leeladasiyoga

[leeladasiyoga]

Guru | The Teacher & The One Who Abides

Is it the teacher or is it the one for whom awakening, like the noon time sun, shines highest and brightest, never again to set-- the one who abides so completely in essence nature; the one for whom that which we all are is their default state?

Awakening is the very essence of all Being. That is to say, the awakened state is the nature of who we are, and that which needs not and cannot be done. But it is also that which cannot be experienced-- as the very ground of being, it is rather, the condition of all experience. What we call experiences are expressions of the One Consciousness or the ineffable, unspeakable Truth’s desire to awaken to itself through each of its instantiations: through each being, each interaction, each phenomenon, in each moment in time. 

On the fundamental level, the Guru is the force of awakening, that desire of Consciousness to know itself, and as such, it  bodies forth into the universe, seeking itself through all of Life.  

To be on the spiritual path is to actively engage this force through sadhana, not with a series of techniques that bring about awakening per se (that is already a done deal, and who you are at this moment, and every moment), but to engage in a series of techniques to bring about the necessary clarity, courage and strength to release all which stands in the way of that light, the light of awareness, from shining through and as you. Gurur brahmā Gurur viṣnuḥ Gururdevo Maheśvaraḥ 

The work is in surrendering our all beliefs, assumptions and concepts of self, and how things and others should and ought to be. We release to the stream of Life, remembering and recognizing the Guru is Life.

One way the practice of mantra facilitates this process is by strengthening the energy (mental-emotional) body so that we are able to be with and digest all experiences and in the process release our samskaras or our conditioning. And this is very different from the authentic personality that expresses itself in spite of all that is, and the freedom that comes from pursuing the desires that naturally and spontaneously arise within you-- not as a need for validation, not to satisfy an emptiness or a longing, not to convince yourself that you are worthy, but simply out of the joy of being. It is indeed the highest state to have desire to address an injustice, and to ease the pain of the afflicted, free from the illusion that anything is other than perfect.    

OM Guru Deva

The Guru is the goal of Yoga-- it is the embodiment of the recognition of the truth of one’s being, and the consummation of this force of awakening in embodied consciousness.

Clues into the nature of Guru are in the mantras themselves. The names Guru and Deva are always chanted together, which is to suggest Guru is equal to Absolute Reality, to Deva, to the Truth of One’s being. The Guru is the one whose surrender is so complete to that which we all are, that there isn’t an ‘image of self’ (ego) to protect, preserve, defend, maintain, assert or push on to anyone. In that way individual consciousness is merged with Absolute Consciousness. Guru is the vehicle or container of  Deva. Guru is Deva. This is the state of the jivanmukti.

The Guru can in fact “play” a role-- sometimes that role is teacher. But it is with the absolute awareness that the role it plays in that moment is the way Life dances and expresses through them. And they would simply laugh like a child should anyone even attempt to attach that title guru to them-- they would laugh because there just wasn’t anything to attach to. It was just as good as calling them by any other name. They would laugh, while simultaneously seeing the other as that, as guru.

There are more than enough accounts of such beings who exist across the time and traditions. To know and become inspired by them, to contemplate their essence, to chant the mantras, is a very beautiful, fulfilling path towards recognizing your own essence. That is devotion to the guru-- the devotion to your own essence, as you recognize and love it in another.  

I understand why there is an apprehension, skepticism, and movement away from the idea of the guru-- not only because of the scandals surrounding leaders (and self-proclaimed gurus) that mire yoga and religious tradition, but of the general picture most often painted of our humanity. However, if we are critical and even skeptical of the possibility that a human being can realize and embody her or his or their essence completely, what does that say about our motive for practice? Why practice at all? This simple question is a powerful diagnostic. Has the mind already co-opted the practice that is but another self-concept we cling on to, preserve and defend? A new ego? The shinier, brighter, ego? It is so easy for our conditioning and for the ego to take over. It is for this purpose that we have teachers, to keep us on the path, to hold us accountable-- to push us onwards. All the while reminding us of who we really are-- perfect, whole, complete, and beautiful, exactly as we are now. Without these teachers it is very easy to stagnate and drop off on the path. Without these teachers, we could be lost in our own confusion. And these teachers are a gift of the Guru.

Tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ

Other gifts from the Guru, other forms the Guru takes on: friend, mother, brother, contrarian, the person who cuts  you in traffic, your pet; Guru is also the storm and all sorts of bad weather. Guru is pandemic, market crash, and the troll online. It is all the Guru. It’s all Life.

My teacher recently shared: awakening is not another chapter in your autobiography. It is the end of the story.

Tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ I surrender my life to the guru. Chant. Repeat. 

#guru #indefenseofguru #teacher #yoga #meditation #mantra #chanting #chant #womenscircle #meditationcirlce #chantingcircle #om #shanti #anandamayi ma #gurudeva #omgurudeva

[leeladasiyoga]

The Singing Revolution: Overthrowing the Tyranny of Ordinary Appearances

The Singing Revolution is a 90 min documentary that spans the five decades Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union. It is a cinematic account of the role the country’s musical tradition played in keeping the fire of independence burning, even if only in secret, deep within the hearts of the Estonian people, until the socio-political conditions were right for their citizenry to publicly oppose the occupation. The narrative is developed through the accounts of a few figures at the helm of the resistance; while each of them worked for independence on different fronts (civic, legislative, media, and guerilla military), they had one ground in common, the Lauluväljak, their Song Festival Grounds. 

The first song festival was in 1869 with 51 choirs and a total of 845 participants. Since 1891, the festival took place every four years, and continued throughout the Soviet occupation for the next five decades, only briefly interrupted by a three year Nazi rule. Life for Estonians went from peaceful and independent to dismal and oppressive as almost all of Estonain culture, except the festival, was obliterated. And even then, Estonian folk songs were replaced by music created by the Soviet Union for Socialist propaganda. Meanwhile, Estonians of all ages and sex were shipped by the thousands to labor camps in the Siberia, some of them never to return. Russians were brought into Estonia to dilute their ethnicity and Estonian property was requisitioned by the new state. 

However, memories of liberties inherited from their forefathers, who fought hard and won what was every being’s birthright, were kept alive through the continuation of their musical tradition. The breadth of Estonia's collection of song and music is especially remarkable when you consider the size of the country-- theirs is one of the largest in the world. Singing had always been an activity of the people, engaged in as a collective. Unlike the more recent ‘materialization’ of music and song, singing, was as communal as it was personal and a means of communion. Just as it had been for the first people across all cultures and traditions. It was a natural expression of the beauty of diversity, where the uniqueness of each individual voice could be most appreciated against the backdrop of the collective sound.

And through singing, their identity was not not only preserved, it was ultimately embodied. The climax of the documentary depicts the peaceful revolution that was roused, sustained and ultimately won through the voice of a nation. I cannot recommend it enough.  

There are few activities in the world that have the same power sound, song, and the use of one’s voice has to call forth the whole of one’s being. Parts (mind, heart, body, etc.) we often experience as separate and in conflict, achieve resonance in the alchemical process of singing. There are fewer realities that are as accessible as sound with the power to evoke all at once: movement, emotion, body-mind memory, and a sense of spaciousness that transcends the borders of our physical body.  

As demonstrated throughout history, from the time of our ancestors and indigenous people down to Estonia’s revolution, singing holds the same power to call individuals together-- who from the spiritual stand-point are never separate. From the spiritual stand-point, the whole universe, with all its Life, is the body of the One Being that is Consciousness.  

The power of sound, song and voice is the mystery upon which I place my dreams of an empowered, loving, and free society; by sharing my personal practice of mantra sadhana with through kirtan, I commit “to putting myself on the line” each day, more and more, overcoming my own insecurities and small-mindedness out of Love of something greater-- out of Love for the Whole. By embracing where I feel most vulnerable and celebrating a voice that by the standards of mainstream culture may not be worth listening to or following, I make my greatest offering, which is both an act of Rebellion and Love.  

