- I used to be completely committed to telling the truth. And in most cases, I still am. What the requisites are, however, has changed. It seems the older I get, the more valuable incorporating others’ viewpoints becomes. And I realize in the past that part of the truth telling was predicated more upon the rightness of my own thinking rather than the ultimate truth in the content. Of course defending one’s own claim to rightness is a byproduct of fear of the unknown. For all the good a religious upbringing might do, it does us no service when it locks us into a belief structure so tightly that we fear anything that might contradict “the system.” Disentangling myself from a fundamentalist background took many years. I was well into my thirties before I was brave enough to crawl out from under the rock of my past. The result has been a continuing unfolding of greater universal truths and a more grounded, relaxed state of being.
- What I’ve discovered as a spiritual teacher is that facilitating illumination leads to the potential for greater self awareness. The shamanic practice of holding another’s feet to the fire may call forth the parts of them lurking in the shadows, but often this merely serves to fragment all but the strongest souls among us. Of course there are still times it is useful. We are all braver than we know.
- The longer I live, the more I am aware of what I do not and cannot know. Experience is so objective that I now take a brief mental pause before gushing forth with my latest discovery. There are as many ways of looking at the same issue as facets to a diamond. It is what makes human beings delightfully interesting. We are products of different cultural persuasions, and ultimately completely unique histories. Each of us comes into being with a tremendously creative mind. In that capacity, the brain and body join in recording every image, every perception in our experience. We would do well to listen and learn more often than simply spouting dogma, as our capacity for further learning is engaged and enlarged in the process.
image: forgotston.com
