Namaste

When your chest is free of your limiting ego,

Then you will see the ageless Beloved.

You cannot see yourself without a mirror;

Look at the beloved, He is the brightest mirror.

- rumi

 

I completed the 21 day meditation challenge provided by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey today and I am a little sad that it is over.  It has seen me through a very challenging month.  I never missed a day despite the fact that I had to deal with some pretty major life crisis' : more or less 'forced' into an early retirement (nasty word-'forced'-and I am not implying that anyone or anything outside of me pushed me into this decision), had loved ones hurting themselves because of their sense of suffering to the point of near death, emergency open heart surgery in a family member that meant going away for weeks at a time to be by his side, walking smack dab into  the consequences of addiction, and serious mental illness in close loved ones...not to mention the usual stuff: finances, a house I can't keep up, health issues that were a little worrisome and frustrating to deal with  etc etc.  Still I found time...in fact I craved and honored that time ...to sit and listen to some wise individuals speak of grace and gratitude. Those twenty moments each morning were the highlight of my day...my saving grace.  :)

 

 

Today's session was about being able to see through the eyes of the soul. When we do that we see light everywhere, most importantly we see that light in everyone.  That light we see is the same light that is in us. It is the light of the 'ageless Beloved' we see when we look into the eyes of the people in front of us. We are a part of that light so we actually see ourselves.

 

 

I am a student and teacher of yoga so 'Namaste' is a Sanskrit greeting I recite often. If you take yoga classes or have been fortunate enough to visit Northern India, you too have heard it used quite often.  But what does it actually mean?

 

Namaste, loosely translated from Sanskrit means " The divine in me bows to/sees/honors  the the divine in you."  It echoes what Rumi and the 21st meditation in this series speaks to.

 

 

Namaste!

 

References

 

Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey (n.d.) Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude.  Chopra Center

 

Wendy Moore (n.d.) Why do you say Namaste? Do You Yoga.  Retrieved from https://www.doyouyoga.com/why-do-you-say-namaste/

 

Rumi (n.d.) Untitled .  Retrieved from Safo Archon's 7 Mystical Love Poems by Rumi https://theunboundedspirit.com/7-mystical-love-poems-by-rumi/

 

 



 



Connecting Dots of Belief

There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth.  How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of all things.
Lao Tzu (Chapter/Verse 25 Taoe Te Ching as translated by James Legge)


Connecting the Tao with other Religious Beliefs

Hmm! I read that last night before going to bed and it seemed to apply to our idea of foreground and background of existence.  Heaven and Earth, as we know them or believe them to be, are the foreground of this still, formless, solitary, changeless, infinite and fearless background. They are things on the canvas of what Buddhists refer to as emptiness.  All else is 'created' from this space

We may name this background, this "Great Being" God or the Creator, but Lao Tzu states he did not know Its name  so he just called it the Tao or the Way. 

Is it not the same? In many religious beliefs... God is the way, right...the direction to follow? God is also "Great"...meaning the higher power? In the order of supremacy described by Lao Tzu in this chapter ...we have man...than kings or sages...followed by Earth...then Heaven and finally the Tao...the highest power...  "The Great". Is that not the hierarchy  most western religious beliefs are built on?

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is. (Lao Tzu)

We get back to the profound rule of accepting "it is what it is" because God is "I am Who I am"(Exodus 3:14, ESV). 

We, as mentally dominated creatures, go around naming things that maybe we are not meant to name. We reduce the "Greatness" of what simply is... to concepts we separate and protect from other concepts but ....could the truth behind labels  be universal?

Hmmm! That is what came to my mind as I read this...but what do I know, lol?

All is well!

References


Exodus 3:14, Holy Bible, English Standard Version

Lao Tzu  as translated by James Legge (1891) Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

An Arrogance Free Check List?

How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life.
-Dalai Lama


The Beingness Checklist

As we put away our To Do lists for To Be lists, we begin using a different type of check list.  We begin monitoring, not what we accomplished or achieved of material world value, but what we have achieved of spiritual or internal value.  Of course it doesn't have to be an actual  list that we use to monitor our spiritual growth at the end of each day. I use that as a metaphor...a pointing finger only.