When the anxiety-inducing rate at which things change increases the distance between individuals and societies, and our materialistic culture threatens to completely calcify our hearts, at the risk of annihilation of the whole planet, I invite you to explore with me, this potent and powerful medicine we carry that is our voice, which holds the potential for that full-bodied awakening. 

Chanting with a group is a place where the individual’s can play, experiment, and integrate the insights and fruits of their personal sadhana. It creates a space for us to embody our responsibility to the whole as co-creators of this one reality, while giving us an opportunity to express and connect authentically.

More than revolution of ideologies, of concept or thought-- the only thing that will truly satisfy is a revolution that is most faithful to the potential and truth of our being-- it is a revolution that overthrows not an ideology, but the tyranny of ordinary appearances, as Lama Yeshe puts it. As the practice of mantra reveals, objects only exist in the mind. In reality, there is only vibration. And if there are no objects, there is no separation. 

#leeladasi #leeladasiyoga #sadhana #Singing Revolution #mantra #kirtan #yoga #mantrayoga #nadayoga #embodiment #soundhealing #soundtherapy

[leeladasiyoga]

Introduction to Mantra

MANTRA

Heard by the rishis in a state of complete absorption with the absolute, Mantra is the complete revelation of Consciousness to itself.

Vibration

Take anything in the manifest universe, whether that is a bird, or a table; whether it is color, light, or sound; all of it, ultimately, is vibration. On a fundamental level, that is to say, the end point, where no further parsing or breaking down is possible, the manifest universe is vibration or energy. 

This is considered fact by modern science through the discovery and innovation in the fields of quantum physics and technology. But what is a relatively recent discovery, made some time within the third quarter of a century-old field, is one of the cornerstones of Yoga, a holistic system of practice and philosophy aimed at the realization of Truth (bodha) and liberation (moksha).

Mantra is a form of this realization. Brought on by the relaxation, opening and expansion of their awareness, the rishis and great yoginis became immersed in the Truth. By cultivating stillness and silence, they were able to hear the One Consciousness, communicating, or speaking through all creation in the language of vibration. Mantras are the sounds that carry the subtle vibrations heard by the sages that reveal aspects of Consciousness. 

Sarasvati: Desire & Creation 

The One ultimate field that is reality, and the vibrations that arise and subside within it, cannot be separated from another, just as waves cannot be separated from the ocean. Consciousness displays an innate desire to revel in its own perfection. Infinite, whole, and free, it delights in itself through manifestation. The desire to know itself causes Consciousness to body forth into creation, vibrating various aspects of itself. Mantras contain these vibrations. 

Of these vibrations certain ones are more fundamental to Consciousness; these particular vibrations are mantras that we call Divine Names.  

Through the repetition of the mantra, awareness becomes suffused with the qualities, sensation, mood and feeling tone of the vibration. The anthropomorphization of the subtle vibration gives expression to the experience of mantra as conscious, or acting in this world. 

Sarasvati is the creative aspect of Consciousness. It is the name or mantra that holds the creative essence which gives rise to the Universe. Personified in the female form, she is attended by a swan, dressed in white, seated on a lotus of the same color, and in her multiple hands she holds a veena, the Vedas, and mala. As vibration herself, she is both the esoteric form of the universe (vibration) and the power behind all mantras. To practice mantra is to seek the power of Sarasvati to reveal the truth.

Power of Mantra

The power of mantra to reveal truth lies in its ability to take us beyond the confines of our thinking mind. Etymologically, mantra is a composite of the words manas or mind, and tra which means tool of protection. Mantra is a tool that protects from identification with the mind, that is to say, from mind-created suffering. 

Mantra sadhana is a way out of the mind-world we have become permanent residents of. This world is built on the concepts and images we have of reality, of others, and our own selves; concepts which are themselves products of our biological and socio-cultural conditioning. Mind-created suffering is caused when we mistakenly believe our representations for reality itself. Failing to see all that stands between us and the unique revelation reality presents in the moment, our concepts and beliefs, even the most innocent or altruistic ones, keep us from real connection, and experiencing the underlying perfection in every moment.  

