David Richo - The Power of Coincidence: How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know

THE POWER OF

COINCIDENCE

How Life Shows Us

What We Need to Know

DAVID RICHO

Shambhala

Boston & London

2010

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

1998, 2007 by David Richo

This is a revised edition of Unexpected Miracles: The Gift of Synchronicity andHow to Open It, originally published by Crossroad, 1998.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Richo, David, 1940

The power of coincidence: how life shows us what we need to know/David Richo.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2280-1

ISBN 978-1-59030-427-3

1. Coincidence. I. Title.

BF1175.R535 2007

123dc22

2006035785

To Josh, my son, a synchronicity of love and joy:

Already by age eight, nature had taught you the deepest human paradox:

Running so elatedly to the edge of the pond,

with the bread you had carefully broken

duck-bite-size

your face, alight with impassioned expectation, fell

in disappointment and despair:

not one white feather anywhere.

The choice: keep your bread

or cast it upon the waters anyway:

tardy ducks might come

some otherJoshlessday.

A toss

and suddenly, O your surprised eyes,

your revived face!

An arrow of ducks

came gliding, single-pointedly, to your feet:

more than ever you had expected,

coming closer than ever you had hoped,

from thin air, from nowhere, from everywhere.

May it always happen like that, Josh.

Contents

Preface

This book was originally published more than a decade ago under the title Unexpected Miracles: The Gift of Synchronicity and How to Open It. Since that time, my understanding of meaningful coincidence has deepened in many ways. Today I am more aware of how synchronicity figures into life and relationships. In addition, I appreciate more fully the challenges of opening oneself to the twists of fate, of exposing oneself to the turning of the wheel of life and of finding meaning in what looks like chance.

My heightened awareness and my thankfulness for the graces that flow from synchronicity have led me to revise this book, to explore further the mysterious power of coincidence in my own life and in those of others. My hope in writing this revised and expanded edition is to share more of what I understand about how all this unfolds and how it blooms.

I am grateful to the staff at Shambhala for believing in this project, and especially to my editor, Eden Steinberg, who attunes so sensitively to my sounds and silences so they can resound more harmoniously.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold.

Theres not the smallest orb which thou beholdst

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims;

Such harmony is in immortal souls,

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant of Venice

Introduction

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear!

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest

A series of unusual correspondences or similar happenings may not be mere coincidence but meaningful coincidence. This synchronicity can be just what it takes to spring us into changes and awakenings that we are ready to experience. Synchronous moments bid to us to pay attention to what comes now or next on our journey. From this point of view, awkward jolts can become graceful transitions, and stops can become steps. We grasp that the people, places, and events of our lives are showing us what we need to know or where we are ready to go. Everyone and everything in our story is part of how our life is coming together and there is nothing left to fear. We then stand at attention to our destiny and join it deliberately, rather than resisting, complaining about, or otherwise bemoaning our fate.

If our life unfolded only according to our plans, however sensible or overblown or constricted, we would miss out on many surprises. We might fail to notice how new doors are opening and ushering us into relationships that stretch us and fashion us into works of art. Our life as designed by our cautious mind might not include all the twists and turns that lead to the release of our creative energy or the clash of forces that make us really extraordinary.

Perhaps all is happening in life just as we intend. Then suddenly we meet someone, or find out something, or have an accident, or hit bottom and our world spins in a new direction that ultimately makes all the difference. Those unexpected events beyond our control are the forces of synchronicity that make us who we areand who we were always meant to be.

Synchronicity is a mind-boggling and sometimes eerie rendezvous between the world and our inner selves. Something happens in the external world and it fits exactly with what we need right now, showing that our human nature and mother nature are two sides of one coin. In nature, each season produces just the conditions that the ecology of the earth requires for its evolutionary growth. Likewise, in our human story, we keep finding just what we require so we can evolve as psychologically healthy and spiritually aware beings. Synchronicity comes to us as an assisting force in this evolution. We are helped in finding ourselves and we help others find themselves. Thus, synchronicity contributes to the joyous fulfillment of our personal destiny in an always luminous world that longs for ever more light.

As synchronicity erases the line between us and nature, it also blurs the line between the timely and the timeless. It underlines moments that reveal eternity to be the ground of our being. When we trust this, we take steps from and on that ground. They are dance steps, not a formal ballet but a mirthful jig, at times indecorous or even irreverent. Actually, everything that happens to us is synchronicity because everything fits perfectly into our step-by-step advance toward a fulfillment of our potential.

Most of us are quite aware of our limited powers and not so aware of our boundless potential. This potential is our true Self, an energy that is unconditionally and universally loving, discerning with the wisdom of the ages, and abundantly rich with healing power. When these sleeping powers are activated, we are acting in accord with the best in us. Our spiritual powers may, however, remain sleeping giants in our psyche and never display themselves in our actions. Then our destiny remains unfulfilled and a sense of something missing may pervade our life. Synchronicity comes along to wake us and fulfill us.

Synchronicity shows us that the world orchestrates some of our life events so they can harmonize with the requirements of our inner journey. This is reflected in the opening quotation by Shakespeare: Such harmony is in immortal souls. Synchronicities are unusual, unexpected, not constructed or controlled by the human ego. In this sense they are miracles of conjunction between ourselves and the events of the world. We cannot cause these kinds of miracles to occur, but we can greet them and grant them hospitality in the yetunopened rooms of our souls. Then the power of coincidence is respected and it opens us to many marvels. These pages show how that can happen.