Chapter 14.1: The Subtlety of the Way

 

What you look for but cannot see is called obscured;

what you listen for but cannot hear is called muffled;

what you reach for but cannot grab hold of is called minute.

These three cannot be exhaustively articulated, thus they are combined as aspects of Unity.

There is always a Way – a Way forward, a Way upward, a Way out, a Way through, or a Way around – from wherever we are right now, to wherever we want to go.  The Way is always there, but we don’t always see it in the midst of our struggles and challenges – particularly in our fast-paced, info-saturated society of endless diversions and distractions.  So often we look for a Way but don’t see it; we strain to hear our inner voice, an intuitive voice that is being drowned out by the shrill cries of self-doubt and criticism.  We try to listen for a voice of inspiration over the cacophony of culture and the screams of society but there is just too much noise, too much static, too much interference.  We try to grasp the purpose and meaning of it all, but we can quite get our hands on it -- can’t quite wrap our heads around it – it seems ever out of reach.  

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a Way or that it is inevitably invisible to us; it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a still, small voice to guide us or that the universe is silent or indifferent – and it doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything out there to lay hold of, to grab on to, and to guide us along the Way.  On the contrary, we can clear our field of view and unobscure the Way, like a path once clear but now grown over from neglect and disuse, it is still there beneath the overgrowth and can still lead us wherever we want to go.  The voice is still there, calling out to us, whispering, and encouraging us – we need only silence the critics in our minds and mute the distractors and detractors that surround us.  Like a radio, we need only attune ourselves to the correct frequency and what was once barely audible, muffled, and scratched over with static will ring loud and clear in our hearts and minds.  Likewise, when we clear the clutter from our lives and remove the obstacles and rubble, we can rebuild, restore, and make room for something better.  Even if we feel broken beyond repair, we can begin to pick up even the tiniest fragments of our lives – no matter how shattered – and create a masterful mosaic – placing a piece at a time, fragment after fragment, shard upon shard, one step at a time. 

There are certain aspects of the Way that are ineffable and cannot be articulated or explained completely with the limits of language -- but they can be experienced and intuited.  The Way is not just a path to be talked about but a Way of life to be traversed. The Way leads to oneness, to unity, with ourselves, with those around us, and with the world around us.  It is a network of solutions, of openings and opportunities that most of us miss, because we are blinded and deafened by our subjective social stereotypes and cultural constructs such as “beauty” and “goodness.”  As we take a step back from the rat race, we’ll begin to see things we’ve never noticed before, hear personal messages, we’ve been looking for, and grasp things we’ve never understood.  As we do, we’ll begin to comprehend our great worth, purpose, and belonging in the universe and become more unified with everyone and everything around us.  The journey is worth the effort. ~ DCB