Its Guy Fawkes Day
Today is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK. For those who don't know, it celebrates an occasion in 1605 when a Catholic Christian called Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the old English Parliament as he was preparing to blow up the Parliament just as the Protestant king of England was to open a new session. All the peers of the realm and leading gentry would have been there. Thus a blow would have been struck against the wicked heretics in the name of the one, true faith.
Since then, if not before, Catholics were persecuted in England, as they became the 17th Century equivalent of the Red revolution, about to undermine the integrity of the state and church at every turn. Protestants would burn bonfires in memory of the "Anti-Christ". Previously they burned images of the Pope, the head of the Catholic church, in the name of independent Englist protestantism, but on Guy Fawkes Day they now burned images of him, a new bete noir.
Today, we don't think of it as an anti-catholic demonstration, and light fireworks, burn bonfires and hold sparkers in the chill November evening, standing on the newly fallen leaves. Such divisions are long forgotten.
However, the aware person might like to reflect that we some of us have other perceived demons in our midst, as the arrival of the British National Party on our domestic scene might impactfully remind us. Ethnic, social, and religious divisons are not so far beneath the surface, and recession can make them stronger. So, you might like to spare a thought for how our fellow humans may perceive more splits and ways to experience separation from Oneness.
None of that is who we are.
Here's an article, and some news about some forthcoming workshops. I hope you find it useful in some way.
No quick fix
I was giving a talk about this time last year about creativity and about how we limit ourselves through what we think and feel, when I was asked, “Are there any quick fixes?” I said “No”, and the questioner looked disappointed. He wanted a result now.
My reply was partly true, and partly not. It depends. For example, it is possible to change your mind about something in an instant and get a different result. It will depend on your level of awareness and belief among other things, and your ability to tune into your creative side.
I suspect for most of us, it is a lot slower, since we need to develop our awareness and change how we see ourselves and our world, and that requires doing some work on our selves. At the moment, many don’t want to do that. Many want it now, a quick fix, a pill you take, the latest book, something new, a new trend, an on-line course. Staying in front of the laptop is somehow safer. And people don’t want to face difficult truths, although they may be aware of them.
The trouble is that what you resist, you get. If you are trying to avoid something you fear, for example, you give it an energy, you in a sense draw it to you, you get it. For example, did you have the experience as a child that you wanted to avoid some bully? You’d do everything to disguise things but inside you’d be shaking. And what would happen is that they’d see you, and with the instinct that bullies have, they’d go for you?
Fear attracts.
I was told recently that bookings for a particular line of workshops were right down, due to “mass psychological uncertainty”. Wow! I thought, that sounds big! And how would he know that anyway? Then as I thought about it, the sense that there is a lot of this uncertainty going on felt true somehow. It’s felt as if things are on hold as people are wondering what’s going to happen.
Fear again.
When we freeze - out of fear - things stop. We shut down.
And give away our power.
I’ve been working with a group seeking to influence government policy. What has come over really strikingly is how obsessed government is with managing risk, like companies at the moment, and “protecting the public”. As if we can’t protect ourselves. As a result the government over the last decade has taken on all sorts of powers, it seems. The usual outcome is that government intervention doesn’t solve the problem but displaces it. We’re not taking responsibility. Fear again.
You may know, the word “fear” is also a useful acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. It’s an illusion. We need to see through it to our truth.
I was talking recently with a friend who’s been reading a book on the Mayan calendar predictions for 2012, when there is supposed to be a mass shift in consciousness. He said the preparation for this was already going on and that people needed to start raising their own levels of awareness. Good time to be doing some personal development training, I thought.
Also, in recessions people get creative. They work on their business and/or themselves and come up with new ideas to take to market. They engage in learning. Lots of people are aware the old paradigm is past its sell-by date. It’s amazing how a big implosion like the banking crisis gets people to question the illusion, the whole pack of cards that the pre-recession economy was based on. And they question the exclusive, small-clique, increasingly authoritarian politics, now that MP’s too are found to be over-doing it with their expenses. Suddenly the world seems different. I was told the other day too, that a whole political grass-roots awakening is under foot, encouraged by the increasing realisation that our climate could change radically for the worse. And when lots of people lose their jobs, they start re-evaluating their lives, exploring new directions. And this is a much more sophisticated workforce, more educated and more questioning. People are seeking. And they are asking about meaning, what’s the meaning of it all, and what do I really want out of my life?
You maybe can get a sense of how things could suddenly start shifting.
