REMEMBER THE LIGHT!

REMEMBER THE LIGHT!

When I say things like "You are always exactly where you need to be", or, "You are perfect, even in your imperfection", some people get angry."What about the starving children? What about the destruction of the planet? What about people dying every day in wars and genocides? Is that allperfect?"I make it all sound too easy, they say. Simplistic. Insincere.

Glib. I espouse the philosophy of the comfortable, the wealthy, the privileged, the young, the ones who haven't suffered enough.I understand.Firstly, I would never say to a starving child,"everything is perfect". I'd, hopefully, find myself helping them in whatever way I could. Feeding them, providing support. I would never say to someone in pain, or deep heartache, or grief,"your pain is just an expression of Oneness". (Unless they were open to hearing that kind of thing, of course. That kind of conversation has its place too.) I would meet them exactly where they are.

Speak in their language. Hold their hand. Walk with them.From a certain perspective, this teaching of acceptance and presence can sound heartless, narcissistic, detached, arrogant, even cruel. It cancertainly be used as a way to deny or reject our humanity, ignore the suffering of our brothers andsisters around the world. I was caught up in that life-denying spirituality for many years, my heart closed. Everything was perfect, so nothing mattered to me.But awakening is not about closing our hearts, nor is it about passing off the suffering of our brothers and sisters as mere illusion. We are all One thing, so we cannot deny any aspect of the whole.

Everything matters to the heart. This is a radical teaching, to be sure. A teaching that goes to the root. A teaching that will not always be popular, and a teaching that will be so easily misunderstood.What is the essence? Your self-worth, your self-esteem, your happiness, your wholeness, is not dependent on external forces. Knowing who you are, you cease looking for joy outside of yourself. You stop looking to other people to complete you, make you whole. And you stop using things outside of yourself as an excuse to disconnect from your radiance. You are a sun, shining, and nothing in the world can take that away. You are the light of consciousness itself, and this is true whether you are in a supermarket, or in prison, or in a hospital bed, or on the streets. You are of infinite worth in the eyes of the universe.

Nelson Mandela knew it, even in prison. Martin Luther King knew it, even as the bullets ripped through him. Jesus knew it, as they nailed him to the cross. Victor Frankl knew it, as he comforted others in the bowels of a Nazi death camp. Anne Frank knew it. Jacques Lusseyran knew it. Gandhi knew it. Socrates knew it. Malala Yousafzai knows it. They can shoot her but her light cannot die, and the bullets have only made her light shine even brighter. From a place of peace, even forgiveness, she brings hope to those without a voice.You never need to stop shining.And you don't need to become perfect. Grace is undeserved, unwarranted, yet given anyway. You don't need to attain transcendent states.

You don't need to be joyful all the time, or blissed-out all the time, or certain all the time, or fearless all the time. You don't need all the answers. Your doubt, your sorrow, your uncertainty, even your despair are all holy, and spiritual, and infused with light, and long to be embraced, not pushed away. Even your lack of trust is trustworthy, and your inability to love is so loveable in the light of love. You are whole, and you have always been whole, and courage is not the absence of fear or doubt, but the willingness to include them in your vast heart, as you take the next step, and the next one...So yes, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Not because everything has been predetermined and predestined and prewritten, and not because you are superior or special or even always physically safe, but because where you are, exactly where you are, is the place where the shining is, the place where you are, the place where love exists, the place where healing is possible. And so acceptance is not an excuse for passivity, or toleration, or giving up, but a reason for hope, a recipe for healing, a ground for change.

Even if the world is collapsing around you, inside,in your heart of hearts, you do not have to be a victim, for you remember the light, the light that cannot be extinguished by pain, hunger, sorrow, even the threat of the absence of light. You remember the light of Life Itself, the source of yourawesome power. You are That. And you are not alone. And your power lies in your connection to the breath, the belly, the feet, the earth, the universe, the living truth beyond all conceptions of truth. And you walk on, not always knowing where the road will lead.Things may not feel 'perfect' for you right now, friend, but you are of infinite worth, and your future is yet unwritten, no matter what the mind says.And you may look back on these days, and smile.And if not smile, then at least understand.

- Jeff Foster