As I reflect on my beingness at the end of some days,  I happily discover  I did quite well with lots of mental check marks to show for it; other days, I struggle.    I still get stuck on anger and attachment quite often...especially when I am this tired! I am discovering that sleep deprivation does not help to add check marks to these lists.

Last night I felt the maternal-ego need to do an intervention at 2-4 in the am. (Tip for future reference-not a good time to do so lol). I was hot flashing and miserable as I approached the two lovely but somewhat lost individuals involved and I let them have it.  I was able to catch myself while I was well into my 'unconscious reaction' and brought myself back to that state of compassion and peace I want to 'respond' from but anger and attachment did get the best of me.  Sigh!


Learning from A Course

I am taken back to Lesson 186 in A Course in Miracles: Salvation of the world depends on me. If I truly want to do what I am here to do, I need to put away my anger, attachment, hatred, pride and jealousy.

These things take us from our function here and stop us from responding to others, circumstance, or Life in a way that will benefit all. They take us into busy doing, clinging, defending, pursuing, distracting, and seeking to attain an image of ourselves that we are not.  That is where the anger and attachment come from...our own arrogance

Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. (ACIM-W-186:6:1)

Seeing Who We Are and Hearing What We Are To Do

Caught up in this image, we do not see what we and the people before us truly are.  We do not hear what we are really here for. Arrogance, in any of its forms, makes us deaf  to our purpose while humility sets us free.

Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are and what to do. (ACIM-W-186:5:6)

It is when we forget to let God into our interventions...when we forget to connect to peace and presence... that the arrogant ego-mind takes over.  When we feel that we, as these limited little selves are the ones to solve the bigger problems in an external world way we become unconscious. 


It is not our job to fix others, circumstances or Life in the way arrogance leads us to believe.  It is our job to simply open up and let the true Self through so it can handle things in the way they were meant to be handled...with peace, compassion and love. We need  do nothing

The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. (ACIM-W-186:2:2)

I forgot my own prayer in my dealings with loved ones last night:

 

 

 

 

Use this ‘little me’ for the betterment of the world.

Let Me Be all that You intend Me to be

And let me pour that Self over all like a blanket

of compassionate love and healing

 

 

Oh well maybe next time I will do better and my check list will be something to be proud of.

All is well in my world.

References:

ACIM (2007) Workbook: A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume. Foundations for Inner Peace



 

Come to Your Senses and Then Go Beyond

There are only two ways to live your life; as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.
-Albert Einstein

Coping

How do we cope with all this chaotic  surface phenomena that surrounds us, especially when it seems to be wearing down on us like a heavy weight?

Many people will choose to numb from it...take something, do something, own something, gain something or chase after something that will make it all better.  But what if you have journeyed far enough along this path to realize that none of those external  things will ever make it better?  What does one do then?

The answer, I am discovering, is in finding that connection to who we really are beneath these shallow, superficial egos which do anything but bring us peace. And it is peace we are seeking, whether we know it or not.

What lies beyond the ego?

Well if we are anywhere more than one or two steps on this path we are at least intellectually realizing that there is something very powerful and beautiful beneath our surface layers. There is more than 'this'.

There may be many names for that something or someone.  Some may call it Spirit or Soul.  Others may call it Atman or Buddha-nature. Some may refer to as presence or awareness.  Others our True Self or higher consciousness. I really don't care if you call it 'Fred'.

 I think it is really, really important not to get hung up on naming it.  Whatever we call it, based on whatever religious or cultural conditioning we have learn from...'It', whatever 'it' is,  offers the same potential experience for everyone. It offers the experience of Grace.

 

Why would we want to connect...to know... that 'something'?

When we live from that place, we will live a life of freedom from physical world attachment and illusion.  We will live with truth, love, faith and complete gratitude.  We will experience a peace that doesn't wax and wane as the world around us changes. We will see clearly.  We will know how to be present for each precious moment that arises.  When we do that...this idea of suffering that comes about because of our insistence on living in the mind will disappear.  We will indeed be free.

How do we get there?

The first step is to get out of our heads and away from our distracting busy work!!! We must learn to be rather than do...feel rather than to simply narrate our experiences. We need to live...rather than think about, describe, create and tell stories about living.

