To Experience the experience you are experiencing, that is why you take birth.
The "me": I bought another book on Karma.
The Wiser Self: Why?
The "me": Because I wanted to know why these challenging things were happening to "me"? I figure, if it isn't some type of a family curse, it must be my karma, some punishment I am living for something I did in this life or another.
The Wiser Self: Without adding any drama or victim description, what challenging things?
The "me": Well I am constantly being reminded of how my children are suffering. It is right there in front of me. I can't seem to handle it.
The Wiser Self: So you are focusing on the suffering of your children and see it as your suffering?
The "me: Well yes. Duh! They are my kids. I love them and worry about them. I feel their pain. Besides, I can't help but to ask: what do they think and feel about me...do they see me as the cause of that suffering? Some seem to blame me for choices I made in the past that I thought was for their benefit. Some blame me for not helping enough or in the "right way" though I do try. And what do others think and feel about "me" when they see my children suffering so. They will assume, and possibly rightfully so, that I screwed up royally as a mom. And on top of all that....they, my children and myself see that I can't seem to fix this no matter what I do. I feel so much guilt and shame and remorse thinking I might have hurt my children in anyway. This is all too much...one thing after another and I don't know what to "do". I am a failure as a mom and every time I feel their pain I am reminded of such. I can't handle this!!!
The Wiser Self: Hmm! Let me get this straight. Your challenges not only involve experiencing the compassion and empathy you have for suffering others ( which by the way is a wonderful and natural expression of the 'chit shakti' within you), but it also has to do with ego's perception of all this...poor little me's view. You don't always see your children's pain when you see their behaviours and choices brought about by suffering. Ego steps in and says, "What about "me"; what is this doing to "me"?" It becomes about you and your stuffed pain and fear, not so much about them at times. Doesn't it? That is what makes it hard to handle?
The "Me": Wow! That's pretty harsh. You are calling me selfish? I love my children and I would die for them!!!
The Wiser Self: Oh! I know you love them and no doubt you would die for them. That is not being questioned. The way you are reacting is also very normal. Most people would react the way you are ...but it isn't healthy and wholesome. Normal doesn't mean healthy. I see you are loving them with two different parts of you. You are loving them with the ego...that is always selfish and you are loving them with your soul which is never about the "me" in you.
The Me: Huh? What the fork are you talking about?
The Wiser Self: The true you is Love and it is hidden beneath that thick layer of ego you built: your personality, your sense of "meness" which is basically just an accumulation of all your learned experiences, leading to the creation of likes and dislikes that make you who you think you are. Love to the ego is different than Love to the soul. The ego sees itself as separate from everything and everyone and therefore love to the ego is all about what that other person can do to fill in the emptiness separateness provides. We thusly open when the other is acting and being what we need them to be and we close when they aren't. It is conditional. It is all about what the other can do for you, the "me". Your children are seen by your ego as an extension of who you are; your ego sees them as there to help enhance it and fulfill it. The ego is "selfish". The Soul, on the other hand, sees no separateness. Love to the Soul is all about answering this question: "what can I do to bring more love into this world, what can I do to open up so more love flows through me and into the world?"
The Me: Huh?
The Wiser Self: You are opening up and evolving, albeit at your own pace, and the more you open the more you let me in. I am the doorway to Soul. When you fall back into me you experience the Soul's love for your children regardless of what they are doing. You feel their pain in a genuine way but you are not as attached to it. You see it as a part of their journey. When you allow your consciousness to follow the busy and very sick ego, however...your love for your children is contaminated with ego's need to protect itself. You see the children as "my" children, an extension of your ego. When you see something you don't like in your children's behaviours and choices, this taps into and pokes all those stored and stuffed pains inside you. It gets very uncomfortable and messy in there. It becomes about you and you don't feel you can handle the experience of their pain on top of all the other pain that is coming up. You do your best to push it down on top of all that disturbed mess so you do not have to feel it. This is unwholesome and disrespectful to the Soul.
