At the Dance

You have a choice ...you are living life or you are fighting it.

Michael A. Singer

"Did you have fun down there?"

Imagine returning to where ever it was we were as consciousness before we came to Earth and being asked that by some loving being with a big, excited, and curious tone in their voice. 

If you were to re-enter that place in the next few minutes, would you answer, 

"Yeah! It was a blast. There was so much to experience. I was scared. I was happy. I laughed. I cried. There was so much beauty and there was so much ugliness to explore.  I met some of  the kindest and most compassionate of people and I als dealt with some evil and pretty nasty behaviors from people. I won some games. I lost some things. I experienced pain. I experienced pleasure. Oh man, it was just incredible. I learned so much! "

Or would you answer,

"Fun? You mean I was supposed to enjoy that place? I was so busy just trying to survive, to get things to go my way I didn't have time to notice most if it, let alone enjoy it. I was supposed to have fun? You sure?" 

Yeah.  We are, I am quite sure now, suppose to enjoy this living thing, to see it all, allow it all, embrace it all, enjoy it all, and love it all.  Hmm! How many of us are doing that?

The world is energy. It wants to blow by you.  It wants to embrace you. It wants to come into you and touch you.

It is a very interesting place this world we live in

It is neither right or wrong...it is fascinating...that is what it is...

Most of us, if we are truly honest, are not enjoying this experience of Life. Why? Because instead of just allowing it we got caught up in trying to fix it, control it, create it...just so we do not get disturbed inside by it. We make this amazing all-encompassing experience of Life into some tiny personal idea we think we can control. It is not ours to control.

 You are a guest ..a sojourner...an observer on the planet earth

We need to learn to step back, first of all, from that which we are all tangled up in.  We are tangled up in our judgements and our ideas of how we assume it all should be.  We ceased to be objective observer and became subjective victims to Life when we judge it or desire that it be a certain way. Instead of living Life...we started resisting it and fighting it.

God is manifesting before you ...each moment...What are you doing? Judging, fighting, struggling, fearing? That's absurd. Participate in it.  That is the true life of a yogi.

Become the objective observer again.

Now...Singer often talks about going being this stage. He talks about going from objective observer to joyful participant. He uses the analogy of Life as a dance. In order to participate in this dance...the way we are meant to... we need to go through different growth stages. 

 I imagine a self-proclaimed "social-phob" desensitizing themselves by first seeing how long they can stay at a crowded dance with lots of people, and loud noises etc.  They don't have to do anything...they can just sit there but they have to be in the environment the dance is taking place in.  At first maybe they can only walk into the gym before running away...that's a step.  Then they sit for half an hour in a dark corner...that's a step.  Then they sit for an hour...another progressive step. Next, they sit for the whole dance.  They stay for the whole dance without running away. Now, that's a big step. 

Sure, it might be uncomfortable.  They might jump back when the music or the lighting changes.  They may get all red faced with a thumping heart when someone comes over to talk to them or worse ...they may feel an anxiety attack coming on when the bullies call them a name...but they stay. At first they will be pretty self-focused on their own anxiety and discomfort.  They really won't be doing much observing of the culture around them. Any observations they make will likely be very subjective.  

 Still, they keep coming to the dance and sitting through it, observing their own discomfort and then they begin to observe how they act according to that discomfort.  They see how the internal discomfort is being triggered by something at the dance, and how that leads to a reaction. They might then begin to become aware of and be able to observe the triggers that increase that discomfort. They have less significance because they seem to just be the middle player between their reactions and what is taking place inside them. They begin to look a little more "out there".  Then they look and notice other things that do not trigger them.  They begin to look at the dance experience with more objective eyes. 

Next thing you know, they are bringing notebooks to the dance and are recording what they are observing.  The dance seems to have a bit of a purpose to it now. They even begin to realize that they enjoy observing and recoding.  They observe themselves.  They observe the others and how they seem to be reacting to stimuli. They are noticing patterns that are similar yet different between everyone. They get more and more curious about these patterns. They observe more, record more...This dance though it still might be scary is kind of interesting even. They start to enjoy it even. They look down to realize that they are even tapping along to the music. They are still in the background observing. By no means do they want to be on the dance floor at this point. They are, however, becoming less reactive when things happen, when things don't go their way, when it gets extra uncomfortable.

"Just write in your book...wow! Look what they did next ...write it down in your anthropology book.".

They are not necessarily having fun at this point, but they are getting less disturbed with every dance they observe and semi-participate in. They begin to accept the crowds, the lighting, the music and where they are at in it.  It is all kind of interesting to them now. They do not feel the urge to get up and run out like they used to.  They can sit here for longer and longer periods.

That is until the teacher, Life, tells them they are ready for the next stage.  "It's time to come out of the shadows and onto the dance floor."

The whole desensitization process begins again...step by step, but by bit. 

Spend some time in the Self in this transcendence...then try participating in it...instead of observing...dance with it.

Eventually...

Eventually you can be in life, and not only does it not bother you...you dance with it. 

They slowly go from objective observer to joyful participant in the dance of Life. 

When we learn to simply move with the music, to go where Life takes us without resistance or struggle then we learn what fun is.

Hmm! I want to have some fun in this lifetime.  Don't you?

All is well

Seat of Contemplation ( June, 2025) Michael Singer-Dance with Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ajKchZml4