We can begin to do that by stilling ourselves every now and again...stilling our bodies and stilling our minds as much as possible. We can achieve stillness in two ways

1. Come to Your Senses

So many of us are so lost in what is going in our heads that we are not aware of the miraculous world around us. It is so important to begin with being  mindful of your environment. in this moment

Just stop and take a look around you.  Ask the questions: What am I seeing right now? And then, without words or labelling, just look about you.  What am I hearing right now?  Close your eyes and listen.  What am I feeling right now on the outside of my body? Be aware of any breeze, the feeling of your clothes next to your skin or how your butt feels on the chair.  What do I smell right now?  What scents is your olfactory center picking up?  And what can I taste?  Bite into that apple and truly taste what is there without any need to describe it with words...just feel it.

Then when you are aware of where you are take a deep breath.  Concentrate on that breath moving into your body and then out of your body.  Bring that busy mind to that reality of precious breath.

From there, what are your senses picking up about your inner body.  Can you feel the hum, the vibration of life in your hands even with your eyes closed?  Can you feel your heart beating?

If thoughts come in, as they are sure to do, just allow them, accept them...see them as passing clouds floating by.  Be aware of them without being them.

Come to your senses...come back to the awareness of what the body and mind are  experiencing.  Then know that the body and the mind  together create  just the shell you are in.  They are not you.

II. Go Beyond the Senses to the Higher Self


Now ask the questions: Who is seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling?  Who is perceiving with these  five senses?  Who is making sense of all this information?  Who is breathing?  What is this breath? Who is feeling what is going on inside my body?  Who is thinking these thoughts?  Who is really experiencing this Life?

Beyond your ego dominated and limiting perceptions; beyond this external world and its constant flux; beyond your body and mind...is who you really are.  It is nameless, eternal, and never changing.  It is still and silent.  It is present and real.  It graciously offers you the peace you long for.

Everything else is just an ever-changing foreground and  you, my friend, are the background that is the peace you are looking for.

All is well.

Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey.(n.d.) Day 18: Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude.

Eckhart Tolle (2019) How Do I Step More Deeply Into Presence?  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiavI90DP74

It is

True wisdom is being able to say 'it is what it is' with a smile of celebratory wonder on your face.
-Eric Micha'el Leventhal (from Oprah Winfrey's and Deepak Chopra's meditation series)

I have been up since four. :) My body doesn't like the night sweats and in those awakenings comes the thinking about all that has been going on around me. 

I was able to get through the last two months because others needed me. I was able to put aside, to some extent, my body's complaints and my own response/reactions to stress. I trudged forward.  I clung to every moment of relief like it was a precious vacation but they never lasted for long.  Things that needed to be dealt with kept calling me back from any fantasy of margarita sipping on the beach lol.  There really was no break from pressing circumstance and I am exhausted, absolutely exhausted from carrying this load.

I am aware of the distinction between life circumstance and Life. I am aware of the True Self beneath this little version of 'me'.  I am aware of the wisdom in the lovely mantra I have been repeating since yesterday Grace is perfect even when my life isn't.  I am so grateful for my Life...I really am...I look for reasons to be grateful and I find them. I am also very aware  there is a sun shining brilliantly behind this heavy cloud cover. 

But sigh...I just want to feel it.  I want  a break in the heaviness!  I want to see a good sized crack in that cloudy sky. I want sun on my face.  

I need something  to change so obviously for the better. I need relief. 

There seems to be so much suffering around me, brought to my attention almost every hour of everyday  and I don't know what to do with it. And it isn't like I am out there looking for it. I am not seeking it.  I am not  reading the news or getting lost in social media rampages.  In fact...I am doing my best to run and hide from it lol.  I am even isolating myself...Yet people are reaching me with their suffering. I feel it so intensely. I want to help.  I want to make change and do my part to solve the greater issues but I am not sure how.  So in my ignorant  helplessness, I simply offer my presence.  In the offering of that support and that presence that I so want to offer, I feel my bony little knees wobbling.  Why does it suddenly feel like so much?

Anyway...In the midst of insomnic fretting, I bring myself back to It is what it is...and I keep trudging forward with that in mind.  I want peace.  I am committed to that endeavor.  So I make peace with the cloud cover above my head.  I make peace with the moments of suffering and I tell myself it is all okay right here, right now just the way it is. And it is.  It is.

