"In the rear view mirror suddenlyI saw the bulk of the Beauvais Cathedral;great things dwell in small ones for a moment."
~Adam Zagajewski, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy
"Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger.One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head.This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it."
~Eckhart Tolle
Be comfortable. Breathe deeply several times. The deep breathing takes you from the ordinary to non-ordinary. It prepares one for letting go. Sitting or lying down, open to the moment from the heart in both directions, above and below and then in all directions. “My intention is to open to the infinite, eternal flow of energy that permeates everything, is everything, this body the vehicle that moves with perfection, with life, included.” Be patient and oblivious to thoughts that come and go. The focus is deeper, on Being. What is Being? Simply, awareness in this moment. Accepting this moment. Light streaming all around, devouring thoughts of separation, of boundaries between ‘that’ and ‘this’. There is no that or this. There is calm and the sense of areas of resistance diffusing. Cells held in place loosen and let go. There is a great letting go.What does that mean to let go? The willingness to dis-identify with forms that structure existence and have done so for a very long time. Letting be thoughts that are not accepting or are exclusive. They come and go but are not ‘you’. Any notion that something is not acceptable, that I cannot abide with some aspect of human being creates imbalance. Resistance to any part creates a temporary impasse to knowing Truth. Truth is EVERYTHING; not selective or denying or judgmental. Resting in awareness do you notice some thing? If some thing distracts you from stillness let that be. Slowly it desists and stillness returns. If we don’t ‘touch’ it, it loses meaning and we notice that stillness prevails at all times even in the midst of a thought. Letting go is a process and with that process we travel deeper and deeper shining light upon areas that may have long existed in shadow as we go. In the shadow is fear of so many things of which we may have little conscious awareness.
In the Tarot the Moon, number XVIII of the Major Arcana (first 22 cards of the deck with archetypal significance) represents the aspect of the journey that asks for deep inner exploration. What has been sequestered in the shadows of time? What have we neglected or resisted or repressed? And what fears do we not wish to attend to; to confront and bring out into the light? When one selects the Moon card it suggests a willingness to travel this dark realm. It takes courage, dedication and relying on intuition rather than mind to guide one. Ultimately a desire for freedom is the motivation for this journey of discovery that leads to ‘balance’--there is nothing that I deny or avoid within my self. I embrace wholeness, oneness--’that’. The undefinable Truth.In the Moon’s arena dreams flourish and the impossible becomes possible. There we scale vertical walls, leap chasms of great width, move through key holes, traverse oceans and fly with ease. Here the mind may briefly balk at such challenges but before we know it we’ve completed tasks that in waking hours seem daunting. Dreams assist one to ‘flesh out the story’, to see aspects that are hidden in waking hours. Dreams ask one to face fears and with relative ease see that there is nothing there. These experiences inform the mind that beliefs, long held, have little relationship to Reality. A shift in perception occurs. One is freer…In the first week and a half of February is an applying conjunction from Mars to Uranus in Aries. (Mars at 21 degrees Aries is applying to Uranus at 29 degrees Aries. Within a 3 degree range is the most powerful expression of the aspect) Aries, fire, I seek Self and initiate action. Mars is the planet of action and ruler of Aries. Uranus, the planet of revolution for evolution, electric energy, change and the unconventional stimulates the desire for freedom from limitation. The combination of these two planets has a tendency to create the unpredictable, belief shaking, structure tumbling and law and order disruption. In short Uranus can mean chaotic situations that precede change going from what is known to that which is not known. A desire rises up for, at any cost, embracing freedom. This conjunction is dynamic, aggressive and progressive may challenge the status quo and upset the prevailing ‘balance’ all with the potential of creating balance that is hitherto unshakable.
In the eye of the storm is calm. Meditation is a tool that can provide one with access to calm that can prevail no matter what goes on externally. The recognition eventually is the permanence of this calm, its availability is ever present and life is what plays across the screen upon which we observe everything. All events that show up there are temporary. As we breathe deeply into the core of being a moment occurs in which the breath flows seemlessly. Time becomes irrelevant and an unfolding is felt that continues and continues. The repetition lulls one into restful mind. Soon the mind is still. The eyes see without comment. There is clarity and peace.With the apparent chaos about us what a gift to rest in stillness and to observe without thought; to be here shining one’s light and to be utterly content with that ‘task’. At a retreat some years ago the presenter responded to someone’s question about life purpose.“What if the task given to you was to change the light bulb at Elm and 5th street and that was it. Would you say, oh no I don’t accept that, it isn’t enough.”Life can be the simplicity of presence in this moment and from this moment everything will arise and continue to do so without my interference. What a concept! Being free to enjoy what this moment has to offer. We never miss a thing!
"You don’t need any methods to get rid of the wrong ideas you have about yourself. All you have to do is stop believing them."
~Annamalai Swami
