To Live in Exile

I’ve been thinking that trying to walk a spiritual path is like taking on a kind of conscious exile from the world.

I may be caring very much, engaging with compassion in my work and with the world, but yet, with a kind of dispassion also. A kind of cloister wall, a firewall against innumerable onslaughts of tweets and tragedies that can shake us to the core, like a windblown, leafless tree in autumn.

To take a moment to pause, in the city, when we hear a siren, to pray for the unknown one who is suffering...but not to enter the heated fray of opinions flying back and forth… a self-imposed exile to exist in humility: I don’t have all the answers. And to dwell in a realm of prayer for the upliftment of all…

The child saint, Prahlada Maharaj offers us a beacon of light as to how that might look:

[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]   “May the entire universe be blessed with peace and good hope. May everyone driven by envy and enmity become pacified and reconciled. May all living beings develop abiding concern for the welfare of others. May our own hearts and minds be filled with purity and serenity. May all these blessings flow naturally from this supreme benediction: May our attention become spontaneously absorbed in the rapture of pure love unto the transcendent Lord.” [/perfectpullquote]

All the best,

Rukmini Walker

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