Have you ever had a conversation with someone or been reading a book and felt like the clouds parted and absolute truth was revealed?   These truths are like threads running through eternity and all wisdom traditions.  But being whispery threads rather than loud shouts they sometimes go unseen or unheard.   I had one of those moments last night while reading and it called to mind a few other authors that have beautifully and eloquently whispered to me over the years.

The first that comes to mind is Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul.   I have to admit the first time I read this maybe 20 years ago I found it too deep to truly comprehend or hear the truths.  Many years later, I hung on every word, highlighting, staring and dogearing bottom corner pages (a practice that I have to signify words of truth and significance) like a woman possessed by hot and holy truths in her hands!   One of Singer’s basic truths is that we are not that incessant voice in our heads rather we are the witness.  One of my dogeared and highlighted pages says this: “Eventually you will see that the real cause of problem is not life itself. It’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes the problems.” 

 I would highly recommend The Untethered Soul if you are ready to dive into his entire book, with highlighter in hand if you so choose! Just the title of his book, speaks volumes. Are we ready to become untethered from our minds, our stories and what the world says to find our truth.   He speaks of such simple truths in his own unique flavor.  However, his truths truly could be woven into the tapestry of more ancient wisdom texts, I am sure his was whispered to and beckoned to by many of the sages and saints.  Pause and consider without judgement how often you fight against your thoughts, that voice in your head or your current reality and deny a sense of contentment especially in the so-called trying times and circumstances of life.   

This brings to mind another wisdom teacher recently lost from this physical realm but whose threads of truth will live on in his words.  One of my favorite books by Thich Nhat Hanh is No Mud, No Lotus.   Like Singer, Hanh reminds us that often times it is in the challenges or darkness (the mud) that the greater truths or light is revealed (the lotus).  Hanh says this: “Without suffering, there’s no happiness. So we shouldn’t discriminate against the mud. We have to learn how to embrace and cradle our own suffering and the suffering of the world, with a lot of tenderness.”   I respect that Hanh invites us to go beyond our suffering and embrace the suffering of the world or others with tenderness and compassion.  He reminds us that sometimes to bring in more light, clarity and personal growth we much also consider how we are treating and caring for others. 

We now arrive at some wisdom insight from Fr. Richard Rohr, the spark that stated this blog last evening when I was reading from The Naked Now, Learning to See as the Mystics See.   This is another apt title that reveals so much wisdom, the parting of the veil or clouds of the human condition and mind.  As I snuggled in on this fall evening, blanket and book of my choice to close out the day, I smiled a big knowing smile from the inside out when I read this: “You can therefore be ignorant of your birthright. You can neglect the gift and thus not enjoy its wonderful fruits.  That seems to be the case with many people, and is what we mean by ‘sinners’.  The word signifies not moral inferiors so much as people who do not know who they are and whom they are, people who have no connection to their inherent dignity and importance.  … thus do no hate ’sinners’ or look down on them (or yourself).  Feel sorry for what they or (you) are missing out on!” 

This statement really spoke to me because it collaborates with my disdain (strong word) but my truth I guess with the word sinner and all it implies in Christianity.  This idea of Christians as sinners begins with original sin that we inherit from Adam and Eve.  This is again a strong sentiment but I somehow feel that without their ‘fall’ there would only be light in the world and honestly as humans we need the darkness, the shadow to see the light, within us, within our God and within others.  Conversely, if we are always identifying ourselves as lowly sinners full of shame and unworthiness, how then are we to see ourselves as worthy of seeing God within ourselves as we deny our birthright of importance and dignity as Rohr suggests. 

I close with sentiments from yet one more modern wisdom teacher Marianne Williamson: “It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate (perhaps fueled by our very own faith traditions or families of origin).  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.”