the sound of a barking dog

In the ring of a hammer

In a drop of rain

In the face of Everyone I see."

-- Hafiz

Hafiz nails it! He might just as easily have asked "Where is there not a door to God?" Just a moment of reflection will show us that every person, every experience, every element, every being is a portal to the Divine.

Somehow, though, we miss so many of these passageways into Light. We curse the rain, bewail the noise of the barking dog, ignore the hammer, and blur the faces. We blindly go through life as if  the doors to God do not exist. 

It's our loss. We wrap ourselves in petty woes while all around us doors swing open, and on the other side God patiently awaits. God is not looking for our praise, obedience or sacrifice, merely recognition. Once we recognize the Divine as the sum and substance of life, all of life changes. We swim in a sea of Spirit, ride the waves of change, splash in the surf of presence, even as we drive watery metaphors into the ground! 

The challenge is simply the same everyday -- see God everywhere and in everyone. Enter every door. Now and now and now... forever. Amen.

The Light of Your Own Being

"I wish that I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being."

-- Hafiz

You shine! We all do. And we're all blind, at least most of the time, to the incredible light that permeates, infuses, and oozes from us. 

Instead we see meat. We see bodies And we compare, and we miss the light. 

The Light is always being. The Light is our Being. It shines whether we know it or not. We all need to become one-eyed people in the kingdom of the blind. The one eye being the third eye, the eye that sees the Light, that sees nothing but Light.

"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine," the old hymn says. "Let" is the operative term here. You don't have to make it shine. You don't have to will it, or force it, or learn how to do it. Just relax and release and let the shining happen.

It will, it does. I can see it in you, when you can't see it in yourself. And you can see it in others when they are blind to it, too. Light all around us.

Perhaps all we can do is give each other reminders, give each other clues. The Light never goes out. The Light shines in you, through you, as you. You don't need Tom Bodette to "leave the light on for you." It's always on. Even in the heart of darkness, see it shine.

Just Rest

"Just sit there right now
Don't do anything. Just rest.
For your separation from God
Is the hardest work in the world."

-- Hafiz

Isn't amazing how advanced spiritual practitioners of all traditions basically say the same thing? Zen masters, Christian mystics, Hindu gurus, even Hafiz, of the Sufi school of Islamic mysticism, all recommend "just sitting." Why just sitting? Because if you just sit, and let your wild, monkey mind quiet down a bit, you will see that you are never really separate from God in the first place. Never, ever.

The illusion of separateness cannot be cured by doing more or trying harder. It is not a problem to be solved, but a condition to be dissolved. And the dissolution happens by dunking the thoughts of separation into the deep pool of Unity that can only be accessed through the quiet mind.

So, next time you find yourself doing "the hardest work in the world," i.e., maintaining your separate, egoic condition, just rest. Allow the Reality of Unity to arise within you. God didn't go anywhere, you did. And where you went was merely a fantasy world that you created in that grey matter between your ears.

Like awakening from a nightmare, like returning from a long, arduous business trip, it is time to feel the sun on your face and return to your place of origin. You are not destined for hard work but for rest, for bliss, for Oneness.

Welcome home.