Through the repetition of mantra, awareness opens out of the contracted state of the thinking mind,   into the ever-flowing, vibrational field of Awareness, recognizing that in truth, that there are no objects. Objects only exist in the mind. In reality, there is only vibration. And if there are no objects, there is no separation. The truth of our Being is the truth of all Being, that it is Being itself-- the One Consciousness, vibrating out of its desire to know itself. 

Embodiment & Devotion

Because our hearing is the most subtle of all our senses, through sound we are able to move beyond the surface of our experience. It does so by calling the whole of the body-mind and the whole of the heart-mind. We have experienced the power of sound to evoke movement, memory, emotion, and that sense of spaciousness, openness and flow, all at once. Sound has the capacity to attune us to what is beyond the range of hearing, beyond the audible vibration, by calling the whole of our being. By entraining the different “parts” of us, we come into a fuller presence, and a higher intelligence, greater receptiveness, and capacity for deeper listening / knowing comes online. When that sound carries subtle vibrations, the way that mantras do, we can have, through a dedicated practice, a visceral experience of the wholeness of reality just beneath the surface. 

The sweetness and full power of mantra sadhana is reserved, as it were, for the end of the practice, which is beyond words, because, as it were, it is the end of all compulsive thinking. When we first initiate a relationship with a mantra, our repetitions create some distance from the stories we tell about ourselves and others. Suspended and as it were, free, we shift from doing to being. And in this space we are truly intimate with whatever arises at that moment-- neither denying and grasping; out of the spaciousness of our own Being experienced in that moment, we allow; we allow with a very quiet joy, that arises from a deep, however brief, knowing. And it is from this spaciousness, that the Self comes through, to meet, truly meet, whatever it is as it is, and as it needs to be met at that time. The “action” that flows through you from this place feels intuitive, spontaneous, organic, and inspired. 

Over time, this knowing sets into full recognition. That what is perceived is you appearing as that, in that moment. And even more, that spaciousness is the very You, within which everything that vibrates is held, held in loving awareness. Notice, it is only the mind that judges; awareness remains open, attentive, and spacious for everything.

The innate desire of Consciousness to know and to revel in itself is Love. Through the practice of mantra practice we tune into, cultivate and abide in Divine Love, which transcends deep liking, and causes everything, literally everything, to come to be, and then holds space for it. With each repetition we surrender a piece of that limited sense of self, as we merge into the ocean of bliss, that is our essence.

#mantra #sarasvati #chanting #power of mantra #Desire & Creation #realization #bodha #moksha #Consciousness #yoga #leeladasi #leeladasiyoga #om #shanti

[leeladasiyoga]

Rebuilding From The Ground of Being / II

Rebuilding on the Level of Practice

If you have landed on this page before reading Part 1, click here.

In part 1, I described how consciousness in embodied (human) form identifies solely with that part of itself from which knowledge (i.e. a  collection of concepts that includes images of self as a separate subject/object) arises-- as Descartes did. Here, I’d like to explore what is presupposed by this misidentification and a way of practice in the time of pandemic.  

It is inherent in the experience of embodied consciousness to feel, as it were, off or outside of its center. This is what allows for each of us to mistake ourselves for one or another of the images we create, crystallizing the ego-self. When consciousness becomes aware of this as its underlying condition driving; as the driver of all his action, as a means of fulfillment; this it is said, is the first moment of awakening. This is the beginning of the spiritual journey.

However, by the function of consciousness’ conditioning, it views the journey ahead as a search for what is lost; it conceives a state to be attained (and in so doing creates and identifies with another concept) and makes it way by grasping (which it subconsciously justifies by believing it to be the highest attainment). Without the guidance of a truth-realized teacher, or at least one who is oriented towards the truth*, nothing proceeds from the initial awakening except greater confusion. This could cause someone to later conclude, because of the futility of the endeavor, that the Truth is but an illusion. The only other outcome is the aggrandizement of the ego and all the delusions it has of itself.  

This is more important than it first appears. The necessity of clarity surrounding the goal of Yoga hardly needs justification when clarity or clear-seeing is the ‘goal’ itself. So we must proceed accordingly, according to the ‘goal’. Isn’t that freedom from the delusion; freedom from the mistaking oneself to be anything other than what it is? This is important.

The metaphor of the well-equipped runner at a race makes this more clear. (S)he can have the best engineered shoes but if (s)he is running in the opposite direction of the finish line, or in any other direction than that of the finish line, equipment does not matter. In this case, the different practices may be perfectly engineered technologies, but without right orientation, serve absolutely no purpose. This a metaphor often employed in tradition to emphasize the importance of right knowledge for the practice to actually work. To this,  I would personally add two more things. Without right orientation, the practices are not without effect and neither are these effects benign. Practice without right view, barring divine intervention, most certainly creates greater delusion, leaving one more muddled than before encountering the practices. The second is with proper orientation, one is able to discern which practices are in most alignment with the goal, and most appropriate for them at any given time, insofar as this goal is concerned.**

Especially now, with the majority in isolation, I am compelled to revisit what is most fundamental about the spiritual journey. In fact, traditionally, darshan or view, would be the first teaching a student would receive from their teacher, well before any type of practice.  This pandemic, that has ravaged everything we as a society have been without question devoted to preserving, has and will in the coming weeks, and months, serve as a mass initiation for those who’ve yet to experience initial awakening.*** And for those already (formally) on the path (because we really are only ever on the path, even when we think we aren’t), we now have more time to devote to the ever-deepening of our sadhana.

If we are to scale the highest of heights through practice; and for it to bear the sweetest possible fruit, we must revisit its foundations and honestly inquire into its stability-- how rooted in truth is our practice? There are enough truth-realized human beings that have both come before and walk amongst us, who have expressed the true glory of Being which is the radiance of our essence-nature-- the recognition of which is the end of suffering and delusion.

And with them came practices that lead to both the direct experience of our essence-nature and the means by which we are able to abide in it, while living and participating in the world. To encounter these teachings should mean the end of our seeking and the end of our grasping. If we encounter these teachings and have understood the direction to which it has intended to orient us, truly, that would mean the end of all seeking and the end of all grasping.

Our essence-nature cannot be found, because it was never lost; it cannot be attained, because it cannot be grasped; and it cannot be seen because it is the place from which all seeing is done.

There wasn’t a time that you weren’t who you truly are; even in your darkest and most confused hours, for if it were to be the truth of your being, then there cannot be a time that you weren’t it, or that it was not you. This part of you cannot be caused and it cannot be uncaused. Your practice and your good deeds do not create or increase it; and even when you act out of your pain or your conditioning, causing harm, you are not diminished, and certainly not destroyed.

I cannot prove it to you through a logical argument because it is the condition by which anything is. All arguments presuppose it. It is in that same way that you cannot see it, because it is the place from which all seeing is done.

You can only be it, which you already are.

That which we seek to attain is already and has always been our original state. The spiritual path is not a matter of fashioning yourself into a certain way, which you currently are not. It is a matter of becoming aware of what already is, or directly experiencing what is. It eludes our search because it is not an object of awareness but the condition by which we can be aware (of anything)-- it is awareness itself. You are awareness: the field from and within which all experience, all things come and go, rise and fall -- the world, phenomena, the mind and the body, they are all within you.

But from the time that we learn to speak, we are conditioned towards one mode of being, where our attention and sense-perception is constantly if not permanently directed at their objects. In this mode of being objects appear as external to awareness which is viewed as within the body-mind. The different structures that make up our culture and society engage us from this level alone, forming the totality of our experience. It is why we cannot help to mistake it for the sole possibility and the only way of being. We are locked into this way of perceiving-- which becomes the basis of our experience, our reality. So while our essence-nature is always present, because of the way this mode of being is configured, it passes underneath our perception.  

So the fundamental practice is one that allows us direct access to our essence-nature. This practice is what is called meditation in the form of awareness cultivation. Turning your faculty of attention unto awareness itself, the field within which all things arise and return to. This is meditation in its truest sense of the word: cultivating an awareness of awareness; or leaning into the open presence that is at the core of your being. Traditionally, Yoga referred to the inner practice of awareness cultivation, the practice that brings about a direct experience of the ground of all Being.

And it is in many ways, as simple and as straight-forward as it sounds. Why shouldn’t it be, when it is already what we are? Only the ego-self, through the mind, rejects the simple-- it rejects the simple because in the simple it has no room to hide. Over-complication and doing is the way of the mind and the ego-self.

From this perspective meditation is better understood as something one progressively relaxes into, rather than something that one does. Meditation is synonymous to true relaxation where one’s awareness moves from a state of contraction (i.e. grasping unto any one of its concepts-objects) to one of expansion; opening to the fullness of itself, to hold all that is, as they are, or as they manifest. True relaxation is pure, open, attentive (devotional, non-judgmental) awareness. Meditation is not a thought or emotion-free state per se but can appear to be so because on a level of  pure, open presence, we do not experience the same attachment or aversion that we have to any given experience that the mind has.  

This practice moves in the direction opposite to what we have been conditioned to believe and how we have been conditioned to behave. So much so that as a people we’ve built ourselves into structures that keep (our awareness) in this contracted and stimulated state. Our body-mind is chronically contracted; our nervous-system is perpetually in its sympathetic (fight or flight) state; silence and non-doing is incredibly uncomfortable if not frightening. In this day and age, we’ve managed to create a whole list of activities and call it relaxation and we’ve now set out to achieve yoga.  

Then it turns out that the practice in its application is not as simple because it is counter to our conditioning. This is profound! If you can realize that it is our conditioning that is the impediment to experiencing our essence-nature, you will never see relaxation in the same way again. You will see deep rest, which is preparatory for true relaxation, and which from here on you will know as meditation or awareness cultivation, as an act of rebellion on one level, and truly divine, on an even more fundamental level.

For most of us, including those who have been practicing some forms of hatha yoga, it will be a challenge finding their way through rest. It will prove to be radically humbling. During this indefinite period of isolation, whether you are well-practiced or only now deciding to look into some form of yoga, consider rest as foundational to, and perhaps for the time being, the main part of your practice, particularly if you find it difficult to sit in stillness, absolute stillness, for more than ten minutes. Your ability to rest and be still is an accurate barometer for where you are.

Take time to ask yourself, before beginning your next practice, to whom or what does it (your practice) serve? Is it in service of some an idealized version of oneself, which is but another mental construct? Has the ego-structure co-opted your practice? How are you conditioned and how does this show up in your motive for practice? What might your practice look like if your intention was to open to the possibility that lies beyond what you know, what you believe, and what you think of as true? If you, even just for a moment, allowed for the possibility that you are perfect, that your perfection is so much so that it destroys all ideations of perfection, what would your practice look like? What would you be doing? What emotion, state, or mood comes up for you as you consider this possibility? What actions and activities do they inspire?

As we revisit the foundations on which we set our practice, on both the motives behind and the ideas we’ve taken on about yoga (e.g. realization, enlightenment, etc.), I invite you to include in your reflection a remembrance of the origins of the practice and the first yogis. They who, in response to the beginnings of the stratification of society in service of formal economy, as as we know it;  these yogis, as an act of rebellion to the growing materialization of society, that would later glorify industry, productivity, and the bottom line above all, stepped out of the system, leaving these newly formed cities. And they went into the forest. They went into the forest to discover the truth, the truth of our humanity and the truth of being. It is often taught that many of these yogis had renounced the world, when in actuality it was a renunciation of a world-view and a culture that was out of harmony with the natural expression of human and natural life.

This was yoga. And I dare say, in light of the awakening brought on by current events, this again will be Yoga.  

Addendum:

There is power waiting to be embodied in this time that the majority of us are in quarantine and isolation. And by tuning in, we come into the only real ground from which we can rebuild the world.

I want to point out that the only thing we have been truly separated from is the way by which we have been living that is based on a narrative we have unconsciously taken on. What we are not separated from, what we have never been and never could be separated from, is one another (all manifestation of the One), that is to say our Self, which is the very source of truth (sat), wisdom (chit) and bliss (ananda). By being separated from all the noise, and all the non-essential, we can move towards the direct experience of ourselves, through practice.

