Around Every Conflict

Around every conflict there is stillness, a silent space containing more energy than the conflict. And that space is awake. Instead of contracting your "I" to become part of the conflict, you can take a breath, expand, and become the space around it. Then you have not found the solution, you are the solution.

Are you the earth? Are you the moon? Are you a star? No, you are space. You contain worlds, clusters of worlds. You are not the dolphin. You are not the shark. You are not the tiny phosphorescent plankton. You are the ocean. You are not the terrible or lovely image in the mirror. You are the mirror.

Forms appear and dissolve in you, yet leave no mark, no image, no dust. You are formless clarity. A mirror reflects motion without being moved. You are the stillness. Even the heaviest object is lighter than air in a mirror. You are the weightless presence.

A mirror's emptiness may embrace the most distressing forms, the most terrifying images. This is the lesson of Kali. She is not anger. She is the boundless compassion that pervades every form and feeling - even anger, terror, or violence. Kali is the triumph of clarity over dullness, the Self-radiance that outshines even the darkest likeness.

Now, what reflection appears when a mirror faces a mirror? No reflection at all. When You gaze at your Self, what likeness do you see? Nothing. As Shelley wrote, "The deep truth is imageless." You're looking through what you're looking for. 

The most beautiful face of God, the darshan of the Guru's glance, the very gaze of the Beloved, is but a faded glimmer of your limitless transparency. You outline drawn on water. And this mirror-like essence is ananda, bliss.

No experience enjoyed through your senses, feelings, or thoughts could be more luminous, more luscious, or more fascinating than this mirror-like essence. How can you taste it? Rest as the unimaginable radiance you already are.

Countless galaxies pour into the cup of eternity and spill over the rim of time. But who is the wine steward, and where are the stars distilled? They gush from the core of your heart.

Photo by Laurent Berthier