"The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit..." - Burmese revolutionary Aung San Suu Kyi
Amid the painful upheaval that has rocked the country of Burma for decades, one voice has remained steady and fearless. Because of the way she expressed her spiritual strength, Aung San Sun Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Her work continues to this moment in a country where torture at the hands of the regime in power is a constant terror. Yet, this very regime of fear remains fearful of Aung and struggles to silence her.
The prize honored Aung San Sun Kyi's steadfast commitment to Love in the face of threats on her life and the almost constant house arrest she has endured for a great deal of her adulthood. She writes to all of us that the most precious kind of bravery is the "courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions."
Refusing to demonize her vicious enemies she tells us that "The root of evil is ignorance." Aung Sun Sun Kyi knows her spiritual path and she insists on following it in spite of the pain this path has meant to her.
What does it mean for us to experience a "revolution of the spirit?" As we seek to answer this question for ourselves there may be a realization of how our calling is unique to each of us.
Yet, how many people do you know who are still willing to consider making the kind of decisions that would further awaken the spirit within? My experience is that, by age forty or, at the latest, age fifty, most people don't bother with these questions anymore.
After all, it can be exhausting to continue our journey to the fullest expression of our spiritual life. Most of all, the demands each day presents can make questions around spirituality seem almost irrelevant.
The most vital people I know question their spirituality right up the last moments of their lives. This was so of giants like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and Saint Augustine. It is also true of the countless unknown saints who refuse to give up on their lives.
The path to a higher spirituality is noble. It leades to the highest levels of anyone's religious faith and beyond.
All of us who seek to live Love know that we have the chance to be Love's beacon each day.
And here is perhaps the truth about our own, deeply personal, spiritual revolution: We do not need to trod the grand, prize-winning path followed by the courageous Aung San Suu Kyi. But we do need to understand the the most important revolution has nothing to do with guns and power.
Instead, the integrity of our spirituality depends upon our willingness to live the Truth within us. How can we walk own true and honest path - the one designed only for the one life we have to live?
-Reverend Erie Chapman
