You can use anything, truly anything to grow your consciousness, compassion and ultimate joy. This is one of those spiritual ideas that seems “nice” but in fact is super powerful and incredibly hard to live in to. For me it has taken every moment of the last 15 years of practice to really lean into that idea again and again. It’s a key idea in Tantric yoga, and one that time and time again I have experienced, eventually, to be true.
This morning, after staying up too late in a state of shock and mild terror (OK not so mild terror) I eventually came back home to this idea. The heartbreak I am feeling now, even the fear I am feeling now can be a clear clarion call to inspire growth and action in these challenging times. These after-election day feelings, whatever they are for you can lead you to help build the kind of world you wish to see. Really. Last year I went deep into the mysteries of the Divine Feminine with Andrew Harvey and Sally Kempton on their beautiful Shift Network course “The Evolutionary Goddess.” One of the many beautiful slices of wisdom that came through that course was Andrew Harvey encouraging us to find what breaks our hearts about the world – and to let that lead us to our mission, our service to the greater whole.
So today, if like me, you are heartbroken, I encourage you to lean into that feeling in anyway that is appropriate for you. You may wish to have a walk in the woods, spend time on your yoga mat, take a bubble bath, do a seated meditation, journal, paint, talk it out with beloveds. There are so many ways to do this deep work of allowing yourself to feel what you are feeling and really follow the threads to understand what is bubbling up for you. You may find you are terrified for the natural world, or for women’s health, or for our ability to connect rather than be divided. Once you find that heartbreak let it lead you to action. No matter who is in office, you can be a light. You can volunteer, donate money, raise awareness on any of the issues that you are heartbroken about. Use this potent time and clarity to step up and into your Seva (selfless service). Maybe you’ll decide to run for office yourself? Invest in solar energy? Create a charter school? Or just get your office to recycle. If we all do what we can – given the demands of our lives – each small action added together can create a tidal wave of positive growth for this country. Regardless of who is in the white house.
I have one last thought for you today, which is this beautiful poem. I’ve been reading it to myself all day:
The Buddha’s Last Instruction
by Mary Oliver
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal — a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire —
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
