If you wake up in the morning with the Shakti flowing, it doesn't matter what happens for the rest of the day.
Michael A. Singer
Imagine just feeling good no matter what is happening around you, through you, or to you. Imagine feeling love for the person in front of you even when they are spitting in your face as they call you down to the lowest. Imagine feeling peace even when people are screaming, yelling, running in circles as the earth beneath you rumbles and shakes. Imagine feeling a sense of happiness even when you are told by the bank they are foreclosing on your mortgage. Imagine feeling joy even though the doctor in front of you is telling you that you have a terminal disease. Imagine feeling gratitude even when the thing or person you worshipped is leaving or being taken away. Imagine feeling good no matter what.
Joy is Our Birthright.
Most of us don't know this, or even believe it when ancient teachings tell us it is true, but this "feeling good no matter what" is more than possible. It is our birthright! There is a "River of joy" ( Yogananda) constantly flowing within us, with the potential to pull and keep us "up".
Then why are so many of us down all the time, crazy lady? Why don't we see or experience this flow? It can't be real?
Oh, it is real. We catch glimpses of it spontaneously when we catch a beautiful sunset; when we see a baby's face for the first time; or when someone we love tells us they love us etc. When we come in contact with some very pleasant outer world experience, we feel it. We are tapping into the flow as we open to it and it leaks out into our conscious awareness a tiny bit. We notice its reality then.
Of course, we don't know what it is we are noticing or where it comes from. We tend to erroneously assume it was the sunset, the baby's face, the "I love you"or anything "out there" that was the source of the flow. But the flow is and always was inside us. It is who we are. We just do not feel and experience this flow when we are too busy looking elsewhere. We are, for most of our lives, looking elsewhere.
Our attention, our most magnificent awareness, is focusing down through a veil -filter we created.This veil that we see through is the psyche, the "little me" with all its compelling drama. Our attention is pulled downward when we follow the psyche's pull. The "little me's" drama is dark, often negative and so, so distracting. When we are focusing on it, we do not see the magnificent river flowing behind this veil. We grasp, cling, and push away 'out there' what we assume this "little me" needs to feel good, only adding samskaras ( stored and stuffed emotionally charged memories) to the thickness of the veil that lies over the the experience of this flow, blocking it from our conscious experience. We get farther and farther away from it.
At the Beach, Focusing On Rocks
Singer, in the below podcast, uses an analogy. Imagine we are all very thirsty beings who are conditioned to believe the water supply is very limited and something we have to work very hard to get. We are conditioned to believe that we need to go down to this beach everyday and suck whatever moisture we can get off of the rocks that are strewn haphazardly along the shoreline. As we kneel down before these rocks, grasping and clinging to every drop of moisture, pushing away anything we assume may dry it up, we have our backs to something. We are so busy putting all our attention on this task, we do not notice what is behind us...a beautiful full, continuously flowing river. We are so busy trying to grasp and cling for every tiny droplet of joy the outside world may provide, pushing away anything that will strip us of these morsels of joy, we do not notice that there is already a river of abundant joy flowing within us. This river flow is Shakti.
Shakti?
Everything is energy right? We went over that so many times. It isn't woo-woo...it is pure science, that everything is energy. Emotions are energy. Joy is energy. Shakti is a powerful field of energy that is always moving upward inside us. Shakti is meant to pull and keep us up. We are naturally meant to be "up". Yet, because all our attention is going towards grasping and clinging for morsels of joy from rocks ( from the outside world) our attention is downward, away from the upward flow, away from the experience of Shakti. That doesn't mean the river isn't there. It just means we are not noticing it because we are so distracted by little me's dramatic, often unsuccessful, quest to get droplets of joy from something that cannot maintain joy...we are not experiencing the joy that is already in us. That is, until we have these tiny opening up experiences where the veil filter thins enough for the Shakti to flow through.
So what do we do to experience this flow all the time, crazy lady?
First of all, be aware of what you are doing, that you are looking down and away from your potential. Realize that you cannot get enough water from these rocks ( from your outer world quests) to sustain you. Realize how this pulls you down. Then ask: Do I want to keep doing this or do I want more?
Secondly, realize that there is something greater behind this conditioned reactivity by which you were taught to live your life. What you were doing before was not working in keeping you happy, was it? Choose to look up and fall back.
Look up and fall back?
Look up and away from the negative drama you are constantly being pulled into.
Your energy flows where your attention goes.
To look up and away try:
Positive thinking and a making a commitment to try: Counter negative thoughts with positive ones. Counter,"This is my life. Nothing will ever get better." with, "Yes this is my life and I want it to be better. I am willing to do whatever I need to do to make it better."
Use mantras or other practices that distract you from the compulsion to focus on the rocks. Find a mantra that works for you. Singer suggests using , "I can handle this" when things get tough.
I suggest moving the body...go for a walk using Thich Nhat Hanh's walking meditation mantra, "I have arrived, I am home, in the here and the now. I am solid; I am free. In the ultimate, I dwell." Or do a set of sun salutations. Then when the body is discharged a bit you can practice focusing on something neutral or more pleasant. You can meditate on breath for example or do a visualization picturing a baby you love or even a pet in all their innocence and goodness. .
Just do what you can to pull yourself from that negative focus.
Then, most importantly, relax and release. When you feel yourself being pulled into the dramas of little me, into reactivity, observe it happening. As soon as you are aware you are being pulled into it...relax. All reactivity is, is resistance...resisting the reality of what is. Relaxation is the opposite of resistance. It is a form of sweet acceptance and surrender that says I am not pulling on this tug of war rope anymore...I am releasing and letting go. I am allowing life to be life. I am allowing whatever is in me that blocks the awareness of my Shakti flow to come up and out. I am letting go of "me".
Then as you continue to practice relaxing and releasing...step back and away from that which you were feeling pulled to react to...to the disturbance...to that struggle of getting water from rocks...until you feel the cool refreshing water of the river that was always behind this psyche on your ankles. Keep stepping back and away, relaxing and releasing, until you are immersed in this river of joy...bobbing up and down in it....until you are home.
Imagine waking up each morning with the Shakti flowing!
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe (December 28, 2923) Learning to Open to Your Natural Energy Flow.https://tou.org/talks/
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