All is well in my world. I am going back to bed lol.

Getting Through the Clouds to Peace

The clouds that gather round the setting sun

Do take a sober colouring from an eye

That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; - William Wordsworth: 536 Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood   In this beautiful poem by Wordsworth, an aging speaker looks about the natural world in awe and envy seeing so much power and beauty in the landscape.  Observation of nature  brings him to alert stillness and presence.  He also sees his human mortality in it and is reminded that he will be leaving this natural world soon.   The poem may seem like a depressing one but it ultimately is a poem of inspiration for life and for connection to who we really are.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home: Wordsworth 536 Ode

Are we trailing Clouds of Glory?

Note: so sorry about these big blocks of off-colour that are distracting to the eye.  I will sometimes download passages onto a Microsoft page before putting them here in a cut and paste.  I bring the white background with me when I do that and attempt to change it with the closest to the page colour I can find.  (I guess that is somewhat appropriate in our recent discussions about foregrounds and backgrounds :))

I was drawn to this poem by a reminder  from Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey  in Day 16 of Manifesting through Grace that we came from trailing clouds of glory. The image of clouds came to my mind, reminding me that though the clouds may be in front of us and we may not be able to use our limited human vision to see beyond them, the sun is still there shining brilliantly upon the world and upon us. Wordsworth describes nature's knowing of this brilliantly.

We in human form, are limited and mortal but who we really are...like all things in nature are trailing clouds of glory that come from God. The true Self, we are reminded by Chopra and many eastern teachings, has no limits or boundaries. Though the world around us darkens our perceptions and leads us to believe we need to suffer... there remains a presence in the background that knows differently. Though we feel trapped and confined by these bodies, these personalities, these physical world limitations and our minds...we are free.

Getting Through the Clouds

We need to look at the clouds (our challenging life circumstances, our ego dominated personalities, our mental reactivity, our illnesses and our limitations) simply as the foreground of our life....not our Life.  Sure sometimes it all seems like a heavy cloud cover that prevents us from seeing or feeling the warmth of the sun behind it.

We can get lost and forget that its there...but that sun is still there, never going away, always available to us. The sun is the still, silent presence in the background of our Life.

Alienating from the Little Self

Who we think we are, is not who we really are.  Eckhart Tolle in Facing Challenges-The Transmission of Stillness, reminds us that we as 'persons' are just superficial movements of a much deeper and greater consciousness.  This person that uses "I", "me", and "mine"......is an ego dominated and fear based personality that may act as a dark cloud cover over who we truly are.

'Presence', the  trusting, fearless stillness exists beyond that cloud cover.  It is that presence that we come from, that presence whom we are and that presence we will return to when our bodies cease to be. We sometimes just forget that and get lost in doing, seeking, striving, competing, defending and attacking just to make sense of this reality (unreality) that exists on this side of the cloud cover.

As Wordsworth describes, nature is so present, so alive, so expansive but we as humans too often do not recognize that expansiveness in our selves. Our minds can hold us back from connecting to it.

Wanting Peace More than Anything Else

Tolle tells us that if we want to connect to presence we must be willing to give up the cloud cover, the false selves we identify with.  He calls this process of awakening  'self-alienation'.  In order to get there we need to put down our limiting fear based egos and choose instead peace.  We need to want peace more than anything else this limited 'person' in this physical world can provide.

ACIM in Lesson 185: I want the peace of God  teaches:

To say these words is nothing. To mean these words is everything.  If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. (ACIM:W-185:1: 1-3)

To reach presence and find the peace of God that transcends all clouds, all suffering will require a willingness to let go of who you think you are.

To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. (ACIM:W-185:5:1)

That presence is already in us...that peace of God is within us. Our suffering can end; clouds can part when we truly, truly want peace.
Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he  has already? (ACIM:W-185:11:3)

We just need to ask and really want what we are asking for.  We need a powerful determination to be present.

Breaking Through


"The chicken cannot come out of the shell without it first cracking" (Tolle, 2019)

We do not need to wait until we die to emerge from the limiting shells ego provides. .  We can make that determined commitment to break through those shells, those cloud covers, those limiting perceptions for the sake of peace now.  As soon as we meaningfully commit, the clouds will part so the sun can come through.

