Once there was a man afraid of his deepening shadow who fled into the wilderness to escape its madness.

But as he ran, he heard his shadows footsteps
clomping after him.

He bolted desperately, swiftly
charged with the fear of ages past.
But the inky shadow kept pace
lurking frightfully behind him the whole way.

And after frantic dashing through spooky woods
he finally screamed in exhaustion and defeat
falling on the ground to die.

He gasped his last terrifyingly feeble breaths
before the final darkness engulfed him...

If he would have only stopped running to enter
the shade of a serene tree, he would've watched the shadow disappear.

If he would have only sat down to remain still
for a moment, the haunting footsteps
would be silenced at last...  

We all have an ancestral darkness that lurks within us like a secret enemy constantly plotting our destruction.  When we are full of pride and scorn for people and life, then the shadows of the past reign, both personal and collective.  They can govern us, consume us, and finally possess us.  Their roots reach deep into our own fears as well as the collective fear of the ancestors who live in our cellular memory.  Yet there is a deeper darkness which we talked about earlier called the creative void where all tensions are resolved.  It is the eternal silence where love abides and flows from.  By staying centered in the conversation with love you can learn to overcome inharmonic vibes with harmony, fear with love, and falsehood with truth.

It takes a certain kind of devotion to a life of simplicity and faith to maintain the balance required for love.  When life seems exhausting and you're fighting an uphill battle, you simply have to return to wholeheartedness.  Holy-heartedness.  And that happens through humility which comes from the root word hummus which means "soil".  You've got to return to the soil of your being, the soul of your being, to realize your true connection to the source of life.  The Chinese Sage Lao Tzu said,

"All the rivers of the world flow to the sea.  All the rivers of the world flow to the sea.  Why is the ocean so great?  Because it's good at keeping low."    

When you cultivate sacred silence in your life you come alive and realize the gifts you've been given to contribute to the collective, the whole of life.  The next step is to receive some kind of training in your gifts from a mentor, one who can point the way and say, " Hey, we share a passion for this part of life.  Let's explore it together.  In the Japanese language the word for teacher is Sensei.  Which translates to "previous living".  So a teacher in the Oriental mind is one who has lived the path and now stands before you to point the way.  I was fortunate to have three wise mentors cross my path at the age of fourteen.  If more of our children could encounter authentic adults there could be a renaissance of mentoring and the apprenticeship approach to learning that modern life has neglected with standardized education.