I've always adored the great mystics - Hafiz, Rumi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross. Their writings transcend our mundane human perception and give glimpses into the rapturous experience of a higher reality. Truth be told, I fancy myself a modern day mystic, someone weaving together these worlds of the mundane and the magical.
When asked at dinner parties or social events what kind of work I do, I find it an awkward question. The simple answer is that I'm an entrepreneur, investor, teacher, speaker and writer. But, there's far more to it than that. As Khalil Gibran once wrote, "work is love made visible." I find building social ventures and connecting with people in a teaching environment as ecstatic as love-making. The ultimate reason to create, teach, speak or write is to dissolve the veil of separation and reveal the intimate union of all existence...to awaken a recognition of ourselves as One with all that is.
So when Arianna Huffington asked me to write a column on conscious living and spirituality I was simultaneously thrilled and tentative. Thrilled because these topics provoke great joy for me. Tentative because authenticity demands a level of revealed public dialogue that I've previously saved for engaged audiences or private circles. It demands an even deeper level of "love made visible."
Lest this sound trite, let me add that the mystic's love is not blind to the complication and suffering in the world. It is all-embracing, using the full human experience as fuel for the raging fire of awakening. Our modern lives are difficult. We face social injustices, environmental crises, war, economic imbalances, poverty, hunger, a vast array of suffering across our planet.
By comparison, it would seem rather easy to check into a monastery or convent and pursue a peaceful life of contemplative practice. In my quiet moments I've considered this path, but know it will never be. The hour is late and the crises of our world too great. We have a profound responsibility to awaken from our slumber and re-ignite our creative energies in service to a more sustainable (and ecstatic) human existence. We can do this through the substance of our everyday lives - in our work, in our relationships, in our politics, in our homes -- if we are awake.
This column is about the necessary commitment to conscious awakening and the resulting possibility of collectively re-imagining and repairing our world. It is a sacred journey born in the mystical fire of our modern lives - families, children, careers, health, relationships, finances - where our uncensored experiences are the fuel for the transformation.
We will explore how, through that transformation, we can walk in the world with a greater sense of wonder, delight, humility and compassionate action. How we can at once surrender to the greatness of the flow of life and find our power there, navigating the grand paradoxes - those that would have us believe we need to struggle, fight, and effort our way forward, when in fact our most powerful purpose emerges when we lay down that effort. How we can reside in the moment, being fully present with the creative currents that arise right now, and follow them without a plan for where they might take us.
This is the delight of the soul's unfolding and fertile ground for a new collective wisdom. If we let it, the divine voice will seduce us from our self-imposed limitation, from the narrow sense of our possession of life, into the vastness of all Being.
Over the coming weeks I hope to beckon, encourage, and inspire this soul's journey - a journey together of making love visible.
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Posted September 17, 2007 | 09:00 AM (EST)