I hope you are making your transitions in Fall with grace and ease. Life as we have known it continues to be a very different experience for all of us, some more than others. We are being given the choice to either embrace this experience and the gifts it is offering, or resist the changes and suffer.
That all things are constantly changing has always been true, our current cultural experience is simply amplifying this fundamental truth of reality.
Throughout millennia, wisdom traditions have invited us to ask ourselves ‘what is it that doesn’t change?’ ‘What is it about myself and Life that remains the same regardless of all of the change around me?’
This is one of the deepest contemplations we as humans have and one that is really being asked of us during this time. We spend so much of our lives seeking outwardly for a ground of safety and security, only to come to realize that it is NEVER found outside ourselves.
This is being made undeniably clear through this time of radical change.
As the Heart Circles continue, I am discovering that the Heart holds vast, and often untapped potential, to awaken us to what is real, true and unchanging.
The Heart I am speaking of is not just the physical or the emotional heart, although it includes them, but something deeper. It the Soul essence of who we are. It is the space within that unifies all apparent opposites and allow us to understand ourselves and life in ways that our intellect is not capable of.
For me, the most direct route to access this Heart essence has been a willingness to forgive, to simply be willing to let go of how I am perceiving something or someone.
Forgiveness, in the words of Adyashanti is ‘a readiness to let go of being defined by the pain of the past’.
Accessing the truly miraculous and mysterious powers of forgiveness is not something we can force, as it requires courage, humility and a sincere desire to let go of past, and the stories we hold about it.
Anywhere we feel underlying resentments, anxiety or confusion, we can trust that forgiveness is the remedy, that it is forgiveness that will free us from the prison of our own making.
So often we live our lives unaware of the need for forgiveness. It can feel so much safer to maintain our story of past pain and injuries. These stories are an identity that we are familiar and comfortable with, like the innocent child who begs to stay with an abusive parent.
We are both innocent child and the abusive parent and as we open our Hearts through forgiveness we connect to that which is unconditionally loving, safe and secure within us.
We can stop telling ourselves that it is wise to defend our hearts from further hurt and pain. Because we know a deeper truth, that our defenses and resentments are keeping us from our true nature of love, and from living our lives fully and freely.
Love is its own reward. We are the ones that are nourished as we make the choice to open, to forgive and to willingly let go of the past,
The pandemic continues to cause great suffering for many. But I know for myself, and I imagine for those of you reading this, we have our basic needs met and are being given an opportunity to grow and change in the most important ways.