Journey to Empowerment (2 page)

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et me begin by sharing some thoughts about the state of grace itself, about what people mean when they describe a person as living in a state of grace, and make a few observations about the expectation many people have that life will be, or ought to be, wonderful.

The state of grace is that holy and contented way of being that each of us strives for. It is that state, auspicious in the spiritual realm, in which we work out all our difficulties with care, and function peacefully in connection with other people in the f low of life. It involves progress in accomplishing the purpose for which we were born into the world, in a way that is pleasing to those around us. It is a state of devotion and integrity, of living harmoniously, of being looked at, not as someone who is perfect, but as someone whom others trust and respect. It implies a certain level of healthiness and psychological well-being.

The state of grace is not the same as success in any measurable way, nor is it reflected in social status. It is not determined by how much we resemble those whom many people admire. In fact, the person who has arrived at this state may not even be conscious of it.

Each of us passes in and out of this state many times in our life. This is a universal human experience. As we fall out of grace it looks and feels to us as if we are failing. Indeed, we call it “failure”; a part of us dies. But this is the process by which we make space for the birth of something new, something more true to ourselves.

Something needs to be broken in order for a new state of grace to be born. It is the natural cycle of our spirit. In this way, we are born and die many times in life before we eventually return to the land of the ancestors. If we are going to achieve our purpose in life, we must be willing to fall out of grace and accept its lessons. When we feel righteous about ourselves, or deny our brokenness, we are fighting against the higher states of grace that await us.

Failure is built into grace. You cannot have one without the other. It's like two sides of a single coin. Everyone who has achieved a state of grace is certain at some point to fall, and to have fallen many times before. Every successful person, everyone you respect, will tell you that they have mountains of failure behind them.

Dealing with reversals is much easier in my village than it is here in the West. In the village you have people who are concerned about you and support you, knowing that their own happiness is dependent upon you. They also understand that failures are life-giving, that they are the engines of wisdom. Failures, they say there, come to show you that you are stagnant or wandering or that you have work to do.

Here is something I have been taught, and which I have had to learn over and over again through experience: To fall out of grace is a gift, one of the greatest gifts that one receives in life.

When we are in grace, we begin to take things for granted and we actually stop working on ourselves. Falling out of grace shakes us up. It reconnects us to the larger universe in order for us to see ourselves anew. It forces us to rediscover where our true center begins, and to learn what needs to be set aside.

Day by day, we work to maintain our state of grace. We do so not only as individuals, but also as a part of several interconnected circles of support. When we fail, the work of coming back into grace is something we cannot accomplish by ourselves; it requires the participation of others.

The cosmos, the universe, is the largest circle to which we belong. This is the realm of Spirit, of goddesses and gods, of our ancestors. The next circle comprises the planet we live on, Earth. This is the place of air, water, fire, soil, stones and trees. Then comes our country and culture. Nearer to us is the circle of community, the friends and coworkers and others with whom we share our daily life. Our extended family makes up the next smaller circle, including our parents, children, brothers, sisters, uncles, and so forth. Lastly, I think of the circle of intimacy, which we share with a spouse or partner.

The role of all these different circles is to hold us in a certain place, in a certain way, so that we can flourish. When we are in a perfect state of grace, all these rings are functioning to support us, and even if one of these rings fails us, as they always do at some point, we have the others helping us. Our well-being can continue. It is when several of these circles, especially those closest to us, start to break, that we experience a fall from grace. As they fall apart, we can be left feeling entirely alone and abandoned. We are no longer able to bring our gifts forward.

The struggles we experience at different stages of our lives are mechanisms built into us that help us rise to a better place. They are invitations for us to appreciate life, to appreciate the good things left behind, to acknowledge the sources of our disappointment, and then to let go altogether in order to come back to grace. They rekindle the acceptance of self, of others, of the past and present, and they offer us the animating experience of being welcomed home and re-embraced by the community.

