Are We Divine?

This past week I attended an event where Alice Walker spoke about her newest 'children's' book, Why War Is Never A Good Idea. This book is an evocative poem that personalizes the horrors of war and the devastating effects it has on our Mother, the Earth. She questioned why, through war, we would destroy the only home we have. She reminded us that this planet is our home, a magnificent house that every single one of us shares. If we poison the earth in the Middle East, we are polluting the water and air we ourselves will eventually drink. Everyone of us must drink from the village well for we live in a global village.

During her presentation she talked about how each of us has an essential question, a question that walks beside us throughout our lives. A question that is always being raised in our every act, our every thought and experience. Our question and the answer to our question is our offering, our medicine or wisdom for this planet and all Her inhabitants.

Alice's question, which she writes about in both "Possessing the Secret of Joy" and "Warrior Marks" is Why are the children crying? When I heard this I caught a glimpse of my own question. I felt her tiptoeing around me, waiting for me to notice her and to take her by the hand. And although my question's subtle movements had not yet settled into a form I could fully articulate, I knew that the reason why children are crying and my own question were related. Would we be bombing children in Iraq or Afghanistan or Palestine or Israel or Iran if we truly knew that they, like ourselves, are divine? Children are crying because we adults have forgotten our inherent divinity. God is not some transcendent notion, some all-powerful, judgmental and punitive being who resides up there in the sky. No. God/Goddess/Spirit/Love/Divinity is in each of us. It is not something we have to search for outside of ourselves. Most of us humans have forgotten that. Instead the quest for whose God is most powerful, whose one God is the ultimate Truth has produced centuries of violence and bloodshed, of fear and rage, of terror and trauma. Considering the current state of the world with its senseless wars and vicious brutality, it is no wonder that children are crying.

In the Tantric tradition there is a concept called Nyasa, which refers to the process of becoming divine. Becoming divine is actually an endless act of remembering, of awakening and reawakening to our inherent wisdom, to our Shakti or power. It is not like we will wake up one day and forever thereafter think, Oh yes! I am God! I am divine! Rather, it is the evolution of our consciousness that happens gradually. I believe that we are here to learn to integrate our energies in a way that allows us to live in balance and harmony within our self and with all beings on this earth.

Seven years ago I went on pilgrimage to the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal for the annual Durga puja or ritual. When asked why I was there, I would initially respond with the same answer: " I am here to pay homage to Goddess Durga." Much to my surprise, I began to have a similar experience with many of the Nepalis I met. "No, you are not here to worship Her. You are becoming Durga," I was told this again and again. "You are here to learn to embody Her." "You are here because you ARE Durga." My initial reaction was embarrassment and extreme discomfort. How could I be a Goddess? How could I, with my tendencies towards depression, with my fiery Hungarian and Italian temper, with all my insecurities and fears, be a Goddess? What could they possibly mean?! And if what they said were true, what would I tell my friends and family when I returned? Hi, I had a great trip. By the way, I am God....They would surely think I was crazy, or ?

In her essay called "Divine Women" Irigaray writes, " Divinity is what we need to become free, autonomous, sovereign....God forces us to do nothing except become. The only task, the only obligation laid upon us is: to become divine men and women, to become perfectly, to refuse to allow parts of ourselves to shrivel and die that have the potential for growth and fulfillment...And yet, without the possibility that God might be made flesh as a woman, through the mother and daughter, and in their relationships, no real constructive help can be offered to a woman (or a man). If the divine is absent in woman, and among women, there can be no possibility of changing."

During that pilgrimage I became conscious, for the first time in my life, that my life's journey with its tremendous challenges and hardships, with all the suffering I have had to endure, and with all the wonder, love and blessings I have experienced as well, was transforming me in order for me to remember who I am. Durga is not outside of me. She IS me in all my anger, sadness, ecstasy and bliss. And I am Her. Sometimes I feel more aligned with Her than others. Some days I cry like a child and feel like my tears will never end. Some days I embody Her and see Her in every being I meet. She is me and She is you.

"Are We Divine?" That is the most essential question of my heart and soul.

What is yours?