So, where are you be in all this? Still stuck in uncertainty? Or will you be joining the increasing numbers who are seeing through the illusion, albeit dimly? Remember what Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. And look at the example he gave.
This time it starts with us. As Christ said, before you try to remove the speck of sawdust from your brother’s eye (he was a carpenter), first remove the plank in your own. We need to raise our own awareness, heal our own divisions, let go of our own fears, discover the beauty of who we are, believe in ourselves, know the joy of our own Self, if we are to authentically lead others to peace, reconciliation and harmony with one another and with nature.
“Peace in your Heart” workshops
So it is with these thoughts that I will now tell you about the workshops I’ll be running this spring. They are called “Peace in your Heart, Peace in your Life”. There will be two one-day workshops, one at the Isbourne Centre in Cheltenham on 13 March, called “Peace in your Heart” and the other in Chippenham called “Peace in your Life” on 28th March. Then there will be a special, extended and more in-depth version of these two running on the Greek island of Skyros from 6 to 19 June as two 5-day workshops. Details are on the website and will be updated nearer the time.
Doing one won’t preclude doing the others, as they all work at different levels of awareness, depending on where you are at.
Fundamentally they will teach the process of taking yourself within and becoming aware, empowering you to notice and let go of the illusory Ego self, and to connect more and more powerfully with who you really are, your true Self that dwells within.
"Peace in your Heart" teaches the essentials of the inner journey, developing awareness and helping you build your connection with your Self. It will also help you become aware of how your ego self disrupts your path and how to manage it so as to become more centred on your spiritual path in life, whatever that might be.
“Peace in your Life” will teach how you can learn to embody That in your day-to-day life, being connected to who you, using spiritual practice, managing the mind, dealing with the ego and still living in the so-called “real world”, engaging with others, meeting the challenges and doing what you need to in life.
The philosophy behind this programme has been alluded to or discussed through the pages of this newsletter and blog and is an integration of eastern yogic philosophy and western transpersonal psychology, to bring you a whole new meaning to life and a whole new experience of the peace and contentment that lies within.
Meditation
Meditation workshops continue to run in Chippenham in November. You can still come for a one-evening refresher or join others already on the course to deepen your practice. See here
There will be a fresh 6-week series of yogic meditation in Bath in the New Year, starting on 15 January
So, have a great evening if you are celebrating Guy Fawkes Day, and if not, may you have a wonderful day anyway.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Monday, 21 September 2009
Being attached to desire
How much of a part does wanting something or somebody play in your life? How much do you find that what you have isn’t “enough”, that something is missing?
I was watching a TV programme about scientists studying a rich tapestry of previously undiscovered species in New Guinea. This was for them a race for time since loggers who are taking down the virgin rainforest were only 20 miles away. They were talking with the owners of this particular patch, villagers who were thinking of selling the wood for £8 a tree (think of those magnificent, gorgeous, beautiful, massive life-giving trees), and with it this whole rich heritage of wildlife. The same much sought-after wood would then fetch £1000 in the UK. With it would go more of the planet’s life-sustaining eco-system. The scientists hoped to find enough evidence of rare wildlife to stop the logging.
My mind went to what desire meant to these villagers. For example they could not at present afford the treatment to save their children from malaria and a lot were dying. The money would help sustain them, although I wondered about their long-term survival without the rainforest. Yet the loss of the rainforest will mean it is going to be harder for all of us. I then wondered about the clash of values behind the current climate change debate. The developing countries want us in the developed world to cut back. Yet others here for example want the logging to stop. Who is “right”?
Our whole material progress has in part been based on fulfilling desire, so it’s hard to stop. And when framed as bare survival, desire seems entirely reasonable. I guess we could all make a great case for what we want. The habit of desire is in origin about survival.
The eastern spiritual traditions say that desire is one of the greatest pitfalls on the spiritual journey, wanting, and its concomitants, such “there not being enough”, needing and unmet need, the gap between aspiration and fulfilment. It’s a habit.
I remember running a workshop for people whose jobs were affected by a major change, the closure of part of their factory, and they were angry. It was a well-known closure too. We got on to money and at one point, I must have asked something about wanting and fulfilment, and they all said in loud unison, “we want more!”.
The thing about wanting is that it doesn’t stop. You might like to check how often this occurs for you. You might want something very badly. You might then get what you want. There may be a brief period of satisfaction and then that will fade, to be replaced by another desire. It is cyclical. On and on.
A lot of it is materially-focused, wanting various things like a new car, a better house, a holiday in that special place, certain clothes, and so on. But it can also be about personal things closer to home.
