“To direct the mind towards the basic unity of all things and to divert it from the seizing of differences – therein lies bliss.” – Tejo-Bindu Upanishad.

For centuries, spiritual prophets and gurus and religious scholars have been telling us that at the heart of all painful and frightening struggles there is a peaceful enduring center in all human beings if only we can learn how to reach it.

Some suggest prayer, other meditation or hero journeys,  and I’ve done all three.

But for me, this has always been a rough road, much easier said than done, like most great spiritual prophecies and pleas. True spirituality is the gold at the end of the rainbow, I’m always trying to get there.

The challenge is problematic, at least for me, because the peaceful center lives deep inside of us, whereas life and its storms rage outside of us, as is happening right now.

The coronavirus and its dread dislocation and uncertainty bring this great paradox into focus.  The spiritual and temporal challenge is to find a peaceful center without denying the reality all around us.

I don’t wish to live in fear, nor do I wish to live in delusion. The boundary between the two is what people like to call common sense. That’s where I want to be.

Again and again, I am thrown into the storm and into the center at the same time.

The spiritual ones seem deep and wise, but they don’t often seem to me to be as human as I seem to be. Reading them, I often feel hopelessly human and inadequate for the challenge.

I keep trying to bridge this gap between peace and the storm, and the coronavirus reminds me of how much work I have to do, and how important and meaningful it is.

My problem is that cannot get to the peaceful center without flying through the storm like a gull.

I understand that the best way to survive the storm is to get to the center.

In going back and forth, as I do, I find what I am looking for, the trials and rewards of love and compassion. Because for me, being human is to experience both, not one or the other.

I never surrender to the storm, not do I ever abandon my peaceful center. This was not something the spiritual men and women warned me about.

I did come across a meditation about finding my peaceful center, I want to share it with you. It has helped me:

–Close your eyes and let your breathing call the animal (your choice) of your spirit to your center.

-Inhale deeply and let your breath call the animal home through your center and to the center of the storm.

-Exhale deeply and feel the edge of the storm and the edge of the center.

-Know that your breath is the edge of both.

Photo by Maria Wulf