The Impersonal Personal

We are afraid of our greatness and yet our greatness is who we are.

We shrink back from the possibility of us as we truly are and choose instead to live lives of quiet servitude. In many cases our conditioning impairs us from realising our true selves.

Who are you to be great, to be magnificent, to shine in all your glory? Who are you not too?

You are created in Gods image and as such this greatness resides in you.

But let me before I continue clarify what I mean by this greatness. It is not the traditional idea of greatness, of heroic deeds or attainment. It is that resting in what we truly are. A singularity a vast expanse. In this expanse an idea of you appears.

Things happen, tasks are achieved and this idea of you appears to be very real and yet as real as it appears, it is known by who or what, we do not know that I am not this story. That I am prior to story, to subject, to object and apparent form. That my natural state has never known the temporal and yet witnesses it and experiences it as this vast expanse and as individuality. All manner of experience, ideas and form appear in this expanse and yet it is free of it.

Such is this greatness that all apparent opposites and paradoxes are calmed and resolved in it. It is effortless, existing as it does. One without another. It is the centre and basis of all that is and yet it itself cannot be encapsulated. It cannot be understood, adequately explained and any explanation attempted collapses at its very attempt at explaining. It cannot be known and yet offers invitations at every instant to know itself. It is that silence that has no one to witness it.

It is your infinite greatness. It is you.

If

If we can put down the limited idea of us,

those binds we have so expertly used to tie ourselves down. To be anything than what we truly are.

If we are fully present, if we are fully aware, if we are fully here. If we can silence the noise, the machinations of the mind, the constant chatter, the need to know, the need for explanation.

If we can favour simplicity over complication, acceptance over resistance. If we could just sit, just be here, however uncomfortable that may feel. If we can sit in our pain, our misery, our tragedy. If we can be honest, radically honest. If we can put down all that defines us, those stories, those ideas that we believe ourselves to be.

If we can put down the limited idea of us, those binds we have so expertly used to tie ourselves down. To be anything than what we truly are.

No longer a drop

But an ocean entire.

If we can accept that terrifying idea that we are not this story. That this pain is not real. That we can be happy. That the holy land exists in us. That the kingdom of heaven is within us. That the destination is in fact us. That we are the answer to the question. That every scripture, every prophet, every saint, every sage came to us, to remind us of who we are, and if this in turn can ignite the question:

Who am I?

And if at every instant

The question can answer itself

Then we can be home

We can be free

To realise

I am home

I have always been home

I am always here

A reality with no one to witness it

No longer two

Just one

No longer a drop

But an ocean entire.

Why Are We Afraid?

Why does that which is in our minds eye frighten us so

That shimmering possibility

That expanded sense of self

Why are we afraid?

Why does that which is in our minds eye frighten us so

That shimmering possibility

That expanded sense of self

That living openly

That Living freely

Why does it frighten us so?

Why do we expend so much energy keeping the nightmare alive?

To keep that suffering going

To keep that story alive

Is it because we do not believe?

Is it because we lack faith?

Have we forgotten our innate greatness?

That created in Gods image we are capable of so much more

That to live in quiet servitude is not our lot

That to release this fear is to release the world

From the bondage of separation

From what holds us back

Relax

Take a breath

Breathe

Really breathe

And…

Fall apart

Let the story go

Cry

Scream

Regret

Feel it

Really feel it

Collapse as the story leaves

As that mass of energy leaves

Collapse

Sleep

Sleep like you will never wake

Feel the tiredness of having held onto a lie

For so long

For so many years

Tired carrying this burden

Sleep

Lose the sense of self

Lose you

STOP…

Something stirs

Like the dawning of a new day

I rise

I open my eyes

I stretch

I yawn

I am not me

At least not as I was

A rebirth?

Something differs in me

I am not me

As the day dawns

A new possibility stirs in me

I want to say so much more

I want to do so much more

To make a difference

To be

Now I can

Now I can

The ghosts of the past are gone

I have so much to say

The open road beckons

Will you travel with me friend?

Will you hear my stories?

My musings

My thoughts

My heart laid bare

My truth finally revealed

A Call To Simplicity

Strip away the unnecessary and what are we left with?

In a world of increasing complexity; simplicity now seems the answer to navigating what is happening.

Our complex theories and pointers are increasingly showing themselves to be hollow and impractical. Unable to answer the questions of our time. In such an instance we find that simplicity is once again standing the test of time and showing itself to be the answer to the questions being thrown up by society.

The answer is quite simple. To strip away what is unnecessary.

