From Kwan Yin: Living with our deep heartache
I asked Kwan Yin if that old, life-long woundedness can ever be healed, or if it must be carried in a particular way. She responded this way:
Ah, that is such a question. That’s where the western tradition of soul-healing meets the eastern tradition of karma. No, it will never be healed in this lifetime, if by healing you mean, it will disappear. Nor would you really want it to go away completely, for it has always been the great “prod,” the powerful instigator of so much of your spiritual inquiry since you were a little child. It has fueled your consciousness, your spiritual journey, and your deep learning and wisdom. From this point of view, it has been your greatest gift, and it is why you chose this particular life.
…So, the short answer to your enormously important question is – No, it must not be closed up, not in this life. The heartache pushes you to engage with the world; its spaciousness allows both your world and the world of Spirit to enter your heart. It is the deepest energy for waking up, of expanding human consciousness and opening to all of reality. This is the Easter story – stretched between heaven and earth, with the agony of separation, all in order to show there is no death and that humans are Spirit just as all beings are. There is only the great cosmic pulse – into form and out of form – without beginning or end. Plunge deeply through the woundedness of your being, and you will find this is the truth you have always sought. It is very close at hand.
What of one who seeks to open to spirit but who carries one’s guilt as a badge? How does one get beyond this blockage?
a poem by Anne Benvenuti in We’Moon 2008 immediately comes to mind:
The Snake that Bit You
If something hurts you really bad
make an icom of it and put it in your sanctuary
hang it from the mirror of your car
or tuck it next to the pillow of your bed
Record the sickening thud and play it
until you fall peacefully asleep
Recall the heat of that searing shame
until it wells up in you like a cool breath
And if a poisonous snake should bite you
make a bronze cast of it and put it in a high place
Then raise your eyes to it considering well
that you are still alive, though changed
See the gsps where you have bled and
take the stitches from your closed wounds
weaving them into a mantle that you wear
for your morning and evening prayer
And if grace and goodness should require
that you look into the eyes of certain death
recall the transformations you have known
and go there knowing well. . .
(recorded with a “free copyright” symbol on p 140 of In the Spirit of We’Moon,an Anthology Celebrating 30 Years of We’Moon Art and Writing)
was asking randy about you a few hours ago, and then your blog appeared………i love it, and feel so grateful for its reminder……..
it reminds me of one of my favorite rumi quotes…..”don’t turn your head . keep looking at the bandaged place…that’s where the light enters.”
the theme of this post has been one of the main things engaging me for a long time….reminds me of another great quote from Jung…”we are not looking for a spirituality of perfection but a spirituality of wholeness”…………. We find our holiness in our wholeness.