You Are an Antenna

Pause, Breathe, Listen

You are an antenna. Every particle of light your eyes take in tells a story. Every word you say carries personal history. What are you receiving? What are you transmitting?

The Divine could come to you in a dream, and you may say, “I have seen the light!” But in the waking world, could you see that same divinity in your enemy’s face, or your own face for that matter? Is there a difference between the two? Call it God, or Spirit, or the Creator if you desire. Names serve only to separate form from space so that we may see more clearly; like a retina, focusing, dividing foreground from background. It creates depth so that we may navigate without falling on our face. But this Divine-knowing, whatever name you choose for it, if it came to you directly, might say, “I could teach you the secret of the universe, how to live a happy life, and who and what you really are, but it is too simple, too boring, and you wouldn’t believe me anyway. But I will leave you with something should you ever decide that you need answers. When you can see the whole of Creation in a single flower, you will have no further problems.”

To be free means becoming intimately acquainted with your chains. There are those who believe their exhaustion to be strength and their resentment to be righteousness. But there is no need to wear a mask when facing a mirror. If you can embrace your limitations honestly and with love, you will begin to understand a gentler way of walking through the world. Just as you can row a boat across a lake, so too can the wind take you to an opposing shore if you only build a sail and submit to its nature. Water flows downhill, and you do not need control when you have trust. Whatever control can do, trust does at half the price. When we allow ourselves to relax, find stillness, and to breathe deeply, we are able to enter into this trust. The trust of our present experience. The trust of whatever is happening right now. What are you receiving? What are you transmitting?

Relaxation is not doing nothing. In fact, relaxation is not doing anything at all. Relaxation is being. This is why we say to others, “Be relaxed.” Yet, I wonder if we tell ourselves, “Do relaxed,” or if we tell ourselves anything at all. Often it is more comfortable to serve tea to others than to enjoy it ourselves. So, you must relax and breathe deep. Enjoy the moment. The tea, the sunset, and even your discomfort. All causes are effects. All effects are causes. What is your pace? What is your destination? How far must you go before you can tell yourself that you have arrived? How long until you can rest?

These questions must breathe before you can answer them. Let them air out the room, sweep away the dust and cobwebs of your mind, and open the curtains so that the sunlight might bathe the space with warmth. Remember, not everything needs to be nailed down before you can walk on it. Just go softly. Whatever this is that you are experiencing is the journey of a lifetime, and just like any long trip, there should be rest stops along the way.

But there is so much to do, isn’t there? So much work to be done. Shouldn’t we be working to improve ourselves? Shouldn’t we be working to improve our world? There are people counting on me. I must survive and survival means fighting.

Some would set the world a fire to save themselves, whereas others would quickly light themselves a blaze to save the world. But for the coward and the martyr, the result is the same. A world full of martyrs quickly becomes an empty utopia. A world full of cowards is a candle with no wick. What are you receiving? What are you transmitting?

How can we address the ills of our world, if we ourselves are profoundly sick? You may wonder, “How can you tell me to rest when there is so much to fight for?” I would reply, “You must rest because there is so much to fight for?” In our pursuit of sustaining our planet and its people, protecting external resources and the lives of the oppressed, where is the pursuit of sustaining and protecting those inner resources and our own life that make the push for positive change possible? Lighting yourself on fire so that others may be warm is no way to bring about healing and justice to those who need us most. Thus, you must find the balance that we all know intuitively. For every in-breath, there must be an out-breath. For every doing, there must be a resting. You must envision a paradise that includes you in it as well. You must set aside a place for yourself in this New Eden. Heaven is not heaven if we lose you in the process. However, if you want to nail yourself to a cross, no one can stop you. But good luck with that last nail.

The clenched fist can never receive, but the open palm holds the world. Sometimes it is not our circumstances that are the source of our suffering but our attachment to a particular outcome. Perhaps it is our image of paradise that builds our own personal Hell. Remember a time when what you have today is exactly what you wanted. Remember that person who wanted to be where you are now. If you want to save someone, save that person. Bring them into the present and let them bask in the divine radiance of your present-day abundance. Give them the gift of today.

Pause, Breathe, Listen.

You are an antenna. What are you receiving? What are you transmitting?