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Peace Talks

 

I was very fortunate to be given an opportunity to speak at a church in central Michigan this past Sunday. Corinthian’s Center for Spiritual Growth in Jackson turned out to be a wonderful congregation of people warmly receptive to hearing about the merits of spiritual purification. Their website states, “We believe in the importance of Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, and Spiritual Growth, and the search for Truth” and they honor all faiths that share in these values. I found this to be so.

The changes currently happening in my life are remarkable but also a bit odd. I’m finding I projected a lot ideas about how cool it would be to grow in enlightenment, like I would be this cool guy doing all these cool things. But it all has a strangely different vibe and energetic flavor. Enlightenment has been described as the sensation of falling off a cliff that never ends, and you end up acclimatizing to that sensation. That’s why Zen people describe it as riding an ox backwards.

It’s turning out that becoming a teacher doesn’t mean you have it all figured out, that you don’t have any problems or don’t make mistakes. It just means that you’re the one who gets to learn the most! That’s why the Masters want to become Masters, because they recognize the blessed opportunity to become the ultimate students. And as my buddy The Wizard tells me, whenever you uplift someone else, you always end up uplifting yourself.