Because the fundamental practice is one of opening, surrender (of all concepts), and true relaxation, which is unavailable to many of us at this time because of our conditioning, we take the first steps towards it by deep rest, by looking into the other practices that restore and free the body-mind. I will be sharing and guiding some of them in the coming days. If you would like to take part, please subscribe to my website.

Contemplation:

The last thing I want to invite you to contemplate, as a possibility, is the idea that there is only truth, transcending ideas of right and wrong and good or bad, etc.

That is to say that while it is inherent in embodied consciousness to have forgotten, so to speak, the truth of its essence-nature, it does not mean that there is something inherently wrong or flawed in it or that it is actually incomplete. Can we be with this paradox? Can we sense into the limits that our concepts place on our experience, and sense into the open expanse beyond its limits?  

Awareness wills itself into the concealment of its essence-nature. Awareness is not a static reality  but is living, is pulsating-- how can we say that we are experiencing Life (indicated by movement) and not think that our very-essence, which is Life / Awareness itself, would exhibit the same qualities of aliveness? Awareness’ experience of itself is ever-deepening, infinitely, and a part of this unfolding is cycles of concealment and revelation.

[leeladasiyoga]

Rebuilding From The Ground of Being / I

With all the challenges the times have already brought and continue to bring us, I hope that you are able to sense what lies just behind it; there is a quickening, a potential bursting forth, causing to crumble all that we have known. Tuning into, and making oneself available to this is the only thing-- is everything-- in this moment. Because, through the dissolution of what we have clung to, hid behind, and taken for granted, there comes something more beautiful than we could’ve ever imagined possible; so staggeringly beautiful, that in this moment we can all but fear it. 

Fear; the experience of the unknown challenging our sense of doership and control. This sense, an illusion created by misunderstanding the role of our faculty of knowing. By mistaking the combined work of sense-perception, pattern recognition and memory, for the truth, when faced with the unknown, we are faced with our mortality. 

The conflation takes place because what we refer to as knowledge, was at one point, during the original (first) moment of insight, a spontaneous expression of Life’s unfolding. In that moment, the actions that it had inspired were not only in harmony with Life, but a direct outpouring of its infinite potential. And this outpouring is part of an intelligent, patterned flow. Life, through the objects our experience, appears to maintain itself over a period of time instead of appearing in an entirely different configuration, unrecognizable from one moment to next  (e.g. our natural environment maintains the same general features, sometimes for hundreds of years). So even after the original moment of insight, our succeeding experiences may continue to confirm, to a certain degree, what we know. To a certain degree; until it does not. 

This faculty of embodied (human) consciousness is in the tradition referred to as the ahamkara. The ahamkara, or image-maker, is also the source of self-image / self-concept or what we translate into English as ego. What we know is as much a part of our identity, as is our memory from which we create a narrative that we call personal history. By identifying with our knowledge, that is to say, once we’ve built a sense of self on it, we subconsciously perpetuate it (because not to do so would be death), by projecting onto every moment, every spontaneously arising, intimation of Life, this dessicated, stale, old knowledge. 

That is how we end up favoring knowledge over the unfolding, living Truth, that is Life. Forgetting that knowledge is only ever an interpretation and approximation of, or a pointer to, the Truth. When we favor knowledge, we miss the subtle intimation Life makes. Each moment of Life is Divine Revelation.  

The gap between the knowledge on which we built our individual and collective identities and the unfolding of Life is now far too great to ignore. This gap was every single sign we’ve missed, and every opportunity to come in harmony with the rest of the manifest world. It seems fitting that for the majority of us, isolation is our only option, where we can all but unlearn what we know, by listening and paying attention, and doing this over and over, moment to moment in order to move forward, in order to build a new world, that is constantly in touch and a living expressions of the truth. Isn’t this essentially what we refer to as practice? 

Each of us has a divine role ordained in this unfolding. Yes, that call to action you cannot shake is real. But you will have to listen, you will have to make yourself available by forgetting what you know, for now, making room. 

How does this show up on the level of practice? To be continued on the next post.