Sometimes, Life will step in and help us out with the process by removing a lot of the "me," and "mine" things from us.  Suffering and loss can be a great catalyst for change.  It may lead us to cry out, "crack already!!!"

Once we get fed up with our person-hood, we may finally commit to wanting peace and presence more than anything else. It is only then that we will be able to finally  transcend the  clouds of our existence for the sun.

God, stillness, presence, truth, love and awareness are waiting for us now.

Our noisy years seem moments in the being

Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,

To perish never:

Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,

Nor Man nor Boy,

Nor all that is at enmity with joy,

Can utterly abolish or destroy!     -William Wordsworth 536 Ode

All is well in my world.

References

ACIM (2007) Workbook: Lesson 185. Foundations for Inner Peace

Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey. (n.d.) Manifesting Grace through Gratitude. Chopra Center

Eckhart Tolle (2019) Facing Challenges-The Transmission of Stillness. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn-TfVr5h_U

William Wordsworth (n.d.) Ode 536: Intimations of  Immortality....Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html

Of Basic Importance

There are many different philosophies, but what is of basic importance is compassion, love for others, concern for others' suffering, and reduction of selfishness.
-Dalai Lama

If you help others with sincere motivation and sincere concern, that will bring you more fortune, more friends, more smiles, and more success.  If you forget about others' rights and neglect others' welfare, ultimately you will be very lonely.
Dalai Lama

Success from the Inside First

Inner success is the inner experience of love, happiness, inner fulfillment and well-being -the experience of joy in your everyday life.
-Michael Neill


Unsuccessful?

I have been thinking about success lately and how some of us on the outside may appear unsuccessful.  We may be viewed as unsuccessful because of   our inability to make a certain income and live a certain life style; unsuccessful in our ability to gain and maintain a certain recognition or social status; unsuccessful because of unfruitful attempts to achieve some external reward like fame or notoriety for our dreams, gifts or talents; unsuccessful in our ability to gain /maintain certain titles and the right careers that go with those titles; unsuccessful in our ability to own things;  unsuccessful in our ability to raise kids and provide for them in the way society deems we should; unsuccessful in our ability to maintain relationships or a level of reputability that others approve of; unsuccessful in our ability to maintain a certain level of health or physical appearance that society deems is necessary for success and unsuccessful in our ability to be as good as or better than everyone else.  

My Lack of Success

I may be deemed unsuccessful in all or many of these categories. I presently have no income and the life style I once knew is no more. I am really not recognized at this point  if I ever was and my social status ...well let's just say no one out there on social media will be jealous of me, nor will they be  trying to compete lol. My dreams to be a successfully published  writer with a certain readership have yet to reach fruition.  I have had to give up the titles I earned and the careers associated with them despite the numerous years of education, training and experience put into them. I don't own much material stuff. I own little and lost lots.People might look at what is going in my family and judge my parenting as being the cause for it, therefore viewing me as an unsuccessful parent.  I have pulled away from most forms of relating in an attempt to heal and my "like" status (or lack of)  would likely  indicate a problem with me. Others may  see me as unsuccessful in both my physical and mental health, I am sure. And the aging process is definitely  pushing me away from the spectrum of physical desirability. In social terms I am probably deemed as being "less than" most.

Success is an Inside Job

Hmm!  How do I view all this lack of success in my life? My ego doesn't like it.  It is red-faced and almost apologetic to others for not keeping up.  It cowers and cringes  in the corner, not wanting to be seen. It believes I am not successful because  it still measures success by externals.

I, however, (I meaning this being that I am discovering beneath the ego) is okay with it, for it  has never measured success by what I was able to grab or cling to from the external world. To it, success was always an internal thing.

I find true success through inner fulfillment.Deepak Chopra/Oprah Winfrey...Day 13 of meditation series

So when I don't listen to "little me" or the egos of others, I know I am successful or at least I know what type of success I really want and need in my life...a success that does not wax wane as the worldly things do. I am getting more and more successful the more I wake up to what is really important.  What is really important is purely internal. It is what Grace, not ego provides and Grace is always providing.

What is the  difference between what Grace provides in terms of success and what ego provides?

Deepak Chopra tells us that we can tell the difference between ego's success and Grace's by how we feel.  If we find ourselves wanting more , grabbing and clinging in triumph to something we have achieved or received than that is ego success.  It will not last...we will eventually want more and more and more.  this type of success  won't fulfill us.

If on the other hand we feel satisfied, grateful and warm inside...it is likely Grace that has  provided our success. We will feel fulfilled.

Does that mean we shouldn't accept the external world gifts that come to us?

No.  By all means accept them, embrace them, rejoice in them.  Just don't anticipate that they will fill you up...they won't. These are just forms that we play with. ...delightful, pleasing and fun but not permanent.


They are also signs that something is going well on the inside.

All that happens on the surface is an unfolding of that which is always there beneath the surface, waiting to be expressed. (Deepak Chopra)

 When we respond to Life with Gratitude, Life responds to us with gratitude.  We reap the bounty, so to speak. That type of success comes when we feel successful on the inside and we can get there through gratitude. Be grateful first for what you have...truly grateful before seeking more. Seek the inner experience of love, happiness and fulfillment and  then you will fin Grace happily greeting you. When you experience Grace at her best (with the joy of simply being!) you will believe you are worthy of the Grace within you.  When you believe that, your life will open up to you.

I am obviously, still working on the believing part lol...but it is coming.  I am patient. I want my success to come from the inside first.

All is well

References

Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey (2018) Day 13 Manifesting Grace through Gratitude.

More on the Tao te Ching

Their work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the
people all said, 'We are as we are, of ourselves!'

-Lao Tzu

 

 

My understanding of  James Legge's translation of Chapter/Verse 17-24 of the Tao Te Ching

 

 

17

 

Faith in rulers will wax and wane but the best rulers are the quiet ones who leave the people believing they accomplished what needed to be accomplished themselves.

---

18

 

Without observance of the Tao people became self-righteous and sought their own terms of goodness to follow leading to hypocrisy. Society, in terms of family and politics, may put on unnatural airs and use knowledge rather than the natural intelligence if they do not let the Tao to guide them.

---

19

 

If leaders? put aside their specialness, their wisdom (external knowledge), their appearance of goodness and self-righteousness, their tricking and scheming for gain…it would make the people better, more compassionate and kind, and more honest.

---

20

 

Knowledge and wisdom is not necessarily  a good thing. Lao Tzu compares himself to the majority of “learned” men who seem to be loyal, willing, seeking to answer all questions, pleased with themselves for what they have attained or own, their ability to judge and discriminate, their plans for doing etc.  He states that in comparison he seems dull, confused, stupid, poor but what sets him apart is his value of the Tao. It makes him real.

---

21

All action comes from the Tao which cannot be seen or touched.  It is dark and obscure, eluding light, yet it is the profound eternal truth behind all creation (existing things).

---

22

 

Less (partial) is more. Those who have few desires will attain them…those with many will get lost.  Man sets himself a part when he ceases to strive. The true sage who honors the Tao shines because he is free from a need to be seen; distinguished because he is free from a need to assert self; acknowledged because he is free from the need to boast; superior because he is free from the need to be more than.

---

23

 

It is important to have faith. If even the harshest things in nature (strong winds and heavy rains) cannot last all day how can man expect to have his own energy last forever without faith?  Silence without speech shows that he is obeying the ebb and flow of his own nature like the Tao. If one agrees with the man who is seeking the Tao they too will seek it.  If one agrees with the man who is happily manifesting the Tao, they too will manifest it happily.  But if one agrees with the man who fails to seek or manifest the Tao he too will lack faith.

---

24

Those who truly follow the Tao stand firmly without self display, assertion of  own views, boasting or self-conceit.

 

 

All is well in my world

The Grace-Myself-might not obtain

Confer upon My flower-

Refracted but a countenance-

For I- inhabit Her-

-Emily Dickinson

 

Is Illness Real?

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.  These are parts of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. The seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
-Deepak Chopra ( Brainy Quote)

Over the last few weeks I have not been feeling physically well and I once again began to question this idea, that sickness is just an illusion.  It doesn't feel like much of an illusion yet the idea that it may be, wracks me with guilt.  Why am I experiencing illness that is limiting my life  if it isn't real?  What is wrong with me? Am I delusional or looking for secondary gains? Isn't what others see and say more important than what I feel?

