lone star

I am in Hampi, in India, and it is the evening: the sun has long since set, and the night is quite dark. There is no moon at this time of the month. And I have come away from the lights of the guest houses, up into the boulder fields. In fact, in the distance I can still hear the sound of people climbing on the boulders, in the cool of the evening, by the light of torches.

Looking up into the sky, it is quite a clear night, and there are many stars visible. I can just about make out the band of the Milky Way. The other night it was even more clear. Without any clouds, or any hint of a cloud, one could see very clearly that clustering of stars that forms the central part of the galaxy. Now I've been told that pretty much everything I see in the night sky is part of the galaxy, the Milky Way. But from this perspective, here on earth, it seems that many of the stars are clustered together, whilst others stand out, away from that central disk. And seeing this, it reminds me of herding animals, where the animals tend to clump together, to cluster. And sometimes there are a few bold or foolish individuals, a little bit separate from that cluster, that have dared to step away from the herd. And this reminds me of one of the characteristics that is needed on the spiritual path, and that is the courage to stand alone, in one's own integrity, without needing to belong to the herd, without needing that confirmation of a tribe, a group of people.

But this is a very challenging aspect of the spiritual journey. There is a great comfort to be found in being part of a group, belonging, and we do it in all sorts of ways. We define ourselves by our family, by our nation state, by our religion, by our profession, and in many other ways too. And each of these defining roles or groups is, psychologically, giving us a feeling of identity, security and comfort. If we agree with a group of people, it gives us a certain feeling that we must be correct. But all of this psychology is really trying to make up for something that is felt deep down as lacking. Deep down we are unsure of ourself. Deep down we don't know who we are. We have lost touch with our essence, the essential part of us. And so we are trying to compensate, with all these other identifying groups, tribes. But with our spiritual searching, seeking, journeying, that is not going to work. We need to find the truth.

We need to find the truth of who we are. We need to get in touch, once again, with that essential part of our being. We need a direct reunion with god. And all of that is only possible when we step away from the herd, when we can stand alone, like one of these solitary stars, not depending on others for our truth, not needing that sense of belonging in order to feel whole.

So gazing up into the night sky, this is what comes to me tonight: that we must find the courage to stand as a lone star.