For people in the village—and many other communities around the world, for that matter—it is a given that as an individual falls out of grace, so will the other members of the community because of our reliance on one another. Indigenous communities also know that, for the community to keep in touch with Spirit, this fall and rebirth of its members has to happen. Hence they push one another to take on new roles, to become adults, to become elders, or even to face death. They encourage one another to be swallowed by light, to let go of whatever comfort they are hanging on to and see that it is inadequate not to grow.

In the West, of course, it is so much different. Here the community will hardly ever support individuals who take a step off the cliff. To fall is disgraceful. There is, in fact, a fascination with suffering that is completely disconnected from the idea of growth. People do not see the goodness that grows out of failure. They immediately want to cut their connection with those who fall, and miss the point that the failures of others are also great teachers.

Knowing some of the rules of grace, for me at least, does not mean living with fewer struggles. I sometimes observe myself as an actress in a movie, and see that there is a part of me that does not really want to change. That is what happened when the elders asked me to leave the village and go to the West to share the ways of my people. I thought, “Wait a minute. I live so happily with everybody here. Why do I have to upset things? What is the point?” I crashed against the huge obstacle of my unwillingness to leave. Although I knew deep inside that it was necessary, I needed the community to push me, and to let me know that I either have to deliver my gifts or perish.

I wasn't sent to the West so that the village could be rid of me. In fact, I love the people there so much, and I thrive on their appreciation and the gifts I receive from them. However, it was necessary for me to leave this behind and be reborn in a new place, a place where I didn't know anybody, where my old world no longer existed for me. I never would have volunteered to do that. It was only the community's commitment to helping me grow that made it possible for me to leave.

I have found that, in the West, the search for grace often takes the form of a search for ideals: “Who is ideal? Who is the best? How can I make myself like that person?” When the state of grace is understood as embodying an ideal, it can easily be turned into something distant and inaccessible.

In a world that has become individualized, fragmented and competitive, grace has become more of a challenge. When I think of how life once was in the village, I see how community once existed in much of the world. People worked together at being in grace. It had nothing to do with being a leader, a hero or a role model. You didn't need to be the king or the healer. Whether you were the person who led, or gave medicine, or cooked, or hunted, or painted, or whatever—each person had a position within the community where a state of grace could be lived. You can still see remnants of such wisdom in the names people chose for themselves, and which many of us have inherited: Carpenter, Hunter, Miller, Smith, Cook.

The idea “every man for himself” has a cost attached to it. No one can afford so high a price.

I think there is a kind of selfishness that is nurtured by the economic system of the West. In Western society, there are so many opportunities for individuals to make big gains at the expense of the rest of the community. People will claim they have the right to do so. There are also certain religious dogmas that cause people to struggle with grace. Whatever religious tradition is dominant will affect the way you live, the way you think, the way you are judged. It's going to produce an umbrella of beliefs under which you are compelled to live whether you believe or not.

I have found in my work, for example, that where a certain, narrow kind of Christianity has been instilled, people accept that they have been born evil. This view infiltrates the way people look at each other: “We are all basically evil.” The battle against our nature never ends. This belief automatically limits a person's abilities to come back into grace. It's as if one's wings have been clipped before one can fly. It takes people out of the state of grace in which all babies naturally arrive.

For some, the dance between what we truly feel and what we have been taught, between our natural purity and narrow-mindedness, becomes a challenge. Perhaps this is one reason why some people have difficulty being with children. Children remind them of how far they have wandered from their natural state of grace, and, perhaps, of the obstacles they carry inside if they are to enter into grace again.

Look at children when they're born. They are in a genuine place that exudes laughter, love, freedom and enlightenment. When you are with them, there is a vibration that makes everything peaceful. This is the state of grace where we all want to be—at one with everything, as a mystic might say—where there isn't separation, where there isn't confusion, and so forth.

The state of grace, of course, is not ours to hold on to so tightly. Life happens. We all grow up. Moving from childhood to youth, from youth to adulthood, from adulthood to elderhood—each of these steps involves a kind of fall from which we have to rebuild ourselves.