Along with wanting is the awareness of lack, of there “not being enough”. It is that nagging feeling that something is missing. There is a gap in your life. It might be a special person, that longed-for relationship, your knight or prince or your angel or princess. Or you might take it further, and make you or others “not good enough”. There’s something missing in your essence, or so it seems. Either you don’t come up to scratch, or others don’t. They just don’t show up for you. True?
If so, join the human race. We’re most of us doing it.
It’s like there’s a fundamental deficit need.
Love.
The need for love, loving and being loved. In fact that might just be it, bottom line.
And that is where the spiritual perspective becomes important: from that perspective, love is fundamentally what it is all about. And, for those traditions, it isn’t missing. It’s there all along.
We’re just too caught up in desire to see it, to feel it, to know it.
The paradox is that to know the underlying love of the universe we have to become aware and let go, let go of desire. Let go of what seems to be driving us.
When something isn’t working out, let go of it.
That is where meditation comes in so powerfully. Because in meditation you can learn to become aware and to let go of what is driving you, what you are caught up in, and be in the moment fully. You can learn to simply notice your ego and not be caught up in it.
You can even learn to enter into your awareness and be present with the love that is in you and all around you. You can discover that your own Self is love.
My guru’s guru taught, “Honour yourself. Worship yourself. Meditate on yourself. God dwells within you, as you”.
What more can you ask?!
I was watching a TV programme about scientists studying a rich tapestry of previously undiscovered species in New Guinea. This was for them a race for time since loggers who are taking down the virgin rainforest were only 20 miles away. They were talking with the owners of this particular patch, villagers who were thinking of selling the wood for £8 a tree (think of those magnificent, gorgeous, beautiful, massive life-giving trees), and with it this whole rich heritage of wildlife. The same much sought-after wood would then fetch £1000 in the UK. With it would go more of the planet’s life-sustaining eco-system. The scientists hoped to find enough evidence of rare wildlife to stop the logging.
My mind went to what desire meant to these villagers. For example they could not at present afford the treatment to save their children from malaria and a lot were dying. The money would help sustain them, although I wondered about their long-term survival without the rainforest. Yet the loss of the rainforest will mean it is going to be harder for all of us. I then wondered about the clash of values behind the current climate change debate. The developing countries want us in the developed world to cut back. Yet others here for example want the logging to stop. Who is “right”?
Our whole material progress has in part been based on fulfilling desire, so it’s hard to stop. And when framed as bare survival, desire seems entirely reasonable. I guess we could all make a great case for what we want. The habit of desire is in origin about survival.
The eastern spiritual traditions say that desire is one of the greatest pitfalls on the spiritual journey, wanting, and its concomitants, such “there not being enough”, needing and unmet need, the gap between aspiration and fulfilment. It’s a habit.
I remember running a workshop for people whose jobs were affected by a major change, the closure of part of their factory, and they were angry. It was a well-known closure too. We got on to money and at one point, I must have asked something about wanting and fulfilment, and they all said in loud unison, “we want more!”.
The thing about wanting is that it doesn’t stop. You might like to check how often this occurs for you. You might want something very badly. You might then get what you want. There may be a brief period of satisfaction and then that will fade, to be replaced by another desire. It is cyclical. On and on.
A lot of it is materially-focused, wanting various things like a new car, a better house, a holiday in that special place, certain clothes, and so on. But it can also be about personal things closer to home.
Along with wanting is the awareness of lack, of there “not being enough”. It is that nagging feeling that something is missing. There is a gap in your life. It might be a special person, that longed-for relationship, your knight or prince or your angel or princess. Or you might take it further, and make you or others “not good enough”. There’s something missing in your essence, or so it seems. Either you don’t come up to scratch, or others don’t. They just don’t show up for you. True?
If so, join the human race. We’re most of us doing it.
It’s like there’s a fundamental deficit need.
Love.
The need for love, loving and being loved. In fact that might just be it, bottom line.
And that is where the spiritual perspective becomes important: from that perspective, love is fundamentally what it is all about. And, for those traditions, it isn’t missing. It’s there all along.
We’re just too caught up in desire to see it, to feel it, to know it.
The paradox is that to know the underlying love of the universe we have to become aware and let go, let go of desire. Let go of what seems to be driving us.
When something isn’t working out, let go of it.
That is where meditation comes in so powerfully. Because in meditation you can learn to become aware and to let go of what is driving you, what you are caught up in, and be in the moment fully. You can learn to simply notice your ego and not be caught up in it.
