The Narrow Gate

I have been in correspondence with a lovely soul who is about to lose her home, and is desperately worried about her two dogs.  She contacted me hoping to send them to my animal sanctuary (http://www.clairefoundation.ws/) if the foreclosure goes forward.  My first concern is helping her to keep her family (including her animals) together, so I offered to help them look at possibilities.  Her answer was very sweet and honest... she doesn't really think it's possible, and after looking at my website (http://www.sundarya.com/) she very politely and sweetly told me that her beliefs are very different than mine.  She doesn't believe there are many paths to God... and she believes that the narrow gate mentioned in Matthew 7:14 is literally Jesus Christ.  I replied thanking her for the honesty and kindness with which she framed her words.  And then I said that I have been an inclusive Christian all my life, and that I don't imagine there is that much different about us.  And I told her that in my experience, that narrow gate is the practice of inclusivity, seeing as God sees without judgment, excluding no one and no thing.

I haven't heard back from her yet, but I'm sure I will.  She is a sweet soul following her spiritual guidance as she is led.  But I started thinking about how cultural and institutional collective beliefs can act as blinders to Truth.  So let's start by looking at a couple of the verses she quoted, and talk about them without blinders.

First of all, the quote from Matthew 7:13-16: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits."  O.K., this narrow gate thing... how many Christians are there in the world?  And how many of those actually believe in the Allness and Inclusivity of God?  So which gate is narrower... the exclusive, my way or the highway theology... or loving and embracing all that is, as God does?  No contest here what these words imply.  And the false prophets, the ravening wolves, seem to be those individuals and institutions which wish to grasp power and control of people's minds and hearts by peddling fear and exclusivity.

The narrow gate, the razor's edge, the eye that is single, the path that is no path... these are a few of the ways different spiritual teachings have talked about the expanded state of awareness that leads to the direct experience of God and Self.  It's not easy to have a unified mind and heart in this duplicitous and fragmented world.  But we only fit through the narrow gate by shedding every thought and concept and identity, and returning our minds and hearts to the unified perception of Self... of the Christ, the Allness of God, and our inseparable Oneness with the Divine.