Grace is a constant that we either resonate with or not. When we resonate with grace our mantra for living includes joy, peace and justice. When we do not, our priorities revolve around possessions, power, and popularity. This book describes the sacred journey that can bring all of us into the experience of grace that in turn, transforms our priority for accumulating possessions into a priority for accruing joyful moments. It transforms our drive for power into a consuming desire for stillness and peace and our need for acclaim into anonymous actions of justice and mercy.
When wealth, power and acclaim are our priorities, life-style diseases naturally occur. When the things we treasure most are transformed to peace, joy and justice, then health and wellbeing are natural consequences. To be able to convert our priorities from the former to the latter requires us to rise above ignorance, avoidance and attachments, three states of consciousness that the Buddha called the Three Poisons. This conversion is not easy, since it goes against cultural convention. Who are you without wealth, power and acclaim in this world? People who dare to walk to the beat of a different drum have been called perculiar and are often ostracised for their choices.
To sustain our commitment to transform requires hope, given the inate challenges of any change compunded by the judgements of others. The experience of hope naturally arises from grace. In my personal experience, when I have made the decision to be committed to this conversion, and having demonstrated my commitment (faith) through adopting a willingness to listen and seek understanding, I have been blessed with a graceful moment, resulting in hope. In Chapter 14 I describe my experience of this graceful moment.
The most blissful peace envelops his body as if he (I) has been carried to an oasis of grace in a desert of fear. For an instant that seems to fill the universe, the Fool (me in this case) knows he is safe, as if cradled in the arms of a loving mother. The Fools feels comforted in his despair and maybe for the first time in his life he hears words that cannot be heard with ears. ‘Peace, be still’ courses through every fibre of his being, the sound of which resonates with every cell of his body, causing the Fool to be consumed with tranquillity.
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The Fool now remembers his birthright and for a moment knows that the things that were once so important to him have no worth, since nothing could be a precious as what he is feeling now.
This book describes a process of transformation which enables anyone to live in grace constantly. This conversion or transformation process is what the ancient Greeks called Metanoia.
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