Devoured

I have absolutely devoured this book. Sheralee read it earlier this summer and recommended it. Then last week I saw the author on Oprah and I wept. I could not tell you why - something deep within me identified with the author of this book and I knew I had to read it.

I would love to be able to go on the journey this woman took - and that's not really an option for me. That said I would like to find my own journey to peaceful existence with God. To a place of rest - even within this crazy world.

There were so many places where I identified with the story in this book. I laughed, I cried, and I was awed. There is one quote I would like to share with you however - it's a story that puts into a metaphor the reason I believe that I'm on the spiritual journey that I am.

This story is told at the end of the authors time spent meditating in India. She tells it for a slightly different reason than I do, and I think it applies nonetheless.

"The Indians around here tell a cautionary fable about a great saint who was always surrounded in his Ashram by loyal devotees. For hours a day the saint and his followers would meditate on God. The only problem was that the saint had a young cat, an annoying creature, who used to walk through the temple meowing and purring and bothering everyone during meditation. So the saint, in all his practical wisdom, commanded that the cat be tied to a pole outside for a few hours a day, only during meditation, so as to not disturb anyone. This became a habit - tying the cat to the pole and then meditating on God - but as years passed, the habit hardened into religious ritual. Nobody could meditate unless the cat was tied to the pole first. Then one day the cat died. The saint's followers were panic-stricken. It was a major religious crisis - how could they meditate now, without a cat to tie to a pole? How would they reach God? In their minds, the cat had become the means. Be very careful, warns this tale, not to get too obsessed with the repetition of religious ritual just for its own sake. ...it may be useful to remember that it is not the tying of the cat to the pole that has ever brought anyone transcendence, but only the constant desire of an individual seeker to experience the eternal compassion of the divine. Flexibility is just as essential for divinity as is discipline." (Eat Pray Love, Penguin Books, 2006, p. 205-206)

Though I realize I run the risk of offending, that is not my intent. The rituals I know aren't the only ones, and the point isn't the rituals. The point is getting a little closer to the divine. I think I'm on a journey to find the practices that work for me.