18 Jul Life as Guru Leading to Transformation
There are moments when life has a will of its own.
Those are not the moments I love when they happen. They are, however, the moments that have marked my ongoing evolution. I’m grateful for the years of ashram life that invited me to see everything, and everyone, as a potential teacher. Not always easy when the event, as Rumi wrote, is “a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.”
I recently remembered one of those moments. You know, those moments that last longer than the chronological experience.
I shan’t describe it in detail. It’s not an event in which I look the hero. I wasn’t at my best. I spent some time struggling to meet that experience in the way Rumi suggests, “treat each guest honorably. He may be
clearing you out for some new delight.”
Those are the ancient teachings of many of the great spiritual teachings.
Rumi continues,
“The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes because each
has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
Therein lies the heart of transformation. Whoever, whatever comes into the door of our lives is the teacher, the guide, the key to transformation.
Well, as I said, those are hard concepts to keep in place when you’re seeing the worst in yourself. I’m relieved to read Rumi’s humanness, to hear that he knows and writes about the darker side of life, “the dark thought, the shame, the malice.” Maybe you’re like me, maybe you know them well. They have certainly come to visit me on more than one occasion.
Having a spiritual life or framework makes it easier for me to bear the dark underbelly of life. Perhaps the cynics are right, spirituality is a panacea. They may be right, but living life where the shitty things are guides to transformation makes it easier for me to bear the heavy ache of my heart when my darker demons emerge. It helps me soften the edge of defensiveness, of protectiveness that I imagine keeps me safe.
I think of this as I hear from someone who their spouse told them they are like a porcupine.
Ahh…. some of us can relate to that prickly part of life!
Yet, as I deepened into those words I felt the flood of compassion that comes from bearing the vulnerability of life. I know from my own prickly parts that most of us aren’t prickly to hurt others but rather to protect against the perceived threat that has come so often, protecting against the soft, tender core that still believes there is no love to come your way. We protect our hope, our longing, our deepest wishes to be seen and known as we truly are.
As we meet our prickly parts, and all the other parts that protect us, we might not be able to meet it with joy and laughter as Rumi suggests, but perhaps we can try to meet it with compassion and tenderness. With compassion guiding our heart through the dark underbelly of life we have a chance to move toward our true nature.
This is why this experience has come: to invite me – you – beyond the pricklyness of our defended lives and move us into a life more rich in love.
Softening into life instead of defending against it gives us the possibility of living with our hearts steady in the midst of the “crowd of sorrows ready to sweep my house empty of all its furnishings.” Now I can be ready to embrace the events in a wholly different way.
The angel in the painting above is from a fresco in Pompeii. She was up against the wall in the corner of a room. Delighted to see her I captured her eagerly with my camera. Today I offer her to you to help guide you to the live you have always wanted to live.
Here’s Rumi’s poem:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a
depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes with an unexpected visitor.Welcome
and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door
laughing and invite them in.Be grateful for whoever comes
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond