The instinctual response in us humans, in the face of stressful, conflict situations is to fight, flee -- or simply freeze. The poet David Whyte offers another challenging option, that of ‘turning sideways into the light.’
Whyte shares the myth of the Tuatha De Danann, a mythical race from Ireland's past, a mystical people devoted to beauty and artistry; wise and influential elders.When another rougher and more brutal people, the Milesians invaded the country, the Tuatha De Danann bravely fought them off in two battles, but then came a third, decisive battle with the odds stacked overwhelmingly against them.
So, lined up in battle formation and facing almost certain defeat, instead of drawing swords and rushing into battle, the wise-ones, as a group, simply turned sideways and as legend has it, ‘disappeared into the light.’
Turning sideways into the light can be seen as acknowledging that some encounters are damaging to all involved: no one can win. There may emerge a ‘winner’ or ‘winning side’, but the true result, when we come to our senses and assess the damage, is loss all around that may take years or centuries to heal.
To conventional thinking it sounds too much like defeat or giving up. But in reality, it is neither retreat nor cowardice -- rather, it is an intentional strategy to change the ground rules.
Essentially, to turn sideways into the light is to reject the conventions of conflict as laid out by your antagonist, and choose another path which will extend, rather than diminish your integrity. It’s a difficult choice under any circumstances; almost impossible in conflict situations. What it involves is the tough choice to ascend – in the midst of chaos and confusing emotions -- to a higher dimension of functioning.
In India we have the example of Gandhiji, and the world has given us others like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela who demonstrated this strategy at different times.
But for most of the rest of us, we are so programmed to either/or options of submission or aggression. And even if some of us have learnt a third way, assertiveness, ‘turning sideways’ is a whole different approach.
Some conflicts obviously, undoubtedly, must be confronted and dealt with. But not all. And that’s a well-kept secret! It is the unnecessary ones which are most debilitating, as they sap our energy and life-force, whenever we ignore our capacity for the judicious use of wisdom and power.
I like to visualise conflict as taking place along a pathway that takes us to our highest goal. Besides this path is a dim, mist-shrouded path at a right angle to the one we are on, yet going to the same place; one that you can, with one sideways step, get onto and turn and move ahead with life.
However, when we get so enmeshed in the fight, this way is invisible to us; we just don’t see it, we hurtle on, and we often waste precious energy by not just stepping away from the ‘contaminated’ path.
Consider David Whyte’s opening lines of his poem ‘Tobar Phadraic’: “Turn sideways into the light as they say the old ones did ... and disappear into the originality of it all.”
This phrase, ‘the originality of it all’ suggests to me that place behind a mostly-hidden door, one we all have access to – though with some of us, the key to that door is temporarily misplaced – that place within each of us of wisdom, compassion and enlightened power.
Link: http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-articles/science-of-spirituality/turning-sideways-into-the-light?track=1
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