"I have good news and I have bad news: The bad news is that we have lost the key to the door behind which the secret of life is hidden. The good news is that it was never locked." Swami Beyndananda
I have always loved the Wizard of Oz. At some point I started using it as a parable in classes I taught for guys in alcohol/drug rehab. There's a ton of symbolism throughout the story - from the black and white beginning - the dryness of our youth as we long to break free and more anywhere other than our own personal Kansas - to the unlikely pairing of the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Dorothy. All through our life we will meet the most amazing people in the most unlikely of places and circumstances.
And we all have an OZ - a place we were told holds the answers to all our questions, hopes and dreams - a place that will help us return home to the (mostly imaginary) bliss of our youth. But, aside from the flying monkeys and mean 'ol Wicked Witch of West - the message really becomes clear when Dorothy finally encounters the Wizard and he explains that the power to go home has been hers all along.
There is no Wizard for any of us - although there may be some kindly person to tell us that - really tell us that. One of the greatest tests for spiritual authenticity is the willingness of a spiritual leader to explain that he/she isn't really necessary at all - and that the power already resides with us.
We remain in darkness when we seek external solutions for internal needs. We believe that problems exist because of causes outside of ourselves, and so we seek to rearrange the outer world. Even when we succeed, and sometimes we do, at great cost to our interpersonal lives, we feel empty because the external situation was not the cause of our pain. To really be healed, to really go to the place that is "home" for us, we need to deal with our experience at the source - beliefs, attitudes, actions.
We can empower ourselves to recognize that everything that happens - somehow was drawn to us as a gift. Richard Bach, in his wonderful little book Illusions wrote, "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. We seek problems because we need their gifts."
The whole game changes when you realize, really realize, that the answer, along with the power, is already within you.
If you want something to pray for today, pray for the strength to release anyone else as the source of your experience, and to own your responsibility for creating the life you choose. Then, click your heels together three times and say, "There's no place like home."
The Etymological Dictionary defines an iconoclast is a “breaker or destroyer of images” from the Late Greek word eikonoklastes. Later, an iconoclast was viewed as “one who attacks orthodox beliefs or institutions.” Today, iconoclasts like perceive things differently than other people - or maybe we just like to be annoying. Either way. This difference in perception plays out in our ideas, worldview and metaphysics - and in how we manage our fears and shadow self. It works well for me.
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