What remains is simply this - a moment devoid of need or explanation. An immediacy where the idea of a subject or object, an apparent or real is seen through and yet nothing exists to witness this.

What is incredible, and a joy to know is that this simplicity is our inherent nature. An operating system made so advanced due to its simplicity that it offers us all we need to navigate these turbulent times. What is then needed to access and rest in this natural simplicity. The answer is quite simple. To strip away what is unnecessary: The fanciful explanations, the conditioning, the ideas that tell us that our salvation lies in the next moment, the ideas that we have formed about being here and now and being present. Anything that is rooted in the temporal.

What remains is simply this. A moment devoid of need or explanation. An immediacy where the idea of a subject or object, an apparent or real is seen through and yet nothing exists to witness this. A singular moment in which anything manifests and in which anything can happen, but it is always known it is just this.

A play such that Shakespeare wrote

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

And yet in that nothingness is everything and with that ,the play continues. The story continues to tell itself and yet in this moment of nothingness it is seen that it always is. Time, space and knowing collapses. Language and explanation fail. And yet what honour in this loss. What joy in the letting go of the idea of effort, of doing, of being and realising that the dance is dancing itself…

Transitions And Trusting The Process Of Change

Much has been written about transitions and the change that occurs when we are transitioning from one stage of life to another. Sometimes the ending one chapter and starting another is not a smooth transition and can be quite jagged. Sometimes the transitional period can be longer than we envisioned causing concern and sometimes it can be that we change so rapidly that it is unnerving and makes us question our sanity. The purpose of this article is to offer some pointers and share my experiences with managing transitions and trusting the process of change.

I did not think when I started, I would ever have envisaged that teaching people would lead to such dramatic growth in me as a person. At times it has been dizzying and at times manageable. At times I have felt like I am sitting here, and nothing is happening and at times I have stepped into change and actively forced things to happen. Here is what I have found helps in managing transitions and change.

Life is efficient and its wisdom unsurpassed

and as such knows us better than we know ourselves.

Firstly, trust the process.

This is easier said than done but what I have found over time that by trusting that everything will work out and being more accepting with not knowing what is going to happen, makes the process much more manageable, leading to less turbulence which in turn leads to a faster transition. Trust is something you will have to work on but over time as you change and adapt you find yourself becoming more undaunted by it all.

Secondly, become aware of how your conditioning will affect the process.

We have been conditioned by family, peer groups and society to be a certain way. When we start changing and transitioning those ideas are normally the first to be challenged. The mind will throw up thoughts like how I will manage? what is going on? Am I able to transition to this new way of functioning? Any manner of thoughts will arise, and it is in this situation better to focus on the longer-term picture. Sometimes the mind can throw up a variety of thoughts simultaneously which can overwhelm. The Sufis state that “this too shall pass” and I feel for transitions or change this is important to realise that whatever is happening and however bad it may get it will pass.

Thirdly, do not try to force the process.

I personally am coming out of a period of silence. I remember finishing a talk and declaring that I had nothing to say. What happened after that was that extraordinarily little if any new content appeared. This silence panicked me initially as I wondered if this meant that I would no longer talk. In my panic I tried to make things happen, going from talk to talk. I found myself getting increasingly tired and eventually I had to stop. I realised then that I was forcing the process. Sometime later slowly but surely, I started to transition out of this period of silence and found myself busier. I realised then that life had given me a period of rest which I should have taken advantage of. Instead by forcing the process and trying to remain busy I had squandered valuable rest time and an opportunity to reflect and grow further.

Fourthly, Patience. I am naturally impatient and always wanting to be doing something. This attitude I have found has not really helped and combined with conditioning and trying to force the process has led me sometimes to have difficult transitions. When we transition and our ideas are challenged, we can find we are directionless. We may find that initially we are welcome to some sort of change but over time thoughts such as how will I pay my bills? I am appearing irresponsible to others around me. Am I lazy? And others such questions start to rear up. It is natural then due to conditioned responses for us to become impatient and try to force the process. Instead of accepting what is and transitioning smoothly we lengthen the process by our very interfering in it. This can lead to people trying to make a change while half cooked and invariably this leads them back into the transitionary process.

Life is efficient and its wisdom unsurpassed and as such knows us better than we know ourselves. By trusting its wisdom, we can use these moments of transition and change to realise more of who we truly are. Life as I have said before is the ultimate teacher. If we let go and let god and regardless of what is going on and regardless of the machinations of the mind, we may find that this trusting leads us home to where we already are: here and now.