A few days ago, I discussed with a decades-long close spiritual friend, how come that yogis have very strong life stories and lots of dramatic events, despite all the cleansing and meditation. Read any book about yogi biography and you will read about a lot of pain but also adventure. My friend never married and never had kids and lives as a monk, while I chose the path of being a householder – rising alone two (now teenage) multi-cultural boys. Different paths, but the pain and adventure of life has not surpassed any of us.
According to eastern thought, consciousness is in re-circulation, bringing past actions (from previous and this lifetime) into the manifestation (reactions). The bundles of accumulated karmas, of who knows how many lifetimes, finally found a fertile ground – You – to unfold and pass through into manifestation. So much so, that if you are more receptacle to Life, more curious about awakening, less mechanical and with this more vulnerable, more karmas and dramas will try to squeeze in this very lifetime. Why? Simply because you have (yoga) tools and sensibility to pass it through. Or maybe you do not take it that personally, and with this do not hook and create more of it. So, take advantage! Bring it on! Fearlessly! Or would you rather postpone it to the next lifetime? With even more accumulated action-reactions? And perhaps with less luck to be born with some knowledge and tools? Hmm.. It makes sense then to let it flow in this very lifetime. But to survive physically, mentally, and spiritually without burnout, the wisdom and the method are necessary medicine
to sustain the sanity while karmic load hits us.
We avoid this basic rawness of Life. But how will we ever discover fearlessness then?
The main approach I started to practice to meet my karmic load is cutting through deceptive projections and meet life as it is. I give you an example how. I love to write with a pencil, hearing the pencil and rough paper touching. Somehow, then the best ideas arise, just passing through my body. Have you tried? Just when you feel like, take a pencil and paper. And wait. Maybe have a coup of sencha tea. And wait. Keep the pencil in your hands not too tight, not too loose. Just naturally, organically, let the hand moves. Perhaps in the start it will seem clumsy, the words would not come through. Most of the people give up at that point. Find excuses. Rush to some entertainment. Checking phone. But stay. Relax into that natural state of being present in the moment.
Draw a few lines, and make a first few words, without judgement, without expectation, just see what is happening in the moment. And let the hand moves, softly, gently, getting the momentum of its own speed and creation. Witness the process of articulating that moment presents itself.
This is a wonderful way to approach life as well. Sanity really means keeping the witness awareness sensing activities of the mind. And mind will either move, rush, always seek something (interpreting events, judging, assuming), or will abide, rest and dwell onto something (like dwelling onto the past). From these forces of moving and abiding, we react and re-create dramas. Once we are truly present, we are cutting through the illusion that world is real, that we are real, that karmas are real. All is happening just in our minds.
We can at the very second change everything, that powerful is our consciousness. Just feel strongly: I want to wake up. I want to experience life in its rawest form, standing in all circumstances knowing that this also is authentic consciousness experiencing itself. I want to live true, raw life. I want to be open to every experience and its phenomena without fear, assumptions or judgment that distorts life´s mystical purpose.
I have had the taste of this simple pure living by going through the rough terrain, and I found jewels in the mud. In a way, by the pressure of pain, I was forced to look for the path of awakening. One of the first signs that you are on the path is that genuine feeling of the lightness and freedom, no matter circumstances, and that all is reflection of you.
Yogi is welcoming everything in life that comes into existence, without discrimination, without likes or dislikes. We all must find this out in our own pace and through our own unique life story.
To stay on the path, remember to reach out to your sangha, your company of yogis, trust that mystical connection, which is a silent support and reflection of your own evolved consciousness.
Sending you lots of love and blessings,
Ommmmm shanti om,
Lea