Hudson River Plane Crash – the Spiritual Lessons

The crash landing of US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River was amazing. The airplane landed on the water in tact. All 155 passengers and crew survived. Many of the passengers of the flight recounted tales of order, selflessness and acts of bravery. All involved continue to tout the acts of the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger as heroic and life saving.

This story offers a rare opportunity to understand how everything could go so right amongst everything that went so wrong. Here are 4 Spiritual Lessons we can take from this would-be disaster:

“Stuff” Doesn’t Matter

Many of us have been through very bad accidents or have been close to being in one. After an event like this, when you remember what you were thinking about, you’ll find that most stories are the same. People focus on that moment, the ones they love and what their life means to them.

The luxury car we either have or want doesn’t come to mind. The house we are buying or losing doesn’t enter our thoughts. The stresses of our jobs or businesses, and our money issues don’t register as problems in our present mindedness. However, after some time, those things begin to fill our minds up again.

Here’s the lesson. Keep your focus on the present, your loved ones and your life’s purpose as priorities in your life. Everything you do should support these three things. So, don’t work for money. Work to provide the things your loved ones need to be happy and healthy, and to spend ample quality time with them. Stop living in the past or in the future. Now is all you have. Focus on what you are doing right now. Make each moment in your life count. Determine what your life’s purpose is, and then pursue it. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, as the survivors of this plane crash now understand. Each moment counts. Stop wasting yours.

Selflessness Is Our Natural State

The passengers of this “flight gone wrong” all talked about the selfless acts of their fellow survivors. Consider this. They had both engines of the plane fail simultaneously. The airplane couldn’t make it to an airport, and crash landed into a very cold river. The plane began filling up with water. They were afraid and very shaken by what they just experienced. No one would have blamed them for wanting to get out of that airplane by any means necessary. Yet, despite all of this, passengers calmly exited the plane, and helped one another while doing it.

Selflessness is our natural state. We tend to let a lot of other things get in the way of that. Guilt, fear of not being good enough, and self doubt are just a few of the energies we invest our thoughts into daily. When our mind is clear from these and all other ego-based thoughts, selflessness shines through.

Here’s the lesson. We allow to many superficial things to control our thoughts every day. That is what stops us from helping someone on the street having a heart attack because we’ll be late for a meeting. Let’s keep things in perspective, remember what’s really important in life and stop worrying so much about what someone else might do to us.

We Are Spiritual Beings With a Body

In times of trouble, almost everyone turns to prayer or meditation. We instinctively know that we need our spiritual side to provide the strength and direction needed to make it through. Though there were only minutes between the engines stalling and the crash, many passengers reported praying before crashing. After the crash, the prayers of thanks and reflective thoughts were overwhelming.

If prayer and meditation can provide us a sense of strength and direction during a crisis, why aren’t we connecting to spirit during everyday events? When we do pray or meditate frequently, we experience a knowing that things will turn out exactly as they should. We are spiritual beings, and therefore need to connect to that spirit for reassurance. When we don’t, we worry, panic, and feel generally more out of control.

Here’s the lesson. Pray or meditate every single day, and multiple times each day. It is that connection to your spiritual source that provides you something stronger than confidence. That connection shows you the end while you are still at the beginning. It’s that sense of connection that reminds you that everything is as it should be. We are not bodies with a soul. We are soul’s housed in a body.

Practice Is Essential

Pilot Chesley Sullenberger has been flying for decades commercially. Before that, he flew in the armed forces. This is a man who knows his stuff. He’s never had to land a commercial airplane into a waterway before, yet he did so expertly. Training for water landings for decades clearly paid off with decisions that saved many lives.

Captain Sullenberger did not crash into any buildings on the New York or New Jersey sides of the Hudson. He also didn’t break apart the airplane upon impact. He knew exactly how to maneuver the airplane to land directly in the middle of the river on the planes belly. He not only saved the passengers of the airplane, but anyone in the surrounding area of the Hudson River during that time. His training gave him the insight to know what to do, how to do it, and to remain calm and steady through it all.

Here’s the lesson. If you want to behave consistently in all situations, you must train yourself to achieve it every single day. Those seeking spiritual connection must know how to do that when times are good, bad, chaotic or calm. Learning how to respond instead of react takes daily awareness and forethought. Expressing unconditional love requires doing so even when it’s inconvenient to do so. These are not things you can you can just think about to make it happen. It must become a part of your every day existence. First, it will be something you think about with great effort. It then evolves into a habit. Eventually, with enough time and energy it becomes your way of being. Practice is essential.