panning for gold

Today we ask that you learn to embrace other minds.

So often, people who are spiritually open and sensitive feel besieged in this world.  Relationships and interactions are like a minefield.  People are so full of destructive, attacking thoughts directed at the self and others.  Interactions with individuals who are not spiritually open and sensitive can leave you feeling bleak, dark, and hopeless.

And yet life as a spiritual being really doesn’t mean you should shut yourself away in a Himalayan cave or an ashram or monastery.  While retreats can serve an invaluable purpose, it is important at a certain point to return to the world, to be in the world.

But it is a tricky business, interacting with people who are spiritually unconscious.  That is not a judgment — there is nothing wrong with being asleep.  You have all been asleep, and you are all waking up.  In time, your sleeping brothers and sisters will awaken, too.

The best thing to do around people is to be open to what they say, and yet not necessarily believe them.  

What does that mean?

Interacting with others is like panning for gold.  The old gold miners in California and Alaska used to fetch mud off the river floor, and run it through a process that would separate gold dust out of the mud.

Everyone you meet is full of gold, or spiritual truth/love.  But the process of growing up out of childhood in your world tends to fill most people’s minds with a lot of mud.  The mud is attacking, destructive thoughts directed at the self and others.  

When you talk to people, generally you will hear a lot of attack thoughts directed at the self and others.  The litany of complaints and judgments and gossip.  This is the “mud.”

But you may also hear some true wisdom and insight, a spark of true creative vision, words of love, something very precious.  That is “gold.”

If you learn to differentiate between the mud and gold of human thought, you will have no problem interacting with other people.  You will discard the mud, and keep the gold.

It is the same with your own thoughts.  Most people have muddy thinking, bogged down by attack thoughts directed at the self or others.

But there is also gold in the human mind: clarity, presence, insight, wisdom, creativity, love, appreciation, harmony, beauty, healing.

It is good to learn to pan for the gold within your own mind.

“Gold” and “mud” can also be called “truth” and “lies.”  A lie is anything that drives you away from loving yourself and loving reality.

When you stop believing lies, you will have no problem being with people.

In fact, you’ll be very open and curious about discovering the gold hidden within other people, and loving and appreciating that gold.

Solitude has its place, but it is good to be with people, at least some of the time, with an eye for discovering gold.  If you wall yourself away, you may miss out on a precious insight.  The insight may be obscured, or hidden — but if your heart is open, and you do not believe lies, you will find it.