I am the way, the truth, and the light.
The Christ
My religion is love.
The Dali Lama
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Marianne Williamson
There is a lovely story told of a scene which took place in one of the architectural and cultural masterpieces of medieval and modern Europe.
The Cologne Cathedral, at 157 m (515 ft), is the tallest twin-spired church in the world and has the largest façade of any such structure. It also has over 10,000 square metres of window surface area, making it a true kaleidoscope when the bright summer sunlight beams through the majestic stained-glass windows, installed at various intervals between the laying of the foundation stone in 1248 and the most recent addition, Gerhard Richter’s pixel window, in 2007. This final addition was the replacement of an original window which was destroyed during World War II.
Indeed, it was the emergence of two innovations in medieval times which enabled architects to create such vast kaleidoscope, in inspired devotion and reverence to their image of God.
These innovations were; breakthroughs in the engineering field of structural analysis, making larger, taller structures possible, and new methodologies in glass manufacturing, which paved the way for the new art form of stained-glass windows.
The story goes, that on one such summer’s day, there were crowds standing at the base of many of the beautiful windows in the cathedral. At one, an imam stood below the Islamic window, filled with intricate eastern imagery, explaining why his window was the most majestic of all.
At yet another, a rabbi explained why his window, adorned with the symbols of Hassidic art was the finest window.
A bishop stood below the Christian window, with images of the Christ and the Holy Virgin, explaining why his window could not but be the best of all windows, etc.
And so it went around the vast building, with representatives of the major religions and cultures, lauding the unsurpassed greatness of their respective windows, some people in the crowd moving from one window to the next in both awe and confusion.
For what all these representatives failed to realise was that it is not the window which was of primary importance, but rather the light, without which the windows would have had absolutely no value; the very same light that shines through each and every window.
The advocates continued with their divisive boasting and bragging, blind to the reality that they were living and promoting an illusion, and most of the `believers´ in the crowd bought into those illusions and were even prepared to fight those who were of different opinions, in order to prove their point.
Sadly, this story exemplifies the behaviour of the human species, even now in the twenty first century. We are mainly concerned with the realm of the material than that of the spirit. When I look into the eyes of a very young child, I can see the light, the clear essence, unimpeded and bright. I am reminded that this essence it at the core of my being also.
Over time the beliefs of our respective cultures will cover over this essence with successive layers of illusion to the point that many of us even forget that the essence resides within. We begin to believe we are not good enough, that we are in some form or other `sinful´ and in need of redemption, and we begin to judge ourselves, others, and our circumstances.
We do this because the guides and teachers we had in early childhood – parents, other adults, older siblings, peers, teachers, and `people of authority´ – were taught the same thing in their formative years. They, too, live a life informed more by fear than by unconditional love. Thus, the seeds of fear are sown early in the life of the children of every successive generation.
When fear is established and cultivated, we become less able to endure the bright light of love, so we draw down the blinds, put on the shades, and surround our own essence with dark layers of belief systems and behavioural patterns in the hope of being somehow protected. The torch of this illusion gets carried from generation to generation, due to ignorance and the collective peer pressure to behave as we are told and not to question the status quo.
In the words of Marianne Williamson: ` We ask ourselves, ‚Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?‘ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others´.
The sad reality is that the more we spin a web of illusion about us, the further removed we become of the conscious realisation of that essence, that spark of the Divine that is our true Self. It often takes some form of crisis, if ever at all, to jolt us into the reality that we have been deluded all along. It is then that we remember that we are spiritual beings having a material experience, not material beings with an option of spirituality as a side dish.
These are tumultuous times in which we live. On the one hand, we have the round-the-clock, round-the-world media machine, which is doing a very good job at sowing, cultivating, and maintaining fear. Drama sells, and there is a lot of money to be made. Social media, with its ever more powerful algorithms and `humans as the product´ approach has taken this fearmongering to a new level.
On the other hand, we have never had such an array of powerful resources to facilitate the breaking of the multi-generational chains of fear that have enslaved our species for eons. Depth psychology, neuroscience, bodywork therapies to address trauma, re-discovery and proliferation of indigenous wisdom and practices, the addiction recovery movement with millions of active members; all of these could stack up to an unprecedented movement for cultural and spiritual renewal, if marshalled consciously in the spirit of `the light, rather than the window´.
This is happening already. I see manifestations of it all about. `But obviously you cannot transmit what you haven’t got´, reads a line on the final page of the Big Book of AA. This points to the absolute necessity of each of us doing our own inner work. It need not be done alone.
It can be undertaken in one of the many communities of healing, where leadership by example, and congruity of values and action are practiced in the spirit of progress, not perfection. Cultural renewal will arise from the sum of individual inner renewal, achieved in the global network of healing communities, in the recognition that, while we are each unique in our own way, we are all born of the same eternal light.
