The Process of Life

 The Good Life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. 

Carl Rogers

Containers in the Life Factory

I just had this image of me as a big container( the body) in a factory for the  experience of the "Good" Life...abundant, joyful, loving Life. 

In this factory, I am simply one container of 7 billion that look kind of like me, and trillions and trillions of others that don't. The whole purpose of this factory of "life" is to create  a full experience  that the factory owner can enjoy through us.  We in turn get to enjoy it too as important instruments in this factory...as important elements of it. We are shareholders in the company that created us.  We are the company and the finished product...not separate containers.  Each and everyone of us is the whole. 

Form in Space

What appears to be important in this factory is the "form"...that which makes each container and all other structures in this factory , that which appears to separate each structure from the "other". Yet the whole structure was built in space and within each container is that space and each atom of form that creates the "appearance" of this factory is space...Spacious emptiness is what makes this factory what it is. Yet, in limited awareness, we can only perceive the "form".  Because we can not see the One Unifying space, we see each container as separate from the other instead of the "whole" and tend to believe that is the way it is. 

The Individual Container

Like every other container, there is a hose going into "me" ( the name the container gives itself)  and a hose going out.  Everything that enters is meant to mix together and then flow through leaving no residue. We are given the amazing opportunity, as individual  containers to  experience this process with great joy and love. 

The Secret Recipe

The factory design is perfect leading to the perfect product. There is a recipe being used that  we cannot "know"  with our limited minds. The creator knows that recipe well, which ingredients to add to each individual container to create the perfect mixture that will l add to the "whole" when it leaves us.  This process is a  perfect one surviving billions and billions  of years. 

The Desired Ingredients

So many wonderful , "pleasant" sensations and feelings flow into us  from the  life circumstances we encounter in order to create the full experience. They flow through the hose that says "in". They add tremendous texture and taste to what we "personally" experience and to what comes out of us, intent on making the finished product amazing and delightful for all other containers, for the factory, and for the factory creator.   If , however, we are not fully mature and aware of the factory's mission statement, our job description, and  our connection to all other containers on the team, we may become a little self absorbed, imaging it is all about us. We may come to believe  that we are the center of this every changing factory. We may then be  tempted to  keep some of the "good" feelings inside our containers for our "little personal selves". We may become extra  alert in our attention and selection of the stuff that comes in, determined to get as much of the good stuff we can, grasping and clinging and holding onto the desired ingredients instead of letting it all flow through us. When we do that we are not fulfilling  our role, our purpose and we therefore fail to serve the factory. When we fail the factory we do not serve the others in it and we ultimately do not serve ourselves. We do not enjoy the process.

The Unwanted ingredients

The mixture of Life  we are intended to help create requires a variety of different experiences to come into us through that "in" hose. Many are tasty and desirable. Some of the ingredients that go into the mixture, however, are not always pleasant and may even be seen as painful, dangerous, toxic and corrosive to our insides if they do not flow through as quickly as they come in. These ingredients of anger, pain, fear, confusion, sadness, loss..., however,  are so necessary for the full experience of Life that the manufacturer is trying to produce through us. Still, if we are not aware of our true purpose in this factory, if we begin to believe that we are just separate containers, randomly placed here or there,  and not an integral part of a whole complex network...we may get lost in the  desires of "self". We may then attempt to block this "potentially painful" stuff from coming in...squeezing these hoses as tightly as we can or pushing the "slush of pain and suffering" down into the bottom of our container so we do not experience it. When we do that these important ingredients  do not mix well with all the other important ingredients of Life  and they do not flow through as they are meant to. The toxic slush accumulates inside us, corroding and damaging our insides living a thick residue instead of spaciousness. The  hoses also become so plugged and constricted that  even the ingredients we want are unable to flow through. We close ourselves off from receiving from Life all that is and therefore our "output" of Life is so greatly diminished. 