You can even learn to enter into your awareness and be present with the love that is in you and all around you. You can discover that your own Self is love.
My guru’s guru taught, “Honour yourself. Worship yourself. Meditate on yourself. God dwells within you, as you”.
What more can you ask?!
Meditation workshops
If you want to know more about the kind of meditation I am describing, if you can get to North Wiltshire you can learn this form of meditation in my evening workshops. We will also look at the underlying philosophy which is contained in some many of these newsletters.
The first meditation workshop in Chippenham is kicking off on 27 September with a full house. The second will start on 1 November, for which we are now taking bookings. There will also be a meditation series running in Swindon for 4 weeks starting on 4 November.
It is clearly proving popular and a good group meditation is a great way to learn. So, if you can, come along!
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Me first
I’ve just come back from four weeks in France, the first time in ages I’ve taken so much time out and really good it was. Apart from sun, that fabulous place, and relaxation, and then the return to the UK weather and a massive postbag, I was very aware of the contrast in how people are with one another. In South-West France I encountered lots of friendliness, courtesy and politeness. Travelling round South-West Britain soon after, by contrast, I found myself having interesting reactions.
For example, I was driving past some road works. Quite close on the other side of the road was a road-works sign. You know, the “men digging” sign? It was a minor obstacle. Coming along towards me was a van. With a quick glance at me the driver suddenly swerved out and round the obstacle so that I had to put on the brakes. “Me first”, I thought.
I carried on to my destination thinking about that experience, which I also encounter a lot in towns and cities. I noticed how my values felt challenged: “he should give way”, “what about courtesy to other road users?”, “it was his obstacle”, etc. Setting aside the victim reaction, I thought about the feature so often recently observed in our culture in the UK, where people put themselves first rather than that of their fellow humans. Not surprisingly this has been put into sharp relief by the recession and the material obsession that has perhaps contributed to it, and perhaps by how we then share out what resources we have to help those now disadvantaged by the downturn.
The “me first” culture was the subject of a report on children in February this year, which blamed the rising problems amongst young people on “excessive individualism” in adults.
Then I thought more about my own reactions. It’s an easy reaction, making someone else wrong for what occurs, pointing out other’s perceived failings, making judgements about others, comparing them unfavourably with one’s own values. It goes on all the time.
Then I took it a stage further. What might I have been thinking about the other person as a person? Again, we might extend our judgements about someone’s behaviour to them as humans, as people, and make them wrong as people. Doesn’t that go on big time?
It’s worth checking this process out when encountering and making contact with others, even if it is a passing one, or just looking at another people. After all, there are those who go about their lives with not a word to their fellow humans.
Notice, for example, what thoughts, if not fantasies, you might hold about particular people, especially if you don’t know them. We can make people into all sorts of ogres. I write about this elsewhere, the way that we project ourselves, both positively and negatively, on to other people. It is always worth checking how much a view you have about another is based on projection.
Then, I reminded myself: “see God in each other”, as my guru says. In another dwells the same Self. Beneath our uniqueness lies our Oneness. Or, as a great teacher once taught me, “that person who just stood on your foot, he could be the next Messiah”.
As we honour, value and respect ourselves as temples of the Holy Spirit, so too can we extend that to one another. Respecting our fellow humans is not an old social value, it is a spiritual practice, it is a way of connecting with Who We Are, it is a way to experience the love that dwells within. Making real contact with another person, putting aside stuff of the ego, brings us in touch with a deep spiritual love. After all, relationship is another way to know God, however you define or understand that. So, from a value it also becomes a way of connecting with the Self.
So, today, as a practice, go out and try smiling to those you meet. Yes! A big smile! No worries if they stare blankly back. After all, you’re OK. They might feel touched at some level (“My God, that person just smiled at me!”). Who knows where they will go with that. For you, in this practice it is unconditional, without expectations, an act of service even. And a lot of others will smile back, or there will be a twinkle in the eye. Smiling is a healthy activity. It stimulates the release of positive endorphins in the body. It warms your heart. It opens your heart. It brings you into contact with people. It brings you into contact with the love within you. Give That to others today.
After all, like you they are worth it.
Have a great day!
For example, I was driving past some road works. Quite close on the other side of the road was a road-works sign. You know, the “men digging” sign? It was a minor obstacle. Coming along towards me was a van. With a quick glance at me the driver suddenly swerved out and round the obstacle so that I had to put on the brakes. “Me first”, I thought.