The emotional component and the story associated with my experience of illness s is  often much worse than the actual physical symptoms. I do what others tend to do in such situations.  I seek validation...an answer that makes my story real.

Looking for the Validation of Story

In an attempt to understand what the body is doing we often seek a label, a name and some form of validation, do we not? 

I have spent many unsuccessful and shame inducing years attempting to get one solid diagnosis from medicine for what was going on in my heart (and the hearts and vessels of family members).  I or "it" was questionable in the eyes of others. So I collected past evidence to verify the plot.  That didn't seem to matter in changing the opinion of others, no matter how I relayed it. Past, then,  was insignificant in the 'naming' of this story.

I couldn't project the validity of my story into my future either  without a label. (With no diagnosis, there is no prognosis) .  I therefore couldn't build any story around it that I could identify with. My future story would remain a script unwritten.

I am actually grateful it turned out the way it did.  Because I did not succeed, I had to seek alternative means of coping with my perceived experience. This led me away from my psychological dependence on labelling, other validation, and story building that often comes with the experience of not feeling 100%. 

It actually led me back to the now and to  experiencing the body, mind and soul in each moment. I have come to see it all as a story that isn't significant or even all that real

So illness isn't real?

No 'illness' isn't real.  "Diabetes, Cancer and Heart Disease" are not real. "Arthritis, Colitis and sciatica" are not real.  "Illness" isn't real.

Say what??? I can see what is happening in my body...it is real.

Your symptoms  are real.  You feel what you feel. 

The signs may be real. Maybe you or others see, hear, smell, taste, or feel what is going on in your body that validate it is no longer in balance. That part is real.

The reality of the illness is only what you experience in the moment (Tolle)

Right now your glucometer may be  showing you that your  blood sugar is sky high or you are experiencing the wooziness of a low blood sugar because you forgot to eat after you took your insulin. That is real.

Right now you may be feeling a mass  somewhere on your flesh as you and your physician view some big dark spot on a Radiology report.  That is real. 

Right now you may be experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath as the ECG attached to you shows changes.  That too  is real.

Yes signs and symptoms can be real.  Your body is subject to the wears and tears of Life just as your mind is.  It will occasionally breakdown, mutate and disintegrate like all things of the physical world have the tendency to do.  Those changes in the body can be observed by the body (yours and/or someone else's).  What your body is experiencing right here in this moment is indeed  real.....

However, the 'diagnosis' and the determination of ' illness' isn't real.

Why "Illness" isn't real.

Illness isn't real because it is just a mental concept that exists in past and future. It is just a word that does not have the capability (as no one word does)  to adequately explain 'experience'. Illness is just a label. It is not the experience that is being labelled.

When we present with our so called body imbalances, signs and symptoms get grouped together by well meaning professionals. By using some diagnostic manual, a name is often given to them. That name then determines the course of treatment and the prognosis. Individual experience is not a part of that.

The name is what we tend to get hung up on.  The name is what we build our stories around using past memory and experience...and future  expectations. We go from experiencing the individual body...to playing out a script in our heads created by a collective thought.

These diagnosis' are just mental concepts...words and images attached to a series of signs and symptoms experienced by a body.  They are  pointing fingers pointing to a physical body which simply houses who we really are. We don't seem to look past the finger.


What we do with these mental concepts that really make us sick.

With the mental constructs we create an image that explains  our symptomology and that provides some relief to ego's need to know. Unfortunately, it also takes us from experiencing our moment.

We get hung up on past and future. We use the use past experiences of others to create a mental story in our mind of what that word "means". We identify with past (why I got this and what happened to others who had this), future (what will happen to me) and the so called 'disease' becomes our Life story.  It becomes a story in our minds that we too often live out, a story passed on by the collective and documented experiences of others who also  seen it as a story about them.

Cancer, for example, is only a word...yet it has the potential to cause great fear and grief in us.  It already has a pervasive story built around it. It is that  story built around the the word we fear. not the individual experience of cancer moment to moment.

We never want to see someone plopping that word above our group of symptoms or the symptoms of someone we love, do we?  If that word is used in anyway to describe us we automatically build more  story around it, don't we?  We go directly to our heads and  back to our memory banks to recall others who had that label placed on them.  We believe the story; we become the story!!!

