This month I thought I’d say something a little different…….
I receive, (like yourself I imagine), lots of emails, some overloading my mailbox while others sit like fresh fruit, patiently waiting to be enjoyed later on. During my day, when I am working at home on my computer, I visit these offerings to appreciate the perspective they share, to alleviate the pressure of being wrapped up in the working mind.
So my contribution this month comes from the love of family, friends and students who bring these clips/words to you. I hope you enjoy them and the few words that have come to me having reflected upon them.
Cat mum hugs baby kitten (click)
Innocent- pure – naked – truthful.
Watching this clip reminds me to slow down and appreciate the most important thing in life; life itself. We all fly around in an attempt to get somewhere, achieve things and be more. The only thing we ‘get’, when wrapped up in inflexible ideas is ‘on our own nerves’!
This vid reminds me that pure love, just ‘is’,
as love is awareness,
awareness is consciousness
– it’s the stuff that animates all our silliness and seriousness. Like our cat Milly, this clip reminds me of this naked newness, which is awareness awakening each moment, innocent as a baby and as loving as a mother.
The sleeping kitten (dreaming it’s a dog (ha ha ;)) is calmed by its mother, who senses its excitement and draws her to the centre of her heart from where she sprang.
The Fly (click)
The Fly – this is how we create our reality. How we create our own suffering, by constantly repeating the patterns which create it.
Then a moment comes – Satori
~ whereby we experience the nakedness of being,
of reality free of constructs of any kind.
It is pure free and open.
There are no limits – it was never ‘not’ and will always be.
We seek peace yet ignore it when it knocks at our door.
As a great Chinese sage once said, “life is simple. We make it complicated”.
So when we meet our troubles and challenges with resistance, we rise up against our very essence, which created them in the first place.
How is this?
We have created these resistances, these troubles, these waves of mind. They have moved from the deepest unconscious to the ocean’s surface or conscious awareness.
When we suppress these movements or feed them with the same form of thought or feeling, we keep them alive or recreate their facsimile.
Allow them to be and they pass like clouds.
The warrior in us all wastes his/her energy battling against the ego, rather than surrendering to its release.
Of course this appears challenging as it requires ‘not doing’ as opposed to all the apparent doing which brings us ‘here’.
However, both yoga and tai chi teach that the energy / our essence – the spirit or consciousness, moves the body and mind.
When we let go, this energy can move through us freely and enlighten us to our true nature. As this happens we (the ego) return to our master or essence.
So – energy bound in the form of matter returns to pure consciousness, where it is free and unlimited.
This is why meditation is so important – it is a simple opportunity for us to experience this freedom, untainted by manifestation or mind.
Chan Buddhism (Zen) teaches ‘emptying oneself’.
Empty yourself before you begin to practice, to learn. The master or student ‘let’s go of their day and their preconceived way’ before they commence the ritual of practice. By ritual I mean that one is privileged to be able to practice. Think of all the countries where one may not have this freedom. A good teacher will take their cue from the emptiness, observing students who are able to connect to this same void that lies within the physical matter of their body.
The void contains limitless energy.
How do we derive this idea?
How else can a black hole swallow anything that comes within its event horizon (the place beyond which you will be swallowed up!) ???
It must be, or be in communion with, the source of all energy.
We also know that our solid bodies, although appearing as ‘solid’ when viewed through an extremely powerful lens, are 99.9% space. In other words, the atom is mostly space and those parts within the atom which are not space, are particles likely to be comprised mostly of space!
It makes sense really, according to the laws of nature; the macrocosmic appears in the microcosmic and vice versa.
Where does this all lead us?
We are empty.
We create and recreate ourselves through belief – this isn’t ‘new age’ stuff – it’s very ancient.
If we be-lieve (be and live) (click)
that we need ‘to have something’ we will put our energy into trying to manifest it.
If it doesn’t happen, it’s because somewhere within our unconscious mind, we know we don’t need it.
It’s not for the growth of our soul.
That’s not to say we won’t keep ‘trying’ (ha ha!!)
The ego (reflection of the world) may desire it (having seen it in the world), but the soul may not manifest it, as it is not in our greater interest. Only time reveals (to those who enquire) why things happen or don’t.
Things become clearer, the emptier we become.
As you saw in the samurai clip, his creation fills with his belief that ‘the fly is stopping me from meditating’.
We multiply our world according to these beliefs. No matter how many flies he slices in two with his steely precision, another distraction, be it a fly, mosquito, someone at the front door, the phone, the thought of someone, the memory of something – these waves or ‘vrittis’ reappear until we discover where they come from.
This doesn’t mean someone waiting at the door isn’t there, but may mean that when you were asked “why didn’t you answer the door”, you respond “I didn’t hear it”. So for all intents and purposes, if you didn’t hear it, in that moment, it didn’t exist.
As Papaji used to say, “When you slept, the world as you knew it disappeared. When you awoke, it too awoke”.
“So what”, you might say, “how does that help me!?”
In deep sleep, we return to the joy of being empty; of not needing to reshape reality in an attempt to improve it.
This emptiness is full.
It is baron and pregnant with the potential of infinite universes.
When we wake and we walk, we live and we talk – underneath, when we are feeling angst, just the sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightest tingling of angst, we are trying to fill reality, rather than allowing reality to fill us with its naked potential.
From emptiness the sky filled itself with stars,
Shakespeare wrote the sonnets
and children laugh.
So on that note, listen to what LOVE means to a few 4 to 8 year old CHILDREN
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does ‘love’ mean?”
The answers they received were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
See what you think:
“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even though his hands have arthritis too. That’s love.” Rebecca- age 8
“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy – age 4
“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl – age 5
Wishing you a beautiful and sunny February, 2012
Thank you all again.
With joy and love,
Matt 🙂