The Wise Guide mental imagery—relaxing and imagining a guide who brings messages from your unconscious, your intuitive mind– helps many of us find kinder, gentler views of ourselves; better ways to fulfill our missions. The director of one program hears her grandmother comforting, supporting, encouraging her. “There is no reason,” she is told, “to be afraid.” A physician reconnects with the wisdom that, beyond doubt and self-doubt, lives inside of him. The Syrian refugee feels his brother close to him, confidently passing on the family leadership.
We’ve been meditating every day. Now we actually seem to be experiencing the relaxed moment-to-moment awareness that is its hallmark and glory. In the written dialogues we do in the small group, our attention comes into the present. The problems we bring up are in the here and now. Solutions come and, with them, laughter. The Syrian refugee converses with his painful back. “See the doctor,” he is told. “Actually,” he says, “it’s very good. It makes me very happy to be solving a particular problem.” “Three years outside of Gaza and I’m still scared of helicopters,” says the Palestinian. “But just this afternoon I heard a helicopter even closer than they were in Gaza, and I’m not scared.”
Part 4: Strength from family – past and present