We are told by well meaning professionals who use past survival statistics to determine our prognosis what our chances are. We believe them.  We believe the story our mind is telling us.  We get lost in past and future. And we truly believe we are going to suffer  and spend all our life energy unsuccessfully  'fighting death' because of one word. The real tragedy isn't the experience of so-called  cancer here but our reaction to a word, a label, a name.

Victims of words

We make  past stories associated with a mere word, our story. We identify with those stories and live in past and future.  Instead of seeing and experiencing the symptoms as they occur in each moment, we identify with the label.  We become it. "I am a diabetic.  I am a cancer survivor or a chemo patient.  I am a cardiac patient."  We become the illness and therefor the victim of a 'word'.

What we fail to accept is that diagnosis'  are just words and maps made by the collective professional mind. They cannot be who we are.  We just 'believe' they are.

How do we get beyond the limiting belief in Illness.

We can start by realizing who we are. I mean...who we really are.  Catch yourself referring to an illness label  using "I am".  Remind yourself you are not an illness.  You are not the body.  These things are just scenery. You are so much more.  You are the seer. You are the awareness that watches the blood sugar or the ST waves fluctuate on the machines.   You are not the label, the disease, the bodily changes. Who you are is beyond a mere concept of disease...it is 'nameless, eternal and unchanging.' (The Tao)

Drop the label.  We do not have to identify with the disease we are labelled with do we?  By all means treat it in the ways you see fit but don't become it. If you feel you need to address it, instead of saying, "I am diabetic", simply focus on the symptoms.  " I have high blood sugar according to this machine so I take insulin."

Don't personalize it. Watch those pronouns: "My" and "Mine".  This group of symptoms does not belong to you.  It isn't something the universe is doing to you.  It is just a breeze that is blowing through you just as a different type of breeze may blow through someone else.

Don't build story around your experience. Be aware of that tendency of the mind to remove us from our 'experience' and take us into story. It wants you to see yourself as a victim or a hero to your disease. It wants the drama and the ownership of it.  Try to recognize when it is becoming a story...when you are building a past and future around it, constantly talking about your condition to yourself or others, seeking specialness,  or staying stuck in your mind.  Gently bring yourself back to the present experience.

Experience the now.  The only reality to illness is what you experience in this moment, right here , right now. Be willing to accept and allow this moment no matter what it offers in terms of physical experiences. Put down the past and future concepts and live in the now. Instead of focusing on your past and the past of others who had similar signs or symptoms, bring awareness back to the present moment.  What are you experiencing now? Are you having pain now?  Experience it. (of course...treat it if it is interfering with your Life experience) but experience it. Even if you agree to  having  a label like arthritis stuck to you for treatment purposes ...it doesn't mean you have to experience pain all the time.  That is just a belief.  Symptoms may come and go.  What happened in the past may not be happening now and just because it is happening now, doesn't mean it will continue into the future.  As a nurse, I have seen the consequence of 'anticipated pain' in patients...the fear of it prevented them from enjoying their pain free moments. So stay in the present. There is no other Life but right here, right now.

Determine what your body might be trying to tell you. There is no doubt in my mind that the physical body reacts to what is going on in the mind.  Therefore I believe all so called disease is in some form or another...psychosomatic.  I know what I am experiencing is psychosomatic.  I am finally okay with that.  We need to be okay with that so we can get back to what the bodily symptoms are really trying to tell us.  There is an important message in that physical experience.  It is trying to tell you there is something in your 'thinking', your 'believing' and your 'perceiving' that needs to be looked at. We may need some  mental health professional or alternative practitioner like an energy healer to help us with that one.

Be Grateful.  That's a hard one, eh?  How can we be grateful for feeling so rotten or for witnessing how our lives are effected by these symptoms?  Remind yourself that Life knows what it is doing.  Everything that seems to 'happen' to us is for a reason we may not be able to understand at this point...but we will eventually.  It will all make sense someday. 

In the meantime be grateful for how you are being led to something greater...that something that lay beyond the body and mind.  So called 'Illness" can actually  be a portal to awakening.

How cool is that?

All is well!

References

Legge, James. (1891)  Translation of the Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

Tolle, Eckhart. (March, 2019) Eckhart Talks Real Versus Perceived Limitations. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Qtgduxqxg