The Divine Doorway
by Jamie Andreas
(written days after the World Trade Center attack in New York City 9/11/01)

Steve, my student and employee for GuitarPrinciples called me on Tuesday to make sure I was alright. He wanted to make sure I had not gone in to New York City, and then told me not to fly anywhere. Then he talked about this feeling he had that nothing that he normally considered important seemed important right now. He couldn't seem to get motivated to do any of his normal routines. Like most people that day, he was simply stunned. 

Yes, most people I talked to, after seeing those two gigantic structures which defined the New York skyline come crashing down so helplessly, had that same feeling, and I had it too. I was scheduled to go for a medical examination that day, and it seemed like an effort, and somehow inappropriate to be focusing on my own personal life or needs on the same day that the lives of so many thousands of people were destroyed, many thousands more were damaged beyond full repair, and indeed, the world we all live in entered a new, and far more dangerous era. As I sat in my comfortable practice room, surrounded by my guitars, I knew the world had just changed, and in many ways would never be comfortable again. Human society had crossed a line, and there was no crossing back. We are in a new world. 

Of course, much of the world is not comfortable, and never has been. For those of us in the United States, we are now forced to live with the same terror that much of the rest of the world has been forced to live with for many years. Indeed, for many untold millions of human souls, their world has always been filled with nothing but terror, and many of those lives are cut short by disease, starvation, and all the varieties of human cruelty, long before they even deserve to be called a life. Truly, as horrific as this tragedy in my backyard is, as far as the planet earth is concerned, it's just a normal day, just another day's business, human-style. Different in its stark drama, but essentially the same thing being accomplished. Massive numbers of people dying and suffering because so many human beings cannot recognize the presence of God in this world, cannot see and value the presence of God in themselves, and everything and everyone around them. 

We are so used to living FOR this world, and FOR ourselves, that when something like this monumental tragedy occurs which FORCES us out of our comfortable and self centered complacency, we feel the very ground beneath our feet give way. We find it difficult to remember who we are, and why we have been that person anyway. No wonder everyone I talk to says the same thing "nothing seems important right now". We are so used to granting importance to the "things of this world" that when we are forced to give our attention to the REAL realities of this world, such as the slender thread that connects us to this life, and how easily it can be cut, everyone suddenly becomes a philosopher! If those two massively large and powerful structures could become dust in a few seconds, then we have no choice but to abandon all illusions of impenetrable security in this world. We must look further, far beyond this world for true peace, and for true hope. Yes, death makes everyone religious real fast.

Anyone who spends most of their time thinking about how to get rich is finding it a little difficult right now to remember why that has been the focus of their lives. Anyone who spends their time worrying and getting upset over every little wrinkle in their life, who is constantly sacrificing their happiness and enjoyment of the true beauty of life that is delivered to us moment by moment, is feeling a little foolish right now. 


So many people on this planet tend to live as if they are separate from everyone and everything around them, especially if they and it are far away geographically. Well, there is no such thing as far away any more. Inwardly, spiritually, there never has been. But it is easy to ignore the spiritual side of life. However, when we do so long enough, life itself feels compelled to bring it to our attention, in ways we can't ignore. 

I know that the people around me right now, those of us at "ground zero" in the New York area feel this very keenly. It feels as if life has grabbed us by the neck and forced our heads to the ground, and there is no choice but to stare into the black pit of hatred that has found a home in the minds and hearts of some of our fellow humans. We are forced to stare at it, and we are forced to take it seriously, we are forced to see with our own eyes the horror it delights in producing, and we are forced to respond. And it cuts us deeply to acknowledge that we should have known it was always there. In fact, there is no time in human history where it has been absent. It's just that, because of the inter-connectedness of the world we now live in, it is now literally in everyone's backyard.

The Bible tells us that "all things work together for the good" and that is true. It is even true of Evil, for even Evil must serve the Divine Purpose. And Evil is serving God and His good purpose right now, as millions of human beings around the world are responding to this raw expression of Evil by reaching deep into their hearts, and feeling an intensity of love for one another that will show itself to be stronger in its power than any amount of Evil can ever be. The world has an opportunity right now to begin a new age of awareness; a new age of continual recognition of the spiritual reality that always underlies our earthly existence. It is only when this is forgotten that Evil gains its strength. 


We have been given so many ways to keep this constant remembrance. We have the example of the great spiritual Masters who have appeared in this world. Jesus Christ, an incarnation of divine love, told us "You are in the world, but not of the world". That means this world is a bridge; we must travel it, but we should not build our house upon it. When we do attempt to build our house upon it, we will suffer for the folly, it's just a matter of how and when. Jesus, as well as all the great and true spiritual masters, is constantly exhorting us to "die to the self", to RECOGNIZE the reality of our spiritual connection with everything and everyone. When we do, we love our neighbor as ourselves, not because we are "good" people, but because we recognize, we see clearly, that we ARE our neighbor. When we have discovered the light of our own heart, we see that same light in everyone. 

This world is like a doorway to that divine light. We have the power to open or close that door. Because of God's mercy, no matter how many times we close the door, He will do what is necessary to give us the opportunity to make a different choice. However, every time we refuse to recognize that opportunity, every time we refuse to make the sacrifice that opportunity will inevitably demand, God's voice and his actions must become louder and stronger. Last Tuesday, Sept. 11 they became too loud to ignore. If we take the opportunity, in every one of a thousand different ways as we go about our daily lives, then we will begin to create a heaven upon this Earth. But that is not what we have right now. 

We must keep the Doorway open. Tragedy can act to kick open the door, even against our will, but tragedy cannot keep it open. Only wisdom and love will do that. Only constant remembrance and recognition will do that. Then, the doorways are all around us; true intimacy with another human being, communion with the beauty of nature, and of course, that Divine Doorway which brings you and I together, and is the focus of my life, the Divine Doorway we call Music.


I can think of no greater expression of God's mercy for an endlessly suffering humanity than His gift of music. Music has the power to immediately lift us out of the snare of this world and its ultimate futility by bringing us into direct contact with the higher world, the spiritual world. It is truly the Divine Doorway for the human heart. When I was young, that Doorway was opened for me one day by the power of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and his 9th Symphony pulled me through that door, and showed me what was beyond. It is not possible to be in this world in the same way once you have been through the Divine Doorway. 


There is a Light that shines through that Doorway when it is opened. When we see this world in that Divine Light, we are able to find the meaning of this otherwise insane place. And that Light is the only true Reality. It wants to be here, but cannot be without our permission, our co-operation. In fact, the only reason we are here is to provide the opportunity for that Light to come through. 

Our great spiritual teachers such as The Buddha and The Christ understood quite well that the true nature of Evil is simply Darkness. When Darkness manifests in human form, when Darkness fills the human heart instead of Light, we call it Ignorance. 'When the shadow of that Darkness/Ignorance falls on us personally, we call it Evil. Darkness ONLY exists to call forth the Light, and Evil ONLY exists to call forth the Good. We in America are immeasurably gladdened in these succeeding days to see that happening, worldwide, in the heartfelt response of millions of our brothers and sisters worldwide. 

The reason we are here in this world together is for each of us, in our own way, and working together, to open the Divine Doorway, and allow its Light to transform the Darkness of this world. It is time now for each of us to make a deep assessment of whether and how we do that in our lives, whether and how our lives are an expression of that commitment.

It is my fervent hope that everyone finds the Divine Doorway in their own way, and keeps it open in all our future days. To travel through it, and to brings its Light into this world is to find the source of all Wisdom, Love, and Healing. 

top     Copyright 2001 by Jamie Andreas. All rights Reserved.

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