Simply Being | Simple Being
It is great to be part of spiritual communities and gatherings but truly, what we call the spiritual journey is an entirely solo undertaking. There are no companions, no traveling partners on the path.
And it is in that alone space that intelligence blossoms, awareness grows… inner transformation occurs.
I also believe there comes a time in every human’s life when they decide to walk the path alone. And whenever that happens, the timing is perfect.
You hear so much about how the ego isn’t such a good thing, and that it needs to be “destroyed,” and so on. Well, the ego is an inseparable part of human life, and trying to destroy it is a wasted effort. On the contrary, we can gain a lot from cultivating a healthy ego.
(Have started on Morning Pages, and this one showed up a couple of days ago.)
There is enough time, there is. Enough breath too – Don’t let your impatience kill the game before it even starts. Build patience – slow, relentless persistence – pace your breaths – make them last. Lengthen the hold – extend from end to end. Practise economy and grace – everything is a resource – use wisely – judiciously – resourcefully. This is beautiful imagery – spontaneous/life. Move from the impetuous artist-creative-writer to the practiced athlete. Pacing, practising, flowing. Breathing like a swimmer, taking it in, letting out slowly, with purpose & deliberation, fully cognizant and aware of the power, purpose and intensity. This is life, this is practice. This is for the long haul. This is about grace and economy. Spare, minimal. Beautiful, not wasteful.
A feeling of energy controlled with intent – not a wild river or a young elephant, but a clear river dancing/snaking down the mountain – unmistaken in its vector – moving, not dashing. Youth is an aspect of its intensity, not movement. It moves surely, slowly, but with purpose, even if it is momentary, yet in the moment, established in the movement and the moment. Surefooted dancers are the best – so are the hikers and climbers. You know where to place the foot. You have spent years seriously considering where to place the foot, and now this knowledge is embodied, embedded – there is no thought, no premeditation – the individual unit has dissolved and there is continuity, system integrity – togetherness – oneness. And it is this flow that we yearn to – we always yearn to dissolve – to let the Big Mind take over.
It takes years and years of effort and practice before we can fully and finally dissolve, and then we do it each moment, every second, next, one after the other.
It is Day 1, and we have no ideas. Day 2, week 3, month 4, year 5, 6, 10, 13… the ideas come on, slow in the beginning, increasing in speed as the years go by.
I am a talker. Oh, I have no friends. Am I popular? I am intelligent. Am I a snob? Teachers like me! I am nice looking. Am I too smart? I am cheeky! I am a stick — no curves on my body, no curves in my hair — it is all straight! I think I might be attractive. Oh, guys like me! Am I intelligent, or plain lucky? Ooh, I am a sexual being. I hate this attention. I hate the spotlight. Maybe I am a shy person? Clearly, I am not a logical person. Wow, was I missing the signals ALL THESE YEARS? Such a misfit! Aargh, am I a tease? Do I believe in loyalty at all? I am so cold, so asexual. Ooh, I love people! I am a butterfly, flitting from person to person, place to place, one social scene to another! I am doomed to be forever cute, girl-child. Clearly, I am too darned open for my own good. Oh, I have zero social savvy, no sense of strategy at all, clearly a social misfit. Oh, people love me, kids love me, old aunties love me! I don’t want to work another job, not ever again. I am the original chamathu ponnu*, all over again, damn. I don’t want to talk to a soul! I need a couch and a warm blanket. God, give me absolute independence. Oh, I just crave silence! Ooh, I am sexy and attractive again? Me, a businesswoman? Perhaps. Maybe I like people, after all.
And so on, it continues. If I have a birthday resolution to make, it is this.
Stop The Labeling.
Time and again, I have surprised myself. Life is constantly ripping labels off me, so why do I bother affixing them?
Perhaps this is the point — Relax, Chill, Just Be. #Thisis40