Where Are You Going?

Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

Perhaps the most difficult part of transformation is that you never know where you are going until you get there. The state of not-knowing is difficult for the mind that only feels calm when it is sure it knows the road ahead. Some brave souls have learned to love the adventure of not knowing, but that requires a great deal of trust in that which cannot be seen.

It is interesting to me when I talk with people who sound like they know where they are going. I like to wonder what it will be that derails their plans and when. The cosmic coyote plays its games with our minds until we begin to laugh at the absurdity of moving into new territory and really knowing anything about what it will be like. Like early explorers, we never cease to be surprised by the landscape.

Like those explorers, we do have guides to this new place that we are entering. Many teachers and masters have come to Earth in various spiritual traditions to talk to us in stories and metaphors about the new consciousness that we are entering. But just like stories about a new world, it is never quite the same when you arrive there. Yet the stories help us open to the possibility and point the way to the inner state that awakes our presence.

Where we are going is not a where at all, at least not in the way we think. Instead, it is awareness, an inner feeling state that allows us to see the very landscape we have been living in through different eyes. Perhaps it might be like putting on night vision goggles and seeing all the things that were there all along, but not visible to us. We are moving into a radical shift in perception.

We have all had glimpses through the doorway and what moves us through is the willingness to embrace the fear of losing everything. We must release the world as we know it to see the world as it really is. What is it that you would cling to as you step into the initiatory fires that will clear your vision? Before the fire, we are afraid of loss - loss of career, loved ones, possessions, identity, money, status, self. After the fire, we are aware that there is no loss of anything that is real.

So ask yourself the questions, "What is real?" and "Who am I, really?" Who is the "I" that cannot be destroyed by the fire? Let yourself feel the answer for there is no way to describe it except through stories and metaphors. When you know who you are, no question arises about where you are going.

Sit in the silence
Transcend time and space into
Infinite presence

If you have comments on this or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified Sept 2007 by RMC