While sitting in mindfulness meditation today I heard a large tree branch come crashing to the ground. It reminded me that nothing happens in nature until it’s ready.
As I grow and change, the old adage,“Patience is a virtue,” holds true. The more patient I am with my mind, the more my perspectives broaden.
For many years, I made my living playing the guitar. I developed my technique to the point where I could just let go and allow inspiration to take over.
My fingers just seemed to operate on their own without self-conscious hesitation. I would enter what seemed to be a euphoric state – where time disappeared and I was confident that I could handle anything that came up. Music seems to play me, rather than me playing music.
What I’m about to talk about may seem subjective or esoteric – but life is subjective. The aphorism, “As within, so without” reflects this beautifully.
Don’t Fight It
Life is a flowing river of consciousness. It is easier to swim downstream rather than against the current. I’m on a journey from mind to no-mind. The less mind I have, the easier it is to let go and allow the current of life to take me. A confused or dysfunctional mind simply compounds the daily struggle.
We are not the mind. We are something more. We can change our minds and we can observe our minds, but who is doing the changing or observing?
It is the Higher Self, or the Individualized unit of Pure Consciousness or Divinity Aspect that is changing and observing your mind.
You are the Observer and the Object that is Observed, and yet there is absolutely nothing to observe – because reality is an illusion. When you are able to integrate these two ideas – you gain a perspective that is both fullness of consciousness and the total emptiness from which all things originate.
Reality has no inherent meaning in itself. It is you who ascribe meaning to your reality. There is but one reality, and that reality is Yourself.
Two Minds in One
By nature, the mind is caught up in duality. It is by this contrast that we experience. We are here to experience, and it is through the senses, that we experience.
But the senses must be transmuted and transcended in order to perceive the integration of both emptiness and fullness, experienced as Oneness. Or what Hindus call: Advaita, or what Buddhists call: Emptiness.
Put That Mind Away
Do you remember the song, “I’m the Operator of my Pocket Calculator” by the German electronica band, Kraftwerk?
Your mind is like a pocket calculator. The operator can use it for useful purposes, to get along in life, to figure out, to make sense of, and to plan. But once the operator is through with it, the operator puts it back in his pocket.
Because of over-reliance, over-use and conditioned tendencies, our mind calculators have become buggy, compulsive and dysfunctional.
80/20
Lately, I’ve been practicing the 80/20 rule. 80% non-thinking, or just being, and 20% thinking. I still use my mind, but only 20% of the day. The rest of my day, I’m in flow state – or dancing in the moment – the path of least resistance.
In this ‘just being’ modality, I find that life lives me, rather than me living life. In this no-mind or Big Mind (fullness and emptiness) state, living becomes effortless and easy. I am more productive and efficient. Spontaneity becomes my rule of law. A new intelligence arises, not of the mind, but of my inner being – or heart.
Freedom to Be
I hold no position or opinion – what I think is irrelevant. This brings a great freedom and spaciousness. This freedom is a state of complete uncertainty and not knowing. When certainty is sought for, one actually distances oneself from this freedom.
Dropping the interpreting mind is the greatest freedom I’ve ever felt.
Being in present moment awareness, automatically turns the mind in the direction of stillness. The real benefit of being in the now, more often, allows us to be more aware of who we are really. This Divinity Aspect is what everybody is so afraid of seeing.
Risk It
Gerontologists report that after interviewing seniors in their 80’s and 90’s, when asked, “If you had to live your life over, would you do anything differently?” A majority of them said that they would have taken more risks.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself what kind of risks I’d like to take. I’ve always been one to follow my passions, and I’ve taken many risks, but I feel like I’m just beginning.
Opening more and more is the risk I want to take. Evolving and becoming something new by trusting the intelligence of the heart is the risk I want to take. Creating and adding value to others is the risk I want to take. Learning to love is a risk I want to take.
I want my life to be fun, free-flowing, spontaneous, simple, effortless, in the moment, lighthearted and with less mind. I’m ready to risk it – are you?
