Go on now, let go of the past.
You are your own Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Go now, let go of the future.
Let in the love that all the fear never matches.
You are the diamond in the heart of all life.
- Carole Isis

From birth to physical death, life is steeped in paradox. Like the diamond, we begin as fairly humble material. As human beings grow to physical maturity however, the depths to which one may be moved in acts of loving kindness is matched only by another's capacity for venomous hatred. The creative expression of a Michelangelo and the destructive acts of a Hitler can melt our hearts with joy or sorrow in their turn, as we are ultimately confronted with our own proportionate creative and destructive potential. Surely each one of us knows under what circumstance we could be moved to either extreme. Most of us live somewhere in the midst of these polarities, though all of us experience thoughts which constantly draw us to and fro, back and forth between right and wrong, good and bad, love and hate. Yet as surely as a lump of coal quietly strives to become the diamond, we are drawn to the refractive brilliance of the polished gem within. For the human soul, transformation holds that kind of allure.

We live in challenging times. In today's current political climate, we possess a tremendous opportunity for transformation on a massive scale. Figures such as Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden personify negative aspects of the human Shadow. The White House's "war on terrorism" uses fear and aggression in an attempt to eradicate these undesirable elements and, in the process, becomes a representation of the Shadow itself. Patriotism has become just another excuse for righteous anger, but there is no such thing as a "holy war." War itself is the most unholy act on the planet ­ the taking of lives, many of them innocent, in the name of justice. We must learn to find common ground with our perceived enemies, but this cannot happen until we do the work of facing these foes within. The truth of the matter is that the Shadow is part of collective consciousness. We cannot eradicate it, for we are dealing with a primal force. We can, however, face it in ourselves and work on accepting, loving and integrating our denied shadow qualities. We are at a point in human history where we need to break down the tension of extremes, not encourage it further. War feeds the shadow elements of hatred, oppression, prejudice, racism and more. When we chase the Shadow outside ourselves, we collectively energize leaders to point our fingers at. Instead, we might let everyone we meet be a challenge to practice what Jesus and other Masters taught. And knowing this is not easy, embrace our work anyhow, as sentient beings seeking transformation in our world.

How can we break down the transformative process so that we might begin to understand its nature? How might we encourage transformation on a daily basis? Fear of our own quixotic nature may be the single biggest obstacle to the changes we so desperately seek. For what desire might creep in to overtake our efforts to purify both mind and body? How might we unconsciously sabotage our own noble efforts? The process of disentangling the threads of fear which intersect the fabric of our lives is onerous as it is rewarding, and there are few shortcuts. We can only face what comes to us and do our best at the time. Like a lump of coal, we are imperfect. But remembering the potential of that coal, over a long period of time we refine our character by meeting ourselves and others as honestly as we are able. Our character is strengthened through the process of recognizing that we all possess fear and courage, light as well as darkness. Our power lies in facing these qualities within as they emerge, rather than projecting them outward onto another.

Goethe asserts that behavior is a mirror in which everyone shows his image. All human beings share common emotional qualities. If someone's behavior triggers us, our power lies in being able to sit with the feelings that emerge rather than labeling that person with the qualities we deny within. Calling someone lazy, angry or unjust may ring true, however searching thoughtfully inside for these unloved traits gifts us with the power to transform them. As we heal through acceptance and unconditional love for ourselves, we become able to witness character defects in another with compassion and unconditional reception. When we are able to do this skillfully, the most resistant person becomes more open to communication. Our acceptance does more to transform others than resentment ever will. We may then recognize that, though we may pray daily and meditate in order to train our minds to release our own personality flaws and accept the will of heaven, both Savior as well as Destroyer lie within. Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, says "A thousand Christs sent to earth would not redeem its people unless they themselves became Christlike by purifying and expanding their individual consciousness to receive therein the second coming of the Christ Consciousness, as was manifested in Jesus."

Though we may agree with Yogananda in theory, might know our job is to actualize the Christ within, isn't this a rather tall order for just one lifetime? How can we become Christlike when we are fraught with human frailties, and the deeper we look, the more faults we discover? The judging mind's censoring faculty can be our greatest foe. We cannot transform while remaining an enemy to parts of ourselves. Learning to quiet the mind is key. There is no place in the process of transformation for the glorification of the inner critic. When we witness injustice in the world, our power lies in simply recognizing where it hides within the self. Anger at the collective, whether it be directed at an individual or a group of people, contributes to the gross inequities we find so offensive. Confronting and integrating shadow aspects of ourselves is the only means by which the collective stands a chance of transforming. Bringing about peace on earth necessitates stopping the war within.

It's easy to be possessed of righteous indignation when we are faced with what is happening in our world today. Degradation of the earth's protective ozone, pro-environmental policy reversals; human injustice lies everywhere. Yet even justifiable outrage may be a distraction from doing the tougher work of acknowledging the enemy within. Most of us can recognize ego posturing far more clearly in another rather than in the self. It thus becomes easy to use an ignorant person as a scapegoat for our own unwillingness to acknowledge our shadow side. Ignorance is, after all, lack of information or the unwillingness to reckon with certain facts. We all possess ignorance in some form, in some measure, whether we are conscious of it or not. Meeting our own ignorance with self love, grace and dignity facilitates deep transformation. Our example then provides others with a model of enlightenment to emulate. Many of us know how it feels to be demonized by another person, and how unjust this appears. And many still assume those projections automatically, for deep inside we feel inadequate anyway. What's one more brick added to the load we're already carrying? But this too is unbalanced. If we truly grasp that all are equal in the eyes of Creation, that indeed you are another myself, freeing our hearts of self loathing frees the hearts of others. Know Thyself is the Hero's quest unto which each human soul is born. And each encounter, whether with another or with ourselves provides us with opportunities to understand more deeply, to transform our lives and to shape the destiny of all beings.

No single transformative act rests on the self alone. What we do for ourselves, we do for all. This is why our world is not overpopulated with Masters; it is challenging work. Our perceptions are not always reflections of truth. They are based on conditioning, on culture, on ancestral heritage. If we believe divinity to be outside ourselves, there it shall be until we move, step by step, into the depths of our own souls. There we may glimpse, if even for a fraction of a second, the timeless, ego-less absence of polarity and identity which may be termed our essential nature. As each of these precious moments multiply, our bodies feel a release of the weight of our personal and collective karma as human beings. We are becoming the diamond, clarifying our hearts through knowing we are not separate from one another nor from any living thing. We learn through experience to relax into the emptiness of surrender, for we are where and what we are. What can be done except to submit to the will of heaven? As we move into the presence and power of the inner Master, we become less and less what the personality believes that to be. As we release the identity of the ego-identified self, we allow more space for the I Am to flourish. Holding the paradox, living as a representation of Truth, we may more fully embrace what Jill Jackson and Sy Miller expressed lyrically some fifty years ago, Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.