Th 'me": Regardless...I am still suffering. There seems to be one thing after the other thrown in my face that I can't handle. There has to be some reason for all these challenging things stepping in front of me. I would like to know why so I can stop this karma or whatever from taking over my family's life. That is why I bought this book. Are you telling me I shouldn't read it?
The Wiser Self: No, of course not. Read it. Learn from it. It is a yogi's perspective of karma so that might help you to see that karma isn't what you and many westerners think it is. No harm in this book. I just want you to question why you feel you need it. You, like so many other human beings, spend so much of your energy looking "out there" for the cause of the so called problems and for the solutions. You spend so much time asking why things are the way they are so you can distract yourself from what is. Does it really matter why ? It is. It just is. Your children are suffering. You are right here witnessing and experiencing that suffering as a third party. It is what it is.
The "me": Are you saying I do nothing but stand here and watch?
The Wiser Self: No. I am saying you cannot change what happened and you will never fully understand the thousands of events that led to the so called challenges unfolding in front of you. You do not need to know. First of all...it isn't your business and it isn't yours to fix. Do you honestly think you know better than Life what to do here? You have to let it be and let it go. Then you can "do" what needs to be done, if anything does.
The "me": How do I do that when it hurts so much?
The Wiser Self: You have to first of all allow it to be what it is. Stop resisting. You can't change the fact that your children are where they are. It is...again for reasons that go way beyond you and anything you might have did or didn't do. (That doesn't mean you don't explore or accept anything you are accountable for here ...not so you are consumed with guilt...but so you learn and do not repeat it in the future). You can't change the fact that your past was the way it was, leading to a bunch of stuffed junk that wants to come up from inside you . You can't change the fact that it hurts and it is going to hurt. Accept. Allow it to be what it is.
The "me": Then what?
The Wiser Self: You relax into what is. Well you lean back and relax into me, creating a bit of distance between the reality of the challenges in front of you and the personal mind. Relax. Relaxation is the opposite of resistance. That means you stop holding your hands up to block what is from coming in to your experience. You stop using your inner hands to push the painful and unwanted down or back down. You allow it all to come in or up and you experience it fully.
The "me": Experience it fully?
The Wiser Self: Yes you observe and experience whatever unfolds in front of you through me. This is where the clarity lies. It is from here where we will be clear enough to know if we need to take action or not. The experience is ours. Allow it in. Relax as you observe it. Sit with it, Feel it. And when you are ready, honor it and be grateful for it with me. It is all a part of some big process you will never completely understand until you are completely merged in me. But know it is taking you somewhere. Every experience you let in will eventually leave you. It will cleanse you and purify you.
The "me": What for?
The Wise Self: The Soul is here to learn and evolve. It and me and you are here to experience for God the joy of living...all of it...with its ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows. You, my friend, are often standing in the way. When you are willing to give up yourself for me and for soul, amazing things will happen.
The "me": Oh no...I am not ready yet.
The Wise Self: That's okay. It is a process. Just learn to allow life to unfold in front of you, lean back and relax into me as you observe and experience it all. If you are called toward some inspired action from this clear place of wisdom that will help you or your children...go for it. Until then...just sit and experience, allowing what is to be what it is as you relax. Let Life take care of the rest for you and your children. It's all good.
The "me": Okay, I will do my best to trust you. I will. Not saying I won't screw up but I will try.
The Wise Self: That is all anyone can ask. That you are willing to take a step backwards away from your narrow and sick focus "out there" and towards me. Chit Shakti is constantly flowing back here ...fall into it and it will bring the peace you long for, for you and your children.
To embrace Life go through it. Embrace it all. Be one with it all. Ram Dass
Karma is not a creed, a scripture, an ideology, a philosophy or a theory. It is simply the wat things are. Sadhguru
Inspired By:
Ram Dass/ Be Here Now Network (Sept 26, 2016) Ram Dass Here and Now-Episode 20-Embracing It All.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGPy8q51ZLI&t=1183s
Sadhguru ( 2021) A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. New York: Harmony Books
Michael. A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( August 6, 2023) Your Choice: Living for Yourself or Letting Go of Yourself.https://tou.org/talks/
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