As I sit here writing to you, whoever you are, I pause to feel. When we get quiet enough, still enough, undistracted enough, and pause for how ever long it takes us to feel it, THAT is what we live for. Not our jobs, not our clothes, not our cell phones. This is all extra. When we come into this world, we are naked and free. We probably even feel IT, the source of all- the one things that composes all matter, thoughts and spirit. We are so innocently free that nothing else matters except quietness and contentment. Some babies don't even want to leave the warmth of the womb.
We start in the darkness, the black hole, coming from nothing except the light that exists down in the depths of that hole. We are light. Everything is light that came from the dark. Kali, the goddess of the darkness and destruction emerges from this space/time. She is waiting for us before we are born and fiercely works to dissolve any barriers that may come our way when we enter into the material world in the form of our bodies. Kali is WILD! Check her out...
Can you relate? I can, for sure. Naked. Skulls around her neck. Human hands around her waist. Tongue out, dripping with blood of soldiers she has slaughtered and beheaded, then drank their blood to make sure they could not come back into form. Weapons in her hands. Gently claiming her victory over Shiva, her consort, the God of destruction. And yet, she is still a supreme goddess. Underneath it all, she is compassion. She is fierce so that we may know peace. She gets wild so we can shed that which does not serve us. We manifest her into our universe so we may know the source more intimately.
Pause. Can you feel her? She is the one that can guide you out of the dark. She is the one that can lead you to grace. This month, Kali is my best friend. The shine of the island is wearing off and Mama Maui is cycling me into the dark. Naked. Raw. In the jungle with no cell phone reception. Spiders. Silence. Alone time. Just me and my thoughts, living with the least amount of distraction I have ever experienced. Scary, yes. Thank God I have Kali to invoke into every moment. Her power to dissolve all the skeletons that are hanging in my internal closet give me hope that external light will once again shine.
I do have work. I can still text from home and make calls away from home. I am not living in a cave, although our humble abode is sort of like a portal. When you walk through the door, its almost as if you are taken back 50 years to the time when the peace movement was taking place in San Francisco. Let me tell you, this is a good thing. Those hippies (which I am aspiring to be) had it right, I think. They were able to transcend, with the use of substances or not, closer to the truth of who we are: light and love. That's it. And it's also 'it', the one, the source. They knew it and wrote about it, and made art because of it expressing the beauty they were able to see. It's no wonder so many people have written about spiritual experiences- its the truth!! Why would you NOT want to share the truth if you have seen it? In the silence, we can see it, know it. Then, when noise returns, we can appreciate it even more. The worldly expressions become more vivid. We see the gods and goddesses in others. We recognize light and love within ourselves and everything that we come into contact with. Talk about progress on the path, my friends....
This is divine beauty. The recognition that there is darkness within. We begin in the womb innately as light within the darkness and have the opportunity to get brighter, then go back to the dark to dissolve more of what is keeping us from the light during our lifetime. Eventually we end in the tomb- darkness. Our light puts our bodies to rest, then continues on the cycle. We can do this on a daily basis and also over centuries. Light-dark-light-brighter light-dark-light. The cycle never ends on a macro and micro level. Tune in. Get quiet. Listen. It's there within us all.
At the end of a yoga practice, we say 'Namaste'. The literal translation is, 'The light within me honors and recognizes the light within you'. Namaste, friends. Much love and light to you on this day and all the days to come.
Now, it's time for Kali and I to go get some booch, go to the beach, and spread love in the form of coffee drinks, house made gelato and sorbets, paninis and wraps, or whatever else Penguini can offer those who live in Maui for all of your lunch-time needs. Aloha!
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