Waterfalls flashing, leaping down a descent of canyon rocks can hold no sticks, no leaves, no thoughts, no history, no sameness -- no nothing. The water races along in stark immediacy. It has one choice: to be new in each instant.
The Divine is like that: utterly still, yet flawlessly new and moving. Don't ask how that is possible; none of us know. It just is the way It is. And if we can summon the courage to ride with It! all of joy rises to greet us.
Before we met Silence, most of us operated in the same way: we enclosed our histories and limits in our arms and tried to stumble forward, or at least sideways, under their weight. Often we were proud of these loads; they gave us character and substance, so we thought. And that's not all: so infatuated is this world with tragedy that whole dances have been created to celebrate graceful moves under private burdens. High honors are given to the imprisoned beings who are fleet of step, who are strong under fire.
So for many of us it was a blow, at first, to discover there are no awards offered by the Infinite for tragedy; even more insulting -- to find there is no such category in that Presence.
It's true -- Heaven is tragedy-blind. Heaven judges nothing, including us. However, here's the good news: those few who do break free from the prison of pain receive Peace Itself.
And knowing Peace is a prize worth tasting, we keep on with the work. The very hard work of hanging tough with what is, accepting it in without loading it down with opinions or old baggage. For we discover that in order to ride the Divine Waters we must let go of our most prized possessions: sad little histories, communal madness, narrow prisons, and socially approved sufferings.
And with all of that gone, What is left?
The very thought of it makes us shake in our boots. Invariably, in the process of opening up our hands and soul to let yesterday's tale of suffering drift away, we encounter temporary fear about our sudden weightlessness. How will I move? How will I swim? How will I know where to go, when to turn? What on earth do I do next?
Questions without an answer.
Questions without an answer, because no answer is necessary. Riding the Divine Waters requires no map, no guide, no reference, no tools. And, most of all, no past. A past weighs us down, makes us too heavy to rest feather-like on the stunningly light Current.
Riding the Divine Waters requires but one quality: surrender.
Notice I didn't say surrender was an easy thing to do. It's not. But it IS possible. Remember that! It's been done and done, and you will do it, and I will do it. Why will we do it? Because we must.
There is no past in God; and if we wish to know the inexpressible joy of floating in the Infinite -- (and who among us does not?) then first we must surrender our poor, gray, ghostly past.
That's the work.
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And when you're finished shopping and browsing in the marvellous London Mall, stop by and visit my homesite: The Peace Page Previous notes