All beings have suffered. Sometimes in life, things go your way; sometimes, they go the opposite—be it physical, mental, or spiritual, be it loss of loved ones, loss of health, or loss of well-being in one form or another. These periods where something difficult happens can be very challenging, but the suffering comes not only from the experience itself but from the resistance to the experience, from the resistance to the flow of the cosmos.

You live in an interwoven, interconnected web of life, and that web moves according to its rhythm. The longings, the desires, the welfare of millions upon millions of beings woven together as one, and you are a part of that web of life, a part of that interwoven connectedness. You exist throughout the web, not just in the body and the mind you inhabit, but in the entire web of life you are a part of the whole.

Suffering comes not only from the situations and circumstances which are difficult in your life but from your resistance to them, attempting to force your small will upon the universe to make it as you would have it. But you are part of this whole and the whole moves according to its movements. And if you accept, allow, and feel the grace of the movements, you do not know that what appears to be difficult and a struggle for you, may lead to a great opening in your life. You do not know the consequence of the moment, the consequences of the circumstance. You assume and your assumptions become your impediments. The stories that you tell yourself become your impediment. Taking the actions of others personally, the circumstances of life as personal affront becomes an impediment.

When you immerse yourself in love and acceptance, immerse yourself in the grace of the infinite, in the feeling of that cosmic shower of love, and let all of life in all its forms be the dance of divine love, then you, in that dance become aligned, a part of the wholeness of life, and in that alignment you become whole. In that alignment there is peace, well-being, harmony with the whole of being, allowing, moving with the ups and downs of life, staying connected to the subterranean flow of infinite being the love that abides, the love that always is, that never dies, never changes.

Staying connected to that love you become whole, you become strong so that you move with the movements of life. Forms change, circumstances change, but love never changes. Love is something that always is. The love of the infinite, the cosmic flow of existence, that ananda, that divine bliss, that grace, that consciousness always is here, now.

In the surface of life, like the surface of the waters of the sea, there’s the rise and fall of the waves, but when you go deep the waters are always still, always calm. When you accept what is in your relationship, healing comes. Healing comes in love that is. Healing comes through acceptance, kindness, love, and compassion for yourself and for all beings.

Find the love that does not have boundaries, that is not guided by judgment but exists beyond all bounds. That love sinks you deep to that subterranean flow, to the deep waters of the sea where your heart, your mind, and your life are in harmony with all that is.

(Artwork by Daniel Holman)