I was reciting a poem by Rumi called "The Guest House" -- a really beautiful poem that I found in one of Jack Kornfield's books several years ago. I have recited this poem to myself many many times over the last two years, but only this morning did I see it differently. I saw it as a most insightful, beautiful and powerful description of what I've been doing recently in terms of "shadow work."
This poem seems to capture the essence of shadow work: The Guest House is my highest Self and these guests are not so much outsiders coming in, but insiders coming out into the open as unexpected visitors. My past (and present...) strategy of avoiding and destroying these unwanted visitors was/is the very building process of my Shadow self. This new strategy of "welcome" toward Shadow self will, so my little voice tells me and which I believe, transform this shack of a self into a home, filled with light and shadows, laughter and tears, and room for all.This being human is a guest house,
every morning, a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness:
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all,
even if they are a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty of all its furniture.
Still treat each guest honorably;
they may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice:
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
The only change I am going to make to this poem now (which will now make this "my poem") is the last word. My new ending will be "Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from within."
How does this relate to the concept of turning over? Well, once I'd meditated on this poem in the light of my shadow work, I remembered this concept of turning over and as I was mulling it over I remember my father teaching me about a gardening technique called "turning over": at a certain time of year (I think it was this time of year if I'm not mistaken..) after the plants had finished producing all their flowers and/or fruit, it was important to "turn over" the ground of the garden. This turning over process involved taking a shovel or pitch fork and digging up the earth and turning it over so that the bottom most soil was now on top and the soil that was on top was now on the bottom. Once this was done, the remaining work would be done by Nature: the dry leaves and depleted soil would now be underneath the surface and there in the dark (shadow) the dead leaves would be transformed into new and rich soil. And there would come a time, in it's proper season, for the turning over process to be repeated. Again. And Again. And Again.
And this is how I'm feeling now with this new Shadow work adventure. It's a turning over process within me. There's nothing really to be afraid of. I just need to turn the soil. Nature will do all of the real work, the real healing.
Take care!
Mike L.
1 comment:
I like this metaphor the best. Good post Mike. Here's my take:
Maybe not a guide FROM within, but rather, a guide TO within. If, anytime we're bothered by someone, it means that there is something wrong with us and our level of acceptance, it may well be that there's an intimate connection or uncanny timing between the arrival of this person, place, or thing, and this deeply buried thought or feeling. The world, or rather our perception of it, has given rise to a revolt -- a reaction -- if you will that has enabled that buried part of ourselves to be introduced into the light. Thus we are given guidance about our "withins."
The more we encounter others and/or our world, the more we get to explore and unearth this deeply buried part of ourselves and bring it into the light. We come to realize that mostly our whole selves have been hidden for a very long time, even to ourselves; we don't know who we are.
Of course the world is unfolding exactly how it should be -- a notion that always bothered me, yet I'm finding it to be more and more true.
Over time, as this turning over process advances, the difference between our underlying thoughts and feelings and our outward behavior and reactions to life come more and more into alignment -- we gain integrity, or wholeness of our souls. We find that we have gained mastery over our world because eventually we know that it is not what the world throws at us that can shake us, but rather our lack of integrity; we gain the ability to choose how we "react" in life. We no longer "react"; we ACT.
It is a grand vision that I'm working towards. I'm currently working another fourth step, turning over the topsoil. As I clean house and gain right relations with God and with others, I find myself intuitively able to handle situations that used to baffle me. Somehow things just work out -- and it really has nothing to do with me. "Of myself I am nothing; the Father doth the works."
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." We must forgive them, for they have lit our path of growth.
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