Letter to a friend from Cannes

Yesterday morning I had an experience that gave rise to a particular set of reflections.

I stood in a room in a large mansion here in Cannes. Looking through the window, I saw the harbor, filled with many beautiful yachts. The sky was blue and the whole scene was perfect for a postcard of the French Riviera.

But as I was looking down on the session table before me, there a woman, releasing the tears of a deep soul suffering.

In that instant between those two images I had again a glimpse of the tremendous illusion of glamour, how it filters into our lives, how it lures us, yet how ultimately meaningless and impotent it is in the face of human suffering.

Wealth and success will not provide us with a shield from life’s capacity to awaken a soul to that which is of essential value. And that which is of universal, essential value is wisdom, kindness and compassion.

The goal of life is to awaken to these dimensions and if a soul is slow to awaken to these quintessential aspects, then life will send suffering to trigger the soul’s evolution into this direction.

Glamour is both hugely powerful and impotent. It is powerful when success and wealth are observed from the outside, from a point of not having it.

But once success and wealth are achieved, the recognition of one’s remaining vulnerability dawns with full impact.

Success and wealth have been achieved, yet one remains unfulfilled.

At that point one may choose to anesthetize oneself through drugs or alcohol or begin the spiritual quest.

Michael J. Fox said that he used to think he lived in God’s pocket. When Parkinson’s struck him at the peak of his career, he turned into a major force to push for finding the remedy for a disease that has affected many people.

Why wait until such traumatic experiences reach us?

Why not transform one’s wealth and success into a power that contributes to the process of bringing alleviation of suffering?

There are those people such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have reached such amazing peaks of success that they concluded it should be used in the service of compassion.

If every human being would dedicate only a small part of her/his success to the process of the alleviation of suffering on this planet, we would be a giant step closer to heaven on earth.

For this to happen, a soul must awaken and the unconscious, self-absorbed state of mind must cease. Therefore, I wish to invite you. Please, please awaken. Look around. There is work to be done. Join the process and help in bringing alleviation of suffering … to this planet.