The Bright Moon dances
Wednesday, January 15, 2014I have just read a very interesting post by the American spiritual teacher Ram Dass, about timing. I have enjoyed listening to Ram Dass's recordings of inspirational talks & teachings for several years (he really is quite funny, and great listening to whilst doing house work!). In this post he is touching on something that has come to my awareness recently. It's about guilt & mediation.
I should do it. Meditate. It would make me a better person. This is my belief. If I could just, just, just silent the voices in my head, I would be a great person. But I can't. Always. And so I am not. A great person. Bummer.
This is the sentence that Ram Dass wrote that set me out on a journey: "I almost distrusted that I have a true yearning for God".
To me meditation as I know it is this: Keeping my mind still, focusing on the nothing and letting go of all incoming thoughts, whilst sitting completely still.
To me, this means to be kept in a space, where I am bound to fail.
My imagination wanders off, I get great ideas for paintings and projects, I find solutions to relationship problems. After the mediation is over I feel relieved. Because it's over!
And then it starts: The nagging of how I wasn't able to concentrate, to do it right, to be truly enlightened. Actually, I just missed my chance to be truly enlightened, and so, I failed. Better luck next time. Meanwhile, I go out and heal my relationships, create wonderful paintings and start new soulful, truthful projects. But I still failed to keep still.
Here is where the guilt comes in: I should do it. I should be different. I tell myself. I don't free myself, I tell myself I should be different. What a bunch if horse s**t!
And I almost distrusted that I have a true yearning for God! (You can hear the mind going: Well if you REALLY were serious about this work, you WOULD be able to do it!).
I almost let myself get so caught up in a METHOD, that I allowed myself to seperate from God! When God indeed was my initial intention! To get closer to God!
And so my question is: How can I free myself WHILST being together with God? Surely there must be a practice that both God and I will enjoy!! - And that we can do together!
We are a human kind of 7 billion
So many different races and religions
And it all comes down to One
Last night I had a conversation with my boyfriend about languages. This is a frequent topic of conversation between us, with him being British, me Danish and us living in France (bless this life!).
He was saying that he felt very happy and grateful to be British, because of the obvious immediate advantage of speaking English as his native language, with so many people all over the world knowing and learning English as a second language. It makes things a lot easier for him. I agree.
But I also feel, that with this advantage comes responsibility. It is easy to play the upper hand, and "triumph" everybody else, when you have the advantage of effortless communication in your mother tongue.
Me as a Danish speaking person, always have to try that harder, or connect with one more layer of consciousness, to get my opinion across. A native speaker is spared this. And so, in many situations, he who holds "the upper hand" must be that more listening, that more silent, to hear what is being said. And this is a responsibility that lies on every English native speaker across the globe, as well as on everyone with an upper hand.
To really respect other languages (and people!) and support healthy communication, we must see ourselves as 'Us' and not 'Them and Me'. We must become a circle and naturally fill out each other's gaps, instead of using our advantage to over rule.
The real lesson here, I feel, is to keep coming back to that One-ness, and to know that we really all are, in the same boat. So that your strength and advantage becomes the groups strength and advantage. That we share wisdom between us. That wisdom is not held by one person alone, it is held by all. And that it is not about our differences in languages or wisdom, but is, and always will be, about the coming together.
Speaking about coming together as one - here's "One" - a song from the beautiful India Arie, about love across countries, across boarders, religions, races and human differences!
Enjoy and have a great day!
Enjoy and have a great day!
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