By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unflailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
Christopher Columbus
I don't quite agree with Chris. I am starting to see that we are not to "prevail over" obstacles and distractions...we are to use them and be grateful for them. They help us to see what we really need and want from Life.
What is our chosen goal or destination? Whether we know it or not, all maps point to one destination: peace, happiness, joy, and love. That is what we are seeking from every journey we take...be it to India (when we accidently land in the 'new world' like Chris did), or to the registrar's office to sign up for a new career, or to the dealership to get that Porsche we have been dreaming about all our lives, or to the Justice of the Peace to make our soul mate's our own. We believe that these things will bring peace, happiness, joy, and love. Did Christopher Columbus experience these things when he landed on each new shore and for how long, I wonder. Or did he he have to hop right back onto another ship and sail away into the sunset? Did he ever really find what he was looking for? Or was his looking for new world's to conquer just a distraction?
My destination is knowledge. I want to know all I can about the world we see and the world we have yet to see. I want to know everything there is to know about the human mind. I want to know all about Life. Is this really my Life goal? When I think about it honestly, I realize that what I really want is peace, happiness, joy, and love and I assume knowledge will give me that sigh. I am distracted.
I am really starting to see my distracting tendencies.
Sitting here with my tea in a state of "Ugh! What is this?" I have been observing my restless mind since I awoke this morning. Tried to just center and relax when I was laying on my back...and I observed myself getting pulled away from distraction at least a dozen times. I was already well into story each time I caught myself. I would pull myself back and say, "Okay. That's okay. I will try it again." I would begin centered and thoughtless but before long there I was again...pulling myself away from yet another thought stream.
After a bit I convinced myself that it was just the posture...too relaxed and not alert enough. So I popped up into easy pose with spine erect, grabbed my mala for anchoring purposes...and began a simple breath meditation. Though I got pulled away into thought and story less, I still got pulled away....again and again. I eventually had to accept that that would be my practice for today...observing my distracting tendencies. Sigh!
Last night I had this recurring thought whenever I woke up. I guess I was meant to remember it.
What we truly seek is the ultimate experience of living.
Spiritually or the search for the truth of consciousness...isn't really woo-woo or mystical or magical. It is simply all about becoming aware of what we are focusing our attention on and asking, "Could there be more to this Life than what I am experiencing? Am I focusing too narrowly on this thing I call me with all its thoughts, desires, and problems? Am I living in stories in my head or am I living in the moment? What if I widen my lens and pull back? What will I see, or experience then? What if I pull right back, beyond the thinking mind with all its stories and identifications, to where this experience is being projected from? Who or what is doing the projecting? Who am I in all this? Am I the projector, or the projected? What is the best way to serve this Life?"
A little deep for three O'clock in the morning maybe...lol...but that is how this mind I have been given to use works.
Isn't everything, but the Ultimate Truth, a distraction? And how many of us are living in ultimate truth...in the most purest felt experience of peace, happiness, joy, and love? What would it be like to live purely in Truth?
Though it it is rudimentary step in the process of Living in Truth...awareness of distraction is an important component. It is a good solid step forward on this path. ( And you can call the path anything you want...just words and concepts, right? You can call it spirituality, psychology, philosophy, a search for higher consciousness, the quest for true awareness...or as Columbus referred to his quests, "A search for new worlds"...You can call it Fred if you want to. What we call it doesn't really matter. I am beginning to see it more and more as a scientific endeavour... a seeking of empirical evidence for reality. The direction we must go...is inward not outward. That is why "yoga" fits into my description of it. )
Anyway, rambling this morning...my words are just as hyperactive as my thoughts. :)
All is well.
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