Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest known for his mystical tendencies and wily wisdom, and he sends me a personal email every morning. That’s how I choose to think of it, at least. This morning, he writes:
Our suffering in developed countries is primarily psychological, relational, and addictive: the suffering of people who are comfortable on the outside but oppressed and empty within… So we turn to ingesting food, drink, or drugs, and we become addictive consumers to fill the empty hole within us.
Can you relate? A young Muslim-turned-Buddhist once told me that medicine and technology has left us no better off than before – it simply shifted our suffering from outside to inside. Statistics say that if you have 1,000 friends on facebook, at least 100 are addicted to drugs or alcohol. And that leaves out addictions to overeating, sex, gambling, etc.
It’s not just addictions, though. We can recognize this inner emptiness every time we use someone else as an emotional punching bag for our inner frustrations. The young man yelling at his girlfriend, the parent abusing her child, the bully tearing down a gay kid’s self-esteem. Are they all just different manifestations of the same core problem? We can feel that something is not right inside, and we are looking everywhere but within to solve the problem.
Here is my question: What if the tools for healing are already inside you?
“Imago Dei” by Ghanaian artist Frema
Sufi Islam, Christianity, and Judaism tell us that the core of our being contains an image of God. We share in the divine spark that ignites the universe. It is the reason Richard Rohr says that discovering God inside you is the “foundation” for your “spiritual house.” In his words, “God in you already knows, loves, and serves God in everything else. All you can do is fully jump on board.”
How do you find that inner spark? I don’t know, but I doubt we can find it without looking inside. Here’s an experiment to try: The next time you sense that inner turmoil bubbling up inside, let yourself feel it. Take a deep breath, sink deeper into your seat and deeper into your soul, and see what you find. If the mystics are right, I bet you will find something pretty beautiful underneath all that messiness.
Life Reconciling 
That is a great experiment, although, most the people that I know who have tried it have turbulent lives and when they pause to “Take a deep breath, sink deeper into your seat and deeper into your soul, and see what you find.” they find a lot more turbulence, hence the addictions to cover it up even though it makes more.
I come from an abusive home and struggled with a few addictions and I started meditating but I couldn’t have done it without guidance because I had to get through a lot of anger and fear, but your right. Under all of that I found a spark, one that bespeaks the blaze of the the sun. I believe we’ve all got it and that religions have been founded on that message, the one that speaks to us, but can sometimes get lost in other things. For those religious I believe that we are divine and it takes a love affair with ourselves to discover it. For those that are atheist, I believe science is discovering through quantum physics that we’re all connected so whatever the sun and moon are made of, whatever wisdom is made of, so are we.
I am glad people are writing about it.
Thank you for the comment. I think you bring to light the most important point of all: Healing does not come through only letting yourself feel emotions. It seems that counseling, 12-step groups, etc. are what must come from this initial exploration. Thank you for providing the insight of someone who has done this critical searching and come through on the other side knowing what is inside!