The Neutral Ingredient

There are so many "neutral" ingredients  that are meant to flow through too...and because of their elemental nature may flow through easily. If we are too busy looking for the "bad" or the "good" the neutral can slip by  without us even noticing them.  If we do not "notice" them, they will not mix with the other ingredients well and our "output" will be lacking in holistic quality. Neutral ingredients are just as important in creating our experience of Life as are the others. 

All Ingredients and Sticking to the Recipe

Every single ingredient is called for in this recipe to ensure a quality product. All ingredients of sensation, feeling, experience are meant to come in, mix quickly with each other in our awareness, and flow out. As long as we see ourselves as separate containers , fending for ourselves, desiring and clinging to some ingredients ,denying or pushing down others we alter the recipe. We get in the way, preventing the intended product from being experienced. We are interfering with Life! We can create great suffering for ourselves and others when we do that...when we think we know better and try to alter  the the original design. We do not know better than God!

Can you see yourself as a container with an "in" hose and an "out" hose? If so, what kind of product is coming out of you?  Is it the miraculous one that was intended for you? Are you expressing Life in its full mystery and beauty? Or have you altered the recipe? 

Altered the Recipe

I can see myself as a container...meant to be full of the space on which this factory was created, meant to have a free flow of experience "in"  and an undiluted flow of experience "out" as I remain "empty"...but that is not the way it is.  

I know the hose that is there to let the good stuff flow in is  pretty closed off to receiving.  I have a big clot of  unworthiness blocking the flow, and a kink brought on by squeezing it  in order to stop any more "bad" from coming in.  This   keeps the "good" from flowing in freely.  Yet the negative  still gets through a channel of "deserving of punishment" .  I see myself as an independent container left to my own devices, not worthy to handle the "good" ingredients and deserving of  the toxic feelings of the "bad". With this wrong view ,I have altered the recipe big time.  I am lacking in enjoyment and have overabundance in toxic sludge.   My mixture is way off balance. Though I sincerely want to give. and fulfill a purpose here...what comes out of "me" from the hose that says "out" is often coming out in pathetic  dribbles. Or it comes out contaminated  with the toxic sludge of past pain that floats to the top from the bottom of "me" .  Like many of the containers,  I am full of sludge when I am meant to be clean and spacious. I am corroding on the inside, and pinched off to allowing more of the positive in.  I have altered Life's recipe, Life's design big time.  I created a mess where there was supposed to be nothing but inviting space for all experiences to flow in  and out of "me".  This new stuff that I created with my grasping and my resistance is so thick, it barely flows. Still, I am desperately trying to give from the small dribbles that come out of me. Obviously, it is not enough.  I am not serving the other containers, I am not serving Life and I am not serving myself. The version of this recipe I created with my need to fix and control Life...is hurting "me"!

Allowing the Boss to take Over

So what does one do when they realize they have goofed up in the factory and are not producing what they could produce?  They give the controls back to the factory Creator. They allow the boss to take over. 

A "shut down" may be called for so that all containers can be repaired and cleaned out. That "shut down" is a stopping in our doing, our achieving, our fixing and controlling. We find that "shutdown" in stillness. We use mindfulness and meditation to open those "in" hoses to all that is...the pleasant, unpleasant and the neutral.  We remind ourselves that we don't know the recipe. We don't know what ingredients are required to create the  finished product....we do not need to.  We do not have to "do" anything but let it in. We can simply experience it all coming through us exactly as it is meant to . We allow it inside and we mix it with mindful awareness.  We cling to none of it.  allowing all of it  and then when it is mixed with awareness we let it all go. When it goes, the toxic sludge we have stored inside will go too...we let it.  We cling to none of it.  We make a clean and spacious inner container our priority for the sake of the factory, for the sake of the finished product, for  the sake of all other containers and for the sake of our own happiness.  We just allow it all to flow through, enjoying the process as we do.

Hmm! Well that is what came to mind.

All is well.