I carried on to my destination thinking about that experience, which I also encounter a lot in towns and cities. I noticed how my values felt challenged: “he should give way”, “what about courtesy to other road users?”, “it was his obstacle”, etc. Setting aside the victim reaction, I thought about the feature so often recently observed in our culture in the UK, where people put themselves first rather than that of their fellow humans. Not surprisingly this has been put into sharp relief by the recession and the material obsession that has perhaps contributed to it, and perhaps by how we then share out what resources we have to help those now disadvantaged by the downturn.
The “me first” culture was the subject of a report on children in February this year, which blamed the rising problems amongst young people on “excessive individualism” in adults.
Then I thought more about my own reactions. It’s an easy reaction, making someone else wrong for what occurs, pointing out other’s perceived failings, making judgements about others, comparing them unfavourably with one’s own values. It goes on all the time.
Then I took it a stage further. What might I have been thinking about the other person as a person? Again, we might extend our judgements about someone’s behaviour to them as humans, as people, and make them wrong as people. Doesn’t that go on big time?
It’s worth checking this process out when encountering and making contact with others, even if it is a passing one, or just looking at another people. After all, there are those who go about their lives with not a word to their fellow humans.
Notice, for example, what thoughts, if not fantasies, you might hold about particular people, especially if you don’t know them. We can make people into all sorts of ogres. I write about this elsewhere, the way that we project ourselves, both positively and negatively, on to other people. It is always worth checking how much a view you have about another is based on projection.
Then, I reminded myself: “see God in each other”, as my guru says. In another dwells the same Self. Beneath our uniqueness lies our Oneness. Or, as a great teacher once taught me, “that person who just stood on your foot, he could be the next Messiah”.
As we honour, value and respect ourselves as temples of the Holy Spirit, so too can we extend that to one another. Respecting our fellow humans is not an old social value, it is a spiritual practice, it is a way of connecting with Who We Are, it is a way to experience the love that dwells within. Making real contact with another person, putting aside stuff of the ego, brings us in touch with a deep spiritual love. After all, relationship is another way to know God, however you define or understand that. So, from a value it also becomes a way of connecting with the Self.
So, today, as a practice, go out and try smiling to those you meet. Yes! A big smile! No worries if they stare blankly back. After all, you’re OK. They might feel touched at some level (“My God, that person just smiled at me!”). Who knows where they will go with that. For you, in this practice it is unconditional, without expectations, an act of service even. And a lot of others will smile back, or there will be a twinkle in the eye. Smiling is a healthy activity. It stimulates the release of positive endorphins in the body. It warms your heart. It opens your heart. It brings you into contact with people. It brings you into contact with the love within you. Give That to others today.
After all, like you they are worth it.
Have a great day!
Monday, 6 July 2009
There is another way
People I know who are self-developers have a sort of a saying when everything is getting a bit much for them: “I’m up to here with this. I’m off to meditate”.
You might think, well you could just as well go for a walk. Or have sex. Or have a drink, light a cigarette, order a take-away or engage in some other addictive habit. I’ll leave you to decide which are the healthy options.
Shifting your state is key here, becoming aware of what is going on, detaching yourself, witnessing what is going on both in your environment and in yourself, interrupting the mental flow, pausing in the ceaseless chatter of the ego.
Meditation is a great way of doing that. It is a wonderful self-development tool. Think about it, in order to still the thinking! We use the mind to still our thinking selves. Taking some deeper breaths, using the breath to take your awareness within, settling into a comfortable, erect, alert posture, taking your awareness with the breath to your heart centre or other place within where you can centre yourself. Sit there steadily breathing, noticing your awareness, being intensely aware of everything that is going on but not part of it. Detached, a witness.
If there’s a lot going on for you, you might let it all go. That’s great. But then you might not. Your thoughts about what is going on may come back with a vengeance and you may find yourself in your mind’s eye going over the whole drama all over again, being right in it of course, and naturally being totally in the right!
Then suddenly you might break out of the reverie and notice you’ve been thinking like mad about that problem – again! And you might notice that there you go again. Isn’t it a bit familiar?
And breathe - and take your awareness away from those thoughts to your breath, or other focus that you might use like a mantra. And you might still yourself a bit more.
Then, well you might be back in that drama if you don’t notice it. Until you do, that is. And then back to the focus you go.
You might gradually reach a stiller place. And become completely still. And peace might descend all over you. And for a moment or much longer, that thinking self has gone.
So, who are you?
And then you might finally come back into the so-called real world. And suddenly how you approach the problem has changed. Like you decide it doesn’t matter any way, or there’s a solution you hadn’t thought of, or you’ve completely misunderstood the situation – or whatever.
You move on.
You’ve just had a few minutes of being very different, and all that that entails. And you’ve just had a special piece of time to observe your ego in action, all your thoughts, feelings and behaviours right there for forensic examination. All the dirty washing hanging out there. And you’ve “got off it”, let go of whatever it is. Re-minded yourself.
Awareness of ego.
When you’ve got a lot going on, meditation provides a fabulous practice to re-mind your self who you are. That you are more than the petty wrangling of the ego mind, much more, ever so much more.
You know, I think this is what we all need to get right now in our so-called “western civilisation” that seems to be gumming itself up. As Eckhart Tolle says in his excellent book, “The New Earth”, we need to awaken.
I’ll be running a whole series of programmes that teach this process. It sounds ever so simple, becoming aware, going within, stilling the mind, connecting with your Self. But it contains a whole practice and discipline that takes learning. It also takes us to profound depths of contentment and capability for living in peace with ourselves, with others around us and with our planet.
For example, try meditating and then take a good look at a tree. Notice the tree, take in the tree, feel the tree, sense its aura, feel the vibration of the tree, notice your own feelings, feel your awareness, feel your connection with the tree (this is a great time of year for this), hear its words, sense its aliveness, and feel at one with the tree. Majestic standing people.
So, watch this space.
You might think, well you could just as well go for a walk. Or have sex. Or have a drink, light a cigarette, order a take-away or engage in some other addictive habit. I’ll leave you to decide which are the healthy options.
Shifting your state is key here, becoming aware of what is going on, detaching yourself, witnessing what is going on both in your environment and in yourself, interrupting the mental flow, pausing in the ceaseless chatter of the ego.
Meditation is a great way of doing that. It is a wonderful self-development tool. Think about it, in order to still the thinking! We use the mind to still our thinking selves. Taking some deeper breaths, using the breath to take your awareness within, settling into a comfortable, erect, alert posture, taking your awareness with the breath to your heart centre or other place within where you can centre yourself. Sit there steadily breathing, noticing your awareness, being intensely aware of everything that is going on but not part of it. Detached, a witness.
If there’s a lot going on for you, you might let it all go. That’s great. But then you might not. Your thoughts about what is going on may come back with a vengeance and you may find yourself in your mind’s eye going over the whole drama all over again, being right in it of course, and naturally being totally in the right!
Then suddenly you might break out of the reverie and notice you’ve been thinking like mad about that problem – again! And you might notice that there you go again. Isn’t it a bit familiar?
And breathe - and take your awareness away from those thoughts to your breath, or other focus that you might use like a mantra. And you might still yourself a bit more.
Then, well you might be back in that drama if you don’t notice it. Until you do, that is. And then back to the focus you go.
You might gradually reach a stiller place. And become completely still. And peace might descend all over you. And for a moment or much longer, that thinking self has gone.
So, who are you?
And then you might finally come back into the so-called real world. And suddenly how you approach the problem has changed. Like you decide it doesn’t matter any way, or there’s a solution you hadn’t thought of, or you’ve completely misunderstood the situation – or whatever.
You move on.
You’ve just had a few minutes of being very different, and all that that entails. And you’ve just had a special piece of time to observe your ego in action, all your thoughts, feelings and behaviours right there for forensic examination. All the dirty washing hanging out there. And you’ve “got off it”, let go of whatever it is. Re-minded yourself.
Awareness of ego.
When you’ve got a lot going on, meditation provides a fabulous practice to re-mind your self who you are. That you are more than the petty wrangling of the ego mind, much more, ever so much more.
You know, I think this is what we all need to get right now in our so-called “western civilisation” that seems to be gumming itself up. As Eckhart Tolle says in his excellent book, “The New Earth”, we need to awaken.
I’ll be running a whole series of programmes that teach this process. It sounds ever so simple, becoming aware, going within, stilling the mind, connecting with your Self. But it contains a whole practice and discipline that takes learning. It also takes us to profound depths of contentment and capability for living in peace with ourselves, with others around us and with our planet.
For example, try meditating and then take a good look at a tree. Notice the tree, take in the tree, feel the tree, sense its aura, feel the vibration of the tree, notice your own feelings, feel your awareness, feel your connection with the tree (this is a great time of year for this), hear its words, sense its aliveness, and feel at one with the tree. Majestic standing people.
So, watch this space.
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