Changing the World?

 

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself. 

Rumi 

I keep saying that the only way to help others is to help self first.  We need to put on our own oxygen masks before we can do any good for the people around us.  I know that and I practice that but I recently forgot.  I got so caught up in the pain filled and dysfunctional drama that is occurring around me that I failed to give myself oxygen and I was suffocating, let me tell ya.  One week without practice....one week of slipping away from my priority...(I was committed to making my sadhanna my priority)...one week of forgetting about what is really important and allowing myself to get pulled down to the negative energy focus of the ego...one week of running around trying to meet the ego needs of others at the expense of my own...and boom...I found myself  bent over and  gasping for breath. I fell into the desire trap of wanting to change  the world when what I really need to do, all I can do really...is change myself. My practice is ll about changing myself, not others... sigh.  How quickly we forget.  Back to the drawing board. Back to working on Self. Back to God.

And where is God?

He dwells right behind your every thought. Yogananda

I need to remind myself of that, the next time I move my attention  away from the Seat of the Self. This week I was so focused on the drama around me  and that "terrible" feeling of being pulled down into someone else's darkness as I kicked and screamed, grabbing for anything I could ( except that which works...my practice). I focused on my resistance to what was as well...and it was yucky...I started saying things like "I need you to do this...I need you to stop doing that...I need things to be different than what they are." My attention and focused slipped out of my yogi center ( the Seat of Self)  and went to the mind to say, "Hey Mind...what do I do here to fix this needy thing?" Mind, of course, didn't know...it is the mixed up cause of all this disturbance yet there I was asking it to make sense of it.  It couldn't.  I really have to fire Mind's ass! 

Anyway, I am ready to go back to what is important.  I really cannot fix or save others as much as I may want to.  That is theirs's.  All I can do is stay calm and relaxed in Witness consciousness so I am there in a way that is truly helpful. 

All is well.  

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( August 18, 2023) Finding Your Way Back to the Beauty Within. https://tou.org/talks/