Each of us has a stubborn conservative inside that steps out at times to stop us from progressing. You know, when everything seems to be working, why bother with wisdom and all this stuff about growing?

We are all like children learning to walk: When we fall, we get up, brush off and start over. Every time it requires determination, learning, growing, transformation, flexibility and patience. These meditations suggest that the only way to remain in grace is not by learning to avoid failure, but by learning how to pull ourselves up after we fall.

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No matter where we have been on our individual journeys on this earth

Or where we are going, we are One.

 

The beauty of our humanness comes from the breadth of our diversity.

The depth of our individuality and the wholeness and creative synergy comes

From the bringing together of each individual's special, God-sent gift.

The miracle rainbow that symbolizes our differences also shows us that when we are

Arched together in unison, we make a beautiful and lasting impression.

 

When we lift our voices in harmony, the resulting sound of each unique pitch creates

A melodious effect that no one voice is capable of.

 

We must find the loving spirit that dwells deep inside each of us,

That spirit which compels us to care, to serve, to share,

Which brings forth agape and provides the capacity for a change of heart.

 

We must come to a greater understanding of our connectedness.

We do not exist outside the universe.

We do not exist separate from other life forms, from other peoples of the world.

 

We must see the wisdom in creating new linkages—the power that emerges

From combining our energy as we strive to attain our universal vision.

 

A vision of respect for all humankind—a vision drawn from our interconnectedness

And enlightened by the spirit, mind and body.

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From the Epilogue of

A Rite of Passage to Spiritual Enlightenment

I
learned from the monks of Tibet during my trip to the Himalayan Mountains that “a thousand arms and a thousand eyes of compassion” is an expression of unlimited love to all beings on earth. When you are compassionate to yourself, it is easier to be genuinely compassionate to others—unconditionally.

When you have not been compassionate to yourself and you show tenderness to others who do not return the compassion, you have an undercurrent of resentment toward them. You'll have a tendency to blame others. When you feel this way, stop, get quiet and breathe. Continue breathing until you feel compassion and love for yourself.

To know God, you must go through your own Universal Heart with unconditional love, into the silence of your free will, bringing the loving light into your body. When you come out of this beautiful silence and interact with other human beings, your “thousand arms and thousand eyes of compassion” will be activated.

In practicing this unlimited love and compassion, each of us will joyfully comfort all those who cross our path. We will also get to know and love God and obtain lasting peace. Be willing to breathe and relax and allow yourself to be compassionately loving to all beings, especially yourself. Anytime you need a spiritual lift, allow any of the following affirmations to fill your being, so that you may live in the Golden Age of Peace…

 

We are courteous, kind and respectful in our verbal and nonverbal dialogues with loved ones.

 

Our jobs are carried out in the joy of being of service to others.

 

Our homes are sanctuaries of unlimited time and space where we feel the infinity of the universe as eternal, progressive beings.

 

Our bodies are filled with the warmth and nourishment of the Holy Breath of Purity.

 

We heal ourselves with the sweetness of the loving light of God through our hearts and to all who cross our path.

 

Spiritual and intellectual substance fulfills our desire to know the world we live in and all beings in it.

 

We desire to know the body we call our own.

 

We desire to truly know the soul and the wisdom from whence it came.

 

We want to know truth, love and balance in the loving light of God.

 

Our compassion gives us a true sense of social sympathy, that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. The continuity of our world is dependent upon that fact.

 

We all seek the comfort of life for all beings, especially the children, who are among many of the poor and helpless.

 

Knowledge and education is for all beings, not just an exclusive few.

 

We touch every child who comes across our path with love and compassion.

 

As you journey on your path to spiritual enlightenment, close your eyes and open your spiritual eye. Feel all situations and people with your compassionate heart, and respond with your highest ego.

God is One. All of us are in God. God is in all of us. Therefore, we are One. As we grow spiritually in the Golden Age of Peace, acknowledge the Power of One. We can do many great things together as One Spirit. The spirit and comfort of God glues us together through our loving, compassionate hearts. Let us…

Love can solve all things. Believe. Trust. Heal. Live.