LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

People will give up almost anything to become enlightened. Anything that is, except the idea that they are not yet enlightened.

We were born enlightened. And then we chose to forget.

Why? Because we love a challenge; love a game; love an opportunity to explore – it makes us feel alive.

Many of us like the idea of becoming enlightened, however, as alluring as it may be, it is also deathly frightening.

There is an old well-known tale about a man who approaches a Zen Master and asks to be shown the path to enlightenment.

“Okay, follow me,” the Master replies, and leads the man to a nearby river and into the water.

Without warning the Master pushes the man’s head beneath the rushing river and holds it there as he struggles violently for his life. Just before he loses consciousness the Master pulls the man up, gasping for air.

“When you want to be enlightened as badly as you want to take your next breath, just now, comeback and see me,” says the Master.

This parable poses the question: Do you really yearn to become enlightened more than life itself?

A friend of mine pointed out in a conversation over the weekend, that the more we become ‘enlightened’ the more vulnerable we are to becoming depressed. I see his point. After all, it can be a pretty lonely path to wander, where one is often judged and misunderstood. And, as one begins to see through the illusions that our current society is based upon, we are often left with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.

Another aspect of the division that also holds us back is our own reluctance to claim our own personal power. After all, it is not the fear of failure that scares our ego most – but often, the fear of success. For then who would we be? What would we seek? And what kind of overwhelming responsibility would the claiming of our own infinite power entail?

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t seek personal or spiritual growth; but the caveat here is that many seem to view enlightenment as the final destination. Following this view, we might find ourselves projecting on to it our hopes that ‘if only I were enlightened, I could really be a good person and be happy’.

Once we stop viewing enlightenment in this way, we can begin to enjoy the journey of self-exploration as it should be – without obligation or ambition.

And the best part is, there is no need to ‘give up’ anything. After all, true enlightenment does not come from depriving ourselves from our vices, but from letting go of that which no longer serves you when the time is right.

The difference here is that you will “set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.”

In the meantime, try not to judge yourself for taking pleasure in the material world.

You’re only human after all.

I’ve recently been learning that no matter the conditions I still have the ability – the choice – to feel good about myself…and about life. The hard part, however, is often finding one’s way through all the darkness…and letting go of the illusionsof the external world; the illusions that at times we should fee bad for ourselves…hate ourselves…punish ourselves…

Not true.

If I can find a moment, maybe once a week, to go outside and stare up at the vast night’s sky, I can’t help but feel love for this existence. Just the fact that our hearts are beating and our lungs are breathing; that we are free and alive, with the potential to experience such an array of sensations, feelings and events, is enough to fill a heat with gratitude.

Rattle me, and my
Xylophone bones
It’s cold outside
All alone

Grandmother, Grandmother
Ancient and old
Tell me a story
Show me your soul…

The Amazon calls
A home with no walls
And now I can feel you
My creator, my maker

The purest desire
To touch with my hands
To play with the darkness
Experience contrast

So this is the joy
This is the answer
Consciously seeking
What my heart aches for.

So teach me to love
Teach me to care
Teach me to let go
Of the scars that I bear

What is it to feel?
To care what is real?
To be having these thoughts now
Unaware of their meaning

The vine of the soul
Taking me home
Embracing uncertainty,
I’m letting my guard down.

And I understand now
As you pour salt on my wounds
It stings like a snake bite,
Lying here breathing

But I am alive
In my own lucid dream
Passion like thunder
Alpha / Omega

Its time to evolve,
Live life and grow old
A thousand little deaths now
This is what I live for…

I’m aware of this life
I don’t live to survive
But because I want to
No longer an orphan

And with new awareness
Accepting the madness
I’m choosing to play now
This moment is mine.

Forget and remember
This is never ending
My truth is simple:
I am still breathing.

And it comes and It goes
It ebbs and it flows
The transitory nature
Of a life fully lived.

My truth is simple; I am alive.

1. Retire now.
2. Understand that happiness is more important than money and money is more important than power (over). Power over separates; money is a mere vehicle and happiness is what you are truly here for.
3. Ask questions with an open and honest agenda
4. Eat when you are hungry – what you want, when you want / honour your body.
5. Don’t say “I tried” just to look like you are doing something
6. Know that being a good, decent, respectable person does not mean others will see you as weak, unless you buy into that perception.
7. Seek to tell the truth.
8. Don’t commit to engagements you may not keep.
9. Love others and let them know why.
10. Enjoy being the best “you” that you can be.
11. Be satisfied with enough.
12. Don’t complain to manipulate.
13. Enjoy your own company & make time for yourself.
14. Question the world; write your own answers.

YOU ARE ALIVE SO LIVE.

“Other cultures are not failed attempts at being ‘western’. Rather, they are an imaginative response to the age-old question: what does it mean to be alive?“

 - Wade Davis

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“Many of our rituals of celebration and relaxation involve moving away from being with what is—numbing out, if only a little, with drugs and alcohol. We don’t seem to know very much about how to lighten up without numbing out. Music and dance are obvious exceptions to this, but in our culture we are too often only spectators and not participants in creating and moving to the sound of celebration.” - The Ivitation, O.M.D.

I should dance more.

Just for fun. For joy. Because I can. Because I have a body that works. Because I am alive. And being alive is all about moving, feeling and experiencing the incredible lightness of being. Not blocking it out because sometimes that involves feeling pain and exhaustion.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

– Oriah Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation

I escaped.
Went to the country.
Just me and my K9
Quiet…nature…space

I faced my fears
Of spiders and snakes
Of the world after dark
The sounds of creatures of the night
My fears of the unkown

I filled my pockets with ma-ca-dam-bia nuts
Beat my drum,
Danced barefoot in the forest…
Naked.

Read books,
Pondered life
Remembered:
There’s no need to
be
or do
ANYTHING.

Each night I created fire
“Man’s first magic”

Upon the damp grass,
Listening to music
I lay beneath the stary sky
In wonder and amusement

Thismorning I explored the outback like I was the only person alive…
Just me and the wind.
And so many butterflies…

The take home message
gifted by my island

Is that nothing really matters.

We give meaning to all the objects and experiences we come into contact with.
Much more meaning than any object or event truly deserves.

We label, categorize and justify, creating our reality.
But we are not objects.
Lest we forget.

We are consciousness

The space between objects.

The breath between thought.

The realized present moment.

Now.

We can’t define ourselves,
Hard as we try.
Nor should we.

“Words reduce reality to something the human mind can grasp, which isn’t very much.

As Buddhists say: the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.

Likewise: “Thought [and word] can at best point to the truth, but it never is the truth.”

- A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle