Here is an open secret: the people who insist on 24/7 happiness usually suffer, in their deepest core, from an unacknowledged sorrow.
The greatest obstacle to spirituality is compulsory happiness. In the New Age, "happier than thou" has replaced "holier than thou."
Meditation academies, Guru ashrams, and Evangelical churches often share the same relentless regimen of compulsive smiling and competitive joy. On a "spiritual" retreat, it is not unusual to have moments when you want to say, "Please, just let me be down for awhile." But anyone who feels weary, confused, doubtful or angry must go off to heal like a wounded animal alone in the woods. The blues are not permitted, for they represent a failure to celebrate the Master's teaching.
A perpetual smiley-face is just a mask. And masks are stifling. It is healthier to welcome sadness when it arises. This is courage. Hug your anger, feel confusion, let lust pass through you honestly. And remember: to feel a sensation transparently does not mean that you must put it into action. On the contrary, those who don't permit themselves to feel the shadow are the ones who are bound to act it out.
Only when we embrace our pain with all our hearts can we embrace the pain of others, in the healing work of compassion. Let us never armor our chests.
We can breathe in chaos. We can breathe in all that we thought we needed to reject. And as we breathe in the sorrow of this terrible sweet broken world, offering no resistance whatsoever, we discover we can breathe out love.
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