Let the Wise Teach

January 29, 2010

The world mourned the loss of the remarkable ‘giant of a man’, yet small in stature, Mahatma Gandhi, on January 30th, 1948 – 62 years ago. Gandhi was an early personal hero of mine, and during my sojourn in India I made a pilgrimage to his simple shrine in August of 1963. Today, he is one we need to clone, not Dolly the sheep.

I have found that when in critical periods in a person’s life journey the ability to draw upon the wisdom keepers becomes essential in rising from the challenge. All of us have those significant role models who have spoken to us during our lives and it is important that their eternal life be acknowledged through our reflection upon their words and deeds. Turning back the pages of time to reflect on the teachings from those who came before us is prudent and guides us through turbulent times. History should never be forgotten or dismissed, but built upon thoughtfully, and consistently. Personal history with our unique mentors is especially critical to tap into on a regular basis.

I was lucky, both my parents were well liked by me and others, and brought different gifts to the table in our home. I have always counseled others when examining their life script to take the good, discard the bad from the past, and build one’s own story. That is good advice about one’s own family story.

Other voices have spoken to me through my journey and Dr. John Seeley, my mentor and friend for 30 years emboldened me to seek the highest good in all that I do. His life was exemplary on many levels, and his perspective on the world shaped who I am today. I was fortunate to be able to sit at his feet for 30 years. Today, because of my Tribrach (3 footed poetic symbol) of maladies I feel the highest good is to affirm the teachings of my mentors and write until my carpel tunnel syndrome debilitates me.

All of us, I imagine, look to individuals who we’ve never had the chance to meet personally, but in some way influenced our lives or have honed our understanding of the human story; one such individual for me, as I mentioned, was Mohandas K. Gandhi of Kenya and India. History most often reflects that his actions spoke louder than his words, but he had some pretty remarkable statements that became part of the public discourse. One such gem:

“It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent,” he once wrote.

I have never been surer of that ‘pearl of wisdom’ as I am right now in the year 2010. The noise around us is ever present, increasingly contradictory, often inflammatory, and on a regular basis not helpful to discerning truth, in any area. Thus, taking the gift of silence, or rather having me seek the opportunity to find silence, has become essential in wading through the volumes of rhetoric, just from blogs alone.

The idea that silence could be a viable option and a useful tool for me personally was probably when I was seated in a room with six other individuals and Dr. John O’Hearne in Kansas City Missouri in 1970.

Granted I knew the concept from scripture about being quiet so the still small voice of God could penetrate, and this was always in the back of my mind, but when Dr. John stood and faced me and stated: “Kreitler, what you need is 10 minutes a day to restore your island quality” I took notice. I have never forgotten the admonition from my 5 year guide in my personal transactional development training. He recognized my type A personality, or my hyper-activity, and cautioned that I better get in touch with my inner self and allowing myself a simple 10 minutes a day should do the trick. Nothing fancy or esoteric, a simple slow day, smell the roses and set aside time was all that he promoted for me.

An island is a beautiful thing to behold – restore your island quality - and a metaphor for peace, tranquility and a place to which many of us wish to travel for our time of relaxation and renewal. How many times we long to go to the Islands be they in the Caribbean, off Cape Cod, or in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There is a reason we like islands – our time there restores us.

Ironically, it is now the island states of the world that are raising their voices the loudest at international conferences because sea level rise is starting to compromise their very existence. If we lose the islands of the world are we not losing a part of ourselves as well?

Thus, being quiet like an island has therapeutic and metaphorical value for all of us. If we are seeking truth; or attempting to educate ourselves to truths in many sectors, are we remiss unless we set aside time to be silent? Can I, can any of us, find truth unless we meditate, pray, reflect, or quietly muse about life’s challenges? Gandhi obviously devoted much of his energy to being still – perhaps the key to his inner strength that enabled him to confront power so eloquently in word and deed.

The dilemma for me recently becomes how to deal with the anger I feel when in silence? My mind races with the idea, for example, that another island community may disappear under the waves, as did Lohachara in 2007, or an indigenous plateau tribe in the Andes losing their source of water and having to relocate; I feel angry that inter-generational environmental equity is no longer possible for many in the world. Yet, the silence helps me return to equilibrium – the silence helps me restore my own island quality.

Like any person of hope, who sees the glass half full, I will try time and time again to absorb the wisdom of those who have come before, who during difficult times rose above the clamor and found new direction; and resonate with these words in particular:

“I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world.”

Guess Who? Mahatma Gandhi