What we too often dismiss for another’s, is the light within ourselves. Yet it is and will always be the only lamp bright enough to enlighten our pathway home. ~ Seijaku Roshi

While we endlessly search for ways to be “more spiritual”, it remains that, “we are spiritual beings immersed in a human experience.” While we search for ways to experience God, the Unity of all which exist, Love, Buddha-Nature, we disquiet our minds with fruitless debate. While we stretch our bodies on yoga mats, and isolate ourselves in meditation or prayer, in wellness centers, churches and synagogues; we continue to resent the life we have and lose precious time to be with the one’s we love, in a futile effort to sustain what is fleeting. We were never meant to be creatures of fear and desperation, “Our duty as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.”

If anything, the current events in the news these days have to teach us it is this: we cannot continue to rely on another's light to enlighten the darkened corners of our world. It is the light which is within each and every one of us which must “enlighten” the world. Each of us without exception is “the missing link” toward creating the solutions for ending suffering and the causes of suffering.

Spirituality is a choice to live one’s life “as a force of nature” for the benefit of all the many beings. It requires a devotion to being ever attentive to the practices which cultivate the ground for authenticity, and which nurture our inherent wisdom and capacity to heal rather than harm, to love rather than resent, to unite rather than sow discord. We are lovers at heart and we need to be about the daily business of loving ourselves, loving others, and the whole of Nature. This includes taking inventory of our lifestyles and removing everything that is unnecessary, nurturing only what is necessary, and opening our hearts, seeing others and the environment as both our responsibility and essential for our own happiness and well-being.

We dream of and imagine a more loving and kind world; dreams can only come true when we take the steps to realize our dreams within ourselves and then recreate them in our immediate environment. Peace on earth begins with peace within. Poverty ends; crime ends; war ends; bigotry of every kind ends; hatred and resentment end; suffering ends, when we eliminate the delusion of an impoverished world every time we, “Proceed as if the limits to our ability do not exist.” 

We must do the work of stoking the light within then, place it on top of the mountain and at the bottom of the mountain, and all along the way wherever we go. In the words of Santidiva:

“May I become at all times both now and forever… a lamp for those without light; a place of refuge for those who lack shelter, and a servant to all in need.”

I love you.

Seijaku Roshi is the founder and spiritual director of The Zen Society, Pine Wind Zen Community, located at 863 McKendimen Rd., in Shamong, New Jersey. He is a Zen-Buddhist Monk, parent, author, life coach and abbot. For more information, visit PineWind.org.