Perhaps one of the most common metaphors for life is "life is a journey". If we close our eyes and engage the force of imagination, this metaphor projects a vision of people traveling down "life's road" or down a path that begins with a specific starting point and end-point or destination. Life is a trip, an experience, another journey here, then there. As travellers, we require a vehicle to take us further down the path, and anything and anyone can be the means to get us moving. A relationship, a new career, a new friendship, almost everything can be seen as a vehicle for going further down life's path. We often "cross-paths" with others,"take the road less travelled", and find that some things in life aren't "going anywhere" and that we've reached a "dead-end". We may even feel so "lost" at times, like we have wandered off "the path".
Like all journeys, there is a beginning and end-point. The final destination is the ultimate purpose, the reason for beginning the journey in the first place. Yet once the destination has been reached, there is another journey - returning home. We return home only to long for another journey away. There is an ever-present longing for something that is long-lasting and absolute - something eternal, something that will never come to an end. Yet when we cling to experiences that always end - like sunrises and sunsets, chocolate cakes and lemon tarts, journey's here and journey's there - we will always find ourself longing for something more . . . as if longing for a lost Beloved.
Rumi, the 12th century mystic poet speaks how "longing is the core of mystery", that which brings us to the core, the heart-center where the soul can experience a mystical union with the Divine. The soul innately longs for this fullness again. Rumi writes, "Everyone who is left far from his source wishes back the time when he was united with it". The heart longs for the Divine, just as a flower strives for the Light of the Sun.
If life is a journey, what is the ultimate destination? If death is the answer, perhaps we should change metaphors. My friend suggests "life is dance".
Perhaps life is nothing but the fullness of existence itself. Life simply is. Full stop.
In Taoist Philosophy, the Tao is translated as "the way" or "the path", yet the Tao is also known as the "pathless path", the way that cannot be seen. The Tao is invisible, intangible, and forever nameless. It cannot be spoken of and yet, it is complete in itself. If we cannot see it, how can we follow "the way"? If we cannot name it, how do we categorize "the way" and know "the way"?
Our love for naming and knowing things according to their name propels us into the visible world. The way has become defined by worldly things, concepts and creations. We have forgotten the invisible. We have forgotten the Divine. The Balinese believe in two worlds, sekala, the visible, which is the realm of worldly events, such as dance, ceremony, prayer, sacrifice, while niskala is the unseen or the realm of the gods. These two realms must be balanced and always be in harmony. Although niskala is invisible, the Balinese know the way. Although unseen, they follow the pathless path.
How do they know the way that cannot be seen or named? Perhaps, like Rumi says, they follow a longing which takes them to the core and into a sacred union with the Divine. They follow their core longing, not language. The heart only speaks the language of love. Love takes you to the core, to the invisible realm where truth exists eternally and we can behold the greatest treasure of all of life's journeys and find happiness that is ever-present and absolute. It is then we may find that life is not a metaphor at all, nor can language even come close to representing the truth of reality, for language cannot name the nameless or describe the unseen. When language fails, there is love.
When life is seen as life itself - as the fullness of existence, the world reveals its hidden magic to you. Everything shines with the radiance of the sun's glory. When everything shines with the brilliance of a thousand suns, then you have found the true "way". You do not have to go anywhere or become anything. You are already there and everything you want to become, you already are - for the centre, the core, is complete, fullness and absolute happiness.
It is. It exists. It shines.
You are. You exist. You shine.
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