Ukraine: Struggling Between Two Worlds

 by Monk Rick Sheff

As I planned to write this blog over recent weeks, I waited for the right time, for the right guidance, for the right content to come in. None of this occurred in the schedule I had wanted. (Ah…What else is new?)

And now I sit with the emotions roiling inside while war rages in Ukraine, the homeland of my ancestors. Some spiritual sources, including A Course in Miracles and Oneness/The Golden Age, teach that nobody REALLY gets hurt here on earth, that this earth plane is maya, illusion, that we are essentially a spiritual being that cannot be hurt. Then why does my heart ache so? Why do the tears flow when I hold in my breaking heart the suffering of the Ukrainian people, the Russian people, indeed all throughout the world who suffer every day as I see/hear/experience the injuries humans inflict on other humans, on animals, and on our planet? Any attempt to “rise above” this suffering and to see it from a God’s eye view feels…feels…

I pause, because in moments I am able to access an expanded consciousness, a consciousness in which there is wholeness beyond the divisions created by our minds, connectedness beyond all human understanding, love beyond all human capacity to feel. The experience is beyond all language. It simply is…yet even these words do not do it justice. All human words, all our thoughts can only point towards this…this…words fail.

And so I sit…or stand…or struggle between two worlds…two consciousnesses. The bridge is my heart. At times I can access the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the heart of the Divine, the Great Compassionate Light. At such times I hold all within it without struggle and with complete acceptance. Be still and know I am God. Yet not always. I shuttle between the worlds…between the truths…At this moment tears of sadness flow for those caught in war. I hold hope that the More holds them in tenderness and love, protecting their essence while their all too human experience unfolds. I pray for them with all my heart.



Rick Sheff, MD is a family physician, physician executive, and consultant working with hospitals and physicians across the country to help heal healthcare and all who work in it. At the age of 60, Dr. Rick professed vows as a monk in the Spirit of Peace interfaith, international monastic order.

If you are interested in other writings by Dr. Rick, they can be found at www.ricksheffmd.com. These include his most recent book, Joyfully Shattered: A Physician’s Awakening at the Crossroads of Science and Spirituality 5th Anniversary Edition. The 5th Anniversary edition contains two new chapters, one on how to hold the tragic revelations that have come forth about John of God and one with a prayer and blessing for all humanity for the times to come. The website also provides a summary and commentary on A Course in Miracles and one on The Urantia Book as well.