Aloha, On Earth As In Heaven

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions when one can no longer see, one can at least still know. ~ Rene Dumal

Denese and I have just "come down from the summit", that is, we have just returned from 10 glorious days and nights on the beautiful island of Maui. Since returning we have been trying to re-enter reality (small r)--- emptying the sand from our shoes, while grasping at the memories of the blissful moments we shared while away.

We are filled with gratitude for the privilege of this time away, and truly feel refreshed at many levels. Humanly, we are dealing with some re-entry discomfort, as we quickly recognize the challenge of generating and maintaining the peace, joy and loving energy that bubbled up in us so effortlessly on the island.

Maui is shameless in its unbridled seduction of the senses. It's hard to not take all the exhilarating beauty very personally. When every wave that breaks upon the shore feels like it was designed just to soothe you into peaceful surrender, and every brilliant flower seems commissioned by your vision of beauty and every bird song the melody that soothes your mind, separation does not come easy. When each breeze caresses your face like a mother's embrace, and each sunset makes the heart burst with the majesty of a palette of infinite color and beauty, one does not depart easily. As you can tell as I wax on poetically about our time away, that we really were carried away, and thoroughly blissed out.

Now we have returned, and the message for us, and you, this Sunday is how it is possible to generate those feelings on the mainland where we live and move and do our work. The ego mind would have us cling to the notion that Maui is the place for our peace, and the land of our love, and the island of our joy. We can be seduced by that illusion, or we can return to the Truth that assures us that all that we experienced in Maui was an inner response to outer conditions. Herein lies the key to heaven, in our response-ability. Every master has revealed that this key is within our reach and accessible to all who are willing to return home mindfully and open heartedly.