These are liminal times. Poised on a threshold, about to be released from a pandemic that has demanded that we sublimate our individual needs for the common good, we hesitate. Some of us will rush to return to the hurly-burly of unbridled personal ambition. Others will seek to find a new way to advance the needs of a community in whose collective prosperity we believe we will find our own greatest personal fulfillment.
As we determine which way we will jump, we need to closely observe the inventors, artists and entrepreneurs who are familiar with this powerful, empty space. They understand how to wait for the unseen to appear to the unknowing. Unfortunately, their wisdom is not totally sufficient to our current task, as it is confined to the creation of products, programs, organizations, and movements that address specific problems, not far-reaching solutions that trigger a fundamental, tectonic shift in the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of us all.
We know that something universal and cosmic just happened — the world cratered in a way that we have rarely seen before. Through COVID-19 we have witnessed a vast, global, creative destruction of the way we are accustomed to living. There are intimations that there could be more to come. Perhaps another more virulent mutation of the coronavirus; an environmental disaster of similar, epic proportions; or an intensification of our tribal narratives that widen the gap between conservatives and progressives, men and women, old and young, racial groups , and the divisions between various nation-state interests.
The point is that we do not know what will happen next. But if there is any lesson that has been drilled into our souls during the past eighteen months, it is that we are not the masters of the universe, and we need to suspend judgment. We dare not presume to know.
As our entire world goes through a massive rearrangement, where do we turn to guidance as to how we might proceed? Where are the individuals who are expert in the uncomfortable, liminal, in-between space that we now occupy? The answer is one that our secular world rejected (at least intellectually) centuries ago. Yet we would do well to reconsider their insights. It is the wisdom of the mystic.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the new-age, feel-good junk that has been cobbled together into a self-referential religion for these times. I’m talking about the actual practice of ancient wisdom within a contemporary context.
Mystics are conditioned by the interaction of their meditative practices and their direct life experiences to understand the gifts that a liminal space can offer. Their ability to surrender the need to “figure it out” and instead allow events to emerge as they will is exactly what is required during these times. This open frame of mind is the space from which all great innovation emerges if we have the patience to empty ourselves out; the humility to admit that we do not have the answers that we seek; and the courage, trust and faith that if we wait, we will bear fruit and witness what manifests through us.
Today’s mystics are being led by a new generation of practitioners across all faith traditions — lay and clergy. These are not your typical run-of-the-mill renunciants. They are revolutionaries who are active in the world, which makes their skills so valuable in these times. I am convinced that we would do well to study the sacred texts that they are writing. They outline a new way of Self-expression driven by a deep sense of meaning and purpose whose ultimate goal is creating healthy, well-balanced individuals living in thriving communities dedicated to the common good. They hold the keys to the work that we must undertake post COVID.
A stunning example of a contemporary mystic who is having enormous impact is Sadhviji Bhagawati Saraswati, an American who grew up in Los Angeles, went on holiday to India while completing her Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford and essentially never returned. By her own account, at that time she was a seeker of non-spiritual, data-driven understandings of life’s mysteries and went to India for the food. Once there, she waded into the Ganga and experienced a series of encounters with the divine.
Her soon-to-be-published memoir Hollywood to the Himalayas provides a brilliant introduction to the lessons that unfolded in her life and opened her heart, body and mind to the full range of experience that is available to us if we allow ourselves to be led, not trying to control or know the outcome of our actions. Her detailed rendering of this process is pitch perfect for these times. With one foot firmly planted in Western analytical traditions and the other grounded in Eastern mystical thought, she is a lyrical, fluent translator between both ways of being.
With the clarity of a research scientist, the grace of a natural storyteller, and the ability of a gifted teacher to simplify complex, nuanced, and esoteric lessons into memorable sound bites, she shares the series of events that connected her with the primal life force that moves through our being; her beloved guru, teacher and friend, Pujya Swamiji Chinandan Saraswtiji; and an ever-widening cast of fellow spiritual travelers. Her life narrative provides an extraordinary bridge between the world as we understand it, and the ancient and modern universe that she inhabits. Unsparing in her transparency, she lets us experience her personal transformation from a young woman struggling with the legacy of sexual assault, bulimia, and the collapse of her marriage, into an international spiritual leader and global social activist. She invites us to join her in her incomprehension, joy, awe, and laughter about the bizarre experiences she has as she makes this shift. As an American who shattered the societal barriers to women in an Indian religion led by men for 7000 years, her story is remarkable. It has many more levels of meaning for the reader.
Leveraging her training as a clinical psychologist, she guides us step-by-step through the process by which she was led into the deepening expansion of her own consciousness and awareness. She uses her own unfolding to illustrate these steps. The vignettes she shares are not offered as a how-to manual, but as postcards from edge of consciousness (much in the way that the Upanishads provide an inspiration for us today). By demonstrating the art of the possible, these sacred texts encourage us to travel, to be transported. They provide a glimpse of vistas we might behold on our own spiritual journeys. They inspire us to understand how immediate and accessible our own transformation is.
This is perhaps the most revolutionary message of her book. We live in a world that is organized around the proposition that material and social success are the prime movers of the universe. We are conditioned to believe that when we acquire sufficient capital (financial or otherwise), we might achieve a level of autonomy that will fundamentally change our day-to-day life and free us to have a positive impact on the world. Sadhviji’s memoir maps another path, a via positiva, available to us. With nothing more than a willingness to let Spirit guide and support her, she has proven that truly anything is possible.
A secondary theme of her memoir is that the goal of these awakenings is not to bliss out, as our pop culture’s misappropriation of ancient wisdom suggests. Yes, we will experience a measure of happiness and peace that is our birthright (which we often lose on a regular basis). But her life also demonstrates that an expansion of consciousness leads us to a vocational calling that brings forth good works. Her astonishing record of achievement is a testament to the proposition that contemplation, the process of emptying out the heart and mind in a still, quiet space, is the means through which health, happiness, and sustained social action emerges. In addition to breaking the glass ceiling in the Hindu world as a woman and a foreigner, she is the Secretary-General of Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, the world’s first coalition of religious leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, launched by UNICEF in 2013; the President of Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organization bringing education and empowerment to women and children; and the Director of the International Yoga Festival. Additionally, Sadhviji has numerous high-level international appointments. (In her spare time she edited The Encyclopedia of Hinduism).
Despite these many accomplishments, she dismisses being the doer of good work as a goal for a good life. Yes, being an individual filled with meaning and purpose is a joy and wonder to experience, but she rejects the Western myth that “doing” is the path to happiness, as it usually bears the narrow imprint of our egos.
So what’s the answer? How should we proceed beyond the threshold of this moment to discover a new way of being?
Early in her residence at his ashram, Pujya Swamiji gives Sadhviji three directives: Get closer to God every day. Serve humanity. Be happy.
To execute those three recommendations, Sadhvi adds her own bit of guidance. Tucked away as an aside at the end of the memoir, she humbly offers a short valedictory paragraph that captures her essential truth.
“This book is about the presence of Grace, how Grace entered my life. It may enter your life in an entirely different way, but Grace is available to all. Grace does not discriminate. … Grace requires only that there be space in us in which it can flow.” Like the Ganga.
This may be the most important message that we need to take away from Sadhviji’s memoir during these anxious, liminal times. Be open to the divine, to the love that surrounds us. The rest will take care of itself.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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Photo credit: Mathias Jensen on Unsplash