Gratitude 16 … Guidance
Today I am grateful for my Guides — both those “avatars” who have led me to the Light of Love, as well as those “false prophets” who tempt me away from It …
And, you might ask, what makes a guide “True”?
Well, she or he must first and foremost teach the selfless Way — enCouraging others to care and to give and to love from a place of Kindness that thinks nothing of self, and everything of the other. He is humble & jovial in his giving, and completely unconcerned with personal profit of any type. She is all-accepting & ever-grateful, and generous with both her time & her possessions.
At least for me, some of these Saints have been & remain: Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth, Martin Luther King Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, Gautama Buddha, Lao Tsu, Victor Frankl, Abraham Lincoln, Jalal-ad-Din Rumi, Thomas Keating, Peace Pilgrim, Mother Teresa, Hildegaard von Bingen, Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Chetanananda, Jimmy Carter, Ram Dass, St. Francis of Assisi, Krishnamurti, Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Schweitzer — and of course, my own conscience.
And what makes a prophet false?
She or he first and foremost represents the self-focused “un-Way” — decouraging others to “take care of” themselves before someday thereafter caring for others; to look for personal “salvation” before tending to the sufferings of others. He is proud & stern, and believes that his efforts deserve material reward &/or recognition. She is judgmental & envious of her “rivals”, and places conditions on all her gifts and givings.
And yet, such people can be guides as well — at the very least by showing us how not to Be. In their most extreme forms, these individuals are all those who have engaged in or endorsed torture, all those who have hoarded material wealth, all those who have worked primarily for their own superficial pleasure, all those who have openly condemned others, all those who have shown indifference to suffering, all those who have procrastinated the expression of their selfless greatness, and all those who have been too afraid to extend Kindness towards their enemies … For me, some of these “false prophets” have been & remain: Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama — and, of course my own ego.
Some – my True Guides — have illuminated my Way directly, while others – my “false prophets” — chose to shine their lights upon paths I dare not tread. And yet every one of them has been a signpost along my Life’s Journey; every one of them, to the degree that I chose to pay attention to their messages, has helped to keep me on track.
And so it is that I climb to my proverbial mountaintop, take a deep breath filled with profound reverence, and let loose with a long & loud –
Thank Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
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