Several years ago, I went whale watching with a small group of people on a sailboat off Maui. The captain had brought along his four-year-old autistic son who was non-verbal. The little boy was happily playing on the deck of the boat when suddenly he began speaking in unintelligible sounds. It seemed he was calling forth a whale, communicating with it through his vocalizations. The captain helped his son into the water and together they swam out to commune with that giant creature. For all of us on the boat it was a poignant reminder of our connection with all life. No matter the outer form, we’re connected at the depths of our being.
Like the boy summoning the whales, can we invoke, from under the surface of our lives, our deepest knowing that is waiting for our attention to it? Who are we beyond what we appear to be?
Some mornings during whale season earlier this year, I walked along the shore at Holoholokai beach scanning the horizon for a sighting. It’s always thrilling to spot a whale out there in the vast expanse of ocean. The underwater world teaming with life is invisible to us from the shore until a whale breaches the surface and gives us a glimpse of the mystery hiding there. Our lives are like that. Sometimes we catch sight of what is beyond appearances, below the surface of our everyday lives—a vast, unlimited landscape that is supporting us all the time.
Occasionally something in our lives causes an opening, revealing a clue to what has been there all along, but was unnoticed, overlooked in the midst of our busyness. And hidden inside our every day lives–the mundane ordinariness, or the pain and suffering, or the joy and excitement– lies our greatest treasure, our true nature which is presence.
During the season when the whales are migrating through the warm Hawaiian waters, if we watch and wait patiently, we’re often rewarded with a glimpse of a whale’s fluke or even its whole body rising out of the water. Other times we just randomly happen to look up in time to see the telltale waterspout or giant white splash. On a whale watching trip, the boat captain knows the best places to find the whales and can point them out. And sometimes, it’s a little child that leads the way. The ancient spiritual traditions tell us we must approach the great mystery of life with the innocence of a child. All our sophistication and learning won’t open to us the doors of awakening. We all carry that innocence deep within. It’s our freedom, our limitless nature, the peace, the happiness we’re looking for in the outer world where it cannot be found.
Can we look beneath the surface of the situations, thoughts, feelings, people, and things that constitute our lives and contact the innocence that lies underneath? Can we recognize, as the spiritual masters tell us, that we are the vast ocean of awareness and all it contains? The little boy on the sailboat knew that whale was out there. The rest of us on the boat were completely unaware until he tuned in and brought it to our attention. What are we overlooking that waits patiently beyond the reach of our ordinary consciousness?
CONSIDER THIS: Tune in to your deeper self summoning you right in the middle of your everyday life.