Is it important that I get what I prefer and do not get what I do not prefer? Is this the marker by which to measure the success of life?
Yoga means union...balance...equanimity of mind... meaning - no matter what "happens" maintaining the peaceful space of union with All that is. The perfect peace of Oneness resides no matter the external appearances. In fact, the most graceful life lived is one that can ride the bumpy waves of life without overly complaining, without victimizing the self or others and with full presence in the gift of the now. No matter what.
You better believe that life is gonna throw us curve balls. Absolutely. No doubt.
Never say never, they say - and I agree. You never ever know what will be your portion next to chew...and can you, can I chew it gracefully? That doesn't mean with a constant smile on my face...but rather with grace. Grace means elegance or refinement of movement...I like that - "refinement of movement"... as though it was meant to be, over years of work and practice...the outcome is beautiful to behold.
Have you ever seen someone get so angry and yet handle it with absolute beauty and honor? Have you ever seen someone lose their temper like a poem? Life isn't about not having anger, always keeping your cool...but I do believe it is about balance...grace...the poetry of motion. If we were to act out sadness as a dance, or anger, or fear, or anything...so that we kept awareness of the dancer...while dancing- how would that look?
Sometimes things happen that would throw an "ordinary person" off balance...cause us do respond in ways we maybe normally never would...Maybe we are normally not blaming, yet sometimes we suddenly get pulled into blame...maybe we are not jealous, but jealousy raises its head ... perhaps we are usually one to take responsibility for all that occurs in our lives as the "master co-creator" with life, and once in a while we take to pointing a finger at what "someone did to us"...whatever it is...no one is necessarily in 100% poetry all the time...and yet we can be.
A good poem takes one through a range of emotions before laying one gently down on the petals of freedom to contemplate...
If we have "behaved" in a way that feels not to be in accordance with the poem we would like to be expressing...we can always add another line and "clean it up" so to speak. Own it. Own the poem as ours...and nobody else's.... no one can write our stories for us...we write our own. How we behave, what compassion we show, what stories we tell become the painting we paint ourselves with, and ultimately the whole world we live in. Even if we think we are speaking of another...we are always telling the stories of ourselves. Always.
There is no "other" - really. These "others" in various seemingly separate forms ... when they "trigger" us...are our own inner demons rearing their heads...wondering if we can keep the poem up...if we can stay in grace...keep dancing... if we can practice yoga now?!
Sometimes it is hard to know the "right" way to respond to a situation...and sometimes a temper tantrum is exactly what is called for...exactly. We may not know til in the middle of it - with our foot in our mouth and our "ugly parts showing"...whether this was the most poetic moment, or not. When we take the judgment out of the equation, only then can we see that the "right" way doesn't always turn up roses. It is just the way it is.
What this is all coming down to for me is acceptance of the textures of life - all of them - as being the most beautiful moments of life. What if everything WAS "perfectly peachy" all the time? Is that what we really desire? I know we "strive" for it...our movies and story books teach us this is desirable...but isn't this thinking sort of shallow in the tapestry of existence?
I want to paint a different sort of picture using this idea of equanimity.
It always makes me think of Buddhist monk stories to tell it this way, but really - what if we started to live like this...
The friend seemingly "betrays" me and leaves me in a situation where I feel I am pulling all the weight even though it seems it should have been ours to share...but gracefully I see it as life's gift, and take it in stride, stepping into my new "blessing" as exactly what I needed and asked for cosmically to help me be bigger and stronger.
An acquaintance whom I trusted and offered the use of my belongings "seems" to take advantage, leaving me with nothing...instead of "punishing" them, and thinking them "bad" - I see it as life's way of showing me the next part of my mission. To be in the nothing and to know it was their turn to be in the blessing...for there is no "right" and "wrong" in the Oneness of life...
A child is unruley, and hard to deal with, punishment and discipline seem in order...for because of this child, others will not spend time with the family and the parents develop unrest between them, leaving them without their companionship...the child seems to blame. Perhaps though, in the yogic mind, this child was meant to bring these parents into a different expression of life. If the behavior was not seen as "good" or "bad" but just as a texture which shaped the now...it's effects would be seen as only the next thing...neither "right" nor "wrong" by any previous standard.
I could go on and on, but you get the idea....we strive for Unity consciousness...we say we are living it....and yet we still judge...we/I still tend to have an "ideal" for which we strive that is "better"...and what if that isn't the key?
What if the key is just to lovingly be with whatever IS - fully - with full acceptance as life's blessing?
What if we could delete our preferences for the Divine love of whatever freaking textures IS right now?!
What if doing this changed everything?
What if the mysteries could then be revealed because we were not stuck in "what should be" and what we would rather...what seemed "right" or what was "ethically correct"?
I challenge myself this day to see nothing as "proper" - but rather learn to live with equanimity of heart and mind. Not to care less....No. Instead, to care MORE - to care deeply for every incident as the Total Blessing.... what would happen if I could? If you could? If we all could? What would happen if the mishaps were praised AND the blessings were praised? What would happen if we just loved for loves sake? All of life? Would it get "worse" for stopping the judgment?
I think not.
Love knows no boundaries. Love gives freely of itself without reward.
Love seeketh not his/her own.
Love sees.
How can we more fully Live this Love today?
May Bliss in the form of this Endless Yogic Love be in your house as it is in mine right now, this very moment as I speak it.
Loving You Exactly As you ARE
Stasia Bliss
No comments:
Post a Comment