October 31, 2026  

One Light, Many Faces

Picture a temple with four doors. One faces north. One faces south. One opens to the east, another to the west. Five hundred years ago,...

Picture a temple with four doors.

One faces north. One faces south. One opens to the east, another to the west. Five hundred years ago, when most holy places kept a single guarded entrance, a community built its most sacred shrine so that a door would face you no matter which direction you came from.

Why would anyone build it that way?

That question has been on my mind for days as I prepared our November series. It led me to a story about a young man in northern India who, the account goes, went into a river one morning around the year 1500 and stayed out of sight for three days. His family feared the worst. When he walked back out of the water, he spoke a sentence so surprising that people are still repeating it five centuries later.

His name was Guru Nanak. The path that grew from that moment is Sikhi, the faith of more than 27 million people around the world, including families who worship a short drive from our Center.

What do you know about Sikhism?

 knew very little about this tradition when I started. What I found has fascinated me.

Every Sikh house of worship has a kitchen where anyone can walk in and eat a free meal. Everyone sits together on the same floor and receives the same food. One old account tells of an emperor who came to visit a Sikh teacher. Before the visit, he was asked to sit down and eat among the villagers. He did.

Our friend William has stood at that shrine with the four doors, and he has visited the Sikh gurdwara here in Santa Rosa. Tomorrow I’ll share a little of what he found.

I’ll also share one line from Sikh scripture, written by a weaver who lived in a crowded city centuries ago. It’s a short line. It may change how you see the next stranger who passes you on the sidewalk.

And you’ll leave with a simple practice to try before you fall asleep. It takes less than a minute.

Maybe there is a door in your life that has stayed closed for a while. Maybe there is a face you’ve found hard to bless. Tomorrow could be a good morning to sit with that, in good company.

I’d love to see you there.

Join us Sunday, November 1
9:00 am and 11:00 am
In person at Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, or online on our YouTube channel