THE TAO OF WOW

A seeker climbed high in the mountains

hoping to be worthy of a soul secret from the spirits.

While sun and moon both glowed fortuitously in the same sky, 

the seeker was rewarded for the pure intention and unflagging effort shown.

At a precise celestial alignment a lesson was given on the wind. 

The breeze whispered around and through the seeker –

There is a place within that turns golden when touched.

One cannot touch their own place within, another is needed for that.

It is the pull of Yin meeting the push of Yang, it is the full overlap of the opposites,

it is the central fire of the Vesica Pisces, the holy spark of the fires of creation, 

it is the receptive principle desiring to be taken and the possessing principle desiring to take,

it is the glory of no place and no time in the divine vibration of eternal fulfillment. 

When this place is touched, the original opening of heart is experienced in its pristine glory.

From this splendor emanates inceptive joy, tender intimacy, a feeling of being finally seen,

an excitement of being fully appreciated, the release of an open and vulnerable comfort, 

the pleasure of genuinely being loved from outside in, to a depth never experienced before.

In that moment a flash of the celestial, the sanctified, the transcendent overwhelms.

A shared completeness is felt so deeply it overpowers the senses, fusing the opposite principles,

spinning Yin and Yang in a blur of conjoined ecstasy, causing the little death. For a moment one’s breath is taken away as the Earthbound soul melds with eternity, senses bliss, and perceives what true union means.

Upon hearing the spirits whisper and feeling the message of the sublime breeze uplift the soul, the seeker flushed with excitement, all at once satiated with the nectar of a profound understanding. The seeker exclaimed to the sky and mountains, to the sun and moon in alignment, to the heavenly hosts and nearby spirits, to the ancestors and the imagined future images of oneself – “I know now, I have only one gift I want from life!”

The spirits started to say more but paused as the seeker’s heart attempted words to approximate its ineffability. “The gift I want is to give such a gift! Let me be the one to give the golden gift, to ignite such joy in another with a special touch. I now live only to be someone’s other, the one who makes such a thing possible for another. Let me be the one to always be someone’s primal imprint of such inceptive joy!”

Gathering clouds moved overhead, drifting west, borne on the breezes. The seeker ignored them, no longer able to restrain continuing cries of enthusiasm and sudden purpose, “Somewhere in the world there is another who awaits their golden moment. They dream about it, they anticipate it, they ache and pine and thirst for it with a soul hunger that only increases, never abates. They need to know such magnificence within. No matter where they go they are destined by their nature to long for their fulfillment. They can’t help but wonder what such bliss must be like. Their hopes soar on the wings of believing there is someone meant for them, someone to bring this to life, to make this true, to give them the one thing they absolutely cannot give to themselves. Oh spirits! The gift I want from life is to be the one to give such a gift! What joy it must be to be the one to make such an essential thing true for another! Giving such a gift is the purest, most intimately active expression of love for another. It’s a gift of such magnitude it changes people into expressing their fullness. Giving such a gift would be the completion of my purpose!”

The sun had moved. So had the moon. The alignment was over and the clouds were crowding the western horizon. The fading light of day fell behind shadow and a new coolness added sting to gusty winds. The spirits swirled around the seeker in a circle, whipping up a dust devil from feet to sky. 

And once again they were heard –

There is a place within that turns dark when touched.

One touches their own place within, another is not needed.

It is the pull of desire meeting the push of surrender, it is the split in things imagined to be one, 

it is the frost on the rose, the lack of shadow when darkness is complete,

it is the receptive principle already taken and the possessing principle already occupying,

it is the despair of all places and all times remote from satisfying the now.

When this place is touched, the heart recoils and is closed in reflex to the anguish.

From this upset one is delivered from their wishes, their dreams, their gifts.

With eyes shielded against the whirlwind, the seeker cried out, “Why are you telling me this? Your first words have shown me my purpose. Why do you now lay pathways for it to be taken away?”

The dust devil disappeared but the sun remained hidden. The far wind and near breezes quieted as the message of the spirits returned in silence. It was a silence the seeker could only experience in the heart. It was a silence that was dreaded, but one that completed the circle of the possible, the square of the necessary. In the overawed but anxious hush, the seeker knew without hearing the words –

It doesn’t matter what you believe is your purpose in life. 

Some things are meant to be, some things are not.

It is not up to you to ask to give or receive gifts from your life.

You may feel your purpose has meaning,

but life is true to its own ways, not yours.

Do not seek a gift to give a gift meant to transform another.

Do not pursue a meaning that depends on anything outside yourself.

What happens in your life will happen, you cannot force a meaning upon it.

Be in life, be in the world, but be transparent to desires that entangle.

If you cannot give such a gift, what will be your life?

Some get to experience the place that turns golden when others touch it.

Some touch another’s place and turn it golden.

Others struggle with the place that turns dark when they touch it.

Touch is a conveyance never wholly our own, rarely under our control.

Forces within and without are transferred irrespective of our most earnest whims.

Never forget, soul secrets in the wind are like the wind.

They clear the skies and they bring the storms.

When the wind dies, there is stillness.

Let all your purpose go now and be still.

Let the stillness touch you in heart and mind.

Then there is peace – until the wind comes again.

Too unsteady in the fullness of heart and mind, the seeker descended the mountain 

changed by the experience and now hoping to be worthy 

of a respite from a troubled but greater inner spirit.

For the first time in life, a strong purpose had been felt 

but then a dispassionate wisdom had warned to let it go.

It was strange, it was unsettling, it made clear a deeper truth –  

that the seeker had felt more whole and assured before the mountain visit.

The secrets of the spirits had only left one restlessly divided of heart and mind.

And so the lesson had been given, the deeper inner truth shining forth.

The seeker would return to seeking, for there was unity of being in that.