I have done a lot of soul searching the last five years (mostly the last two). I would not have understood this at all a few years back but am now immersed in it. I appreciated all your thoughts on this, Bob. I had an epiphany of sorts this weekend that I wanted to share with you.
I didn’t hear a “turning word” necessarily, but was planting my flowers in the garden and was walking towards the truck to unload the lovely cargo when I stood for a moment just looking at it.
I realized that there would be no other time in place just like the one happening at that very moment. It wasn’t about the flowers, but the moment itself that came to me - a “turning moment” that will be etched in my mind. They happen so infrequently to me, but for some reason it was on this day.
So many seem to have life go on, rambling through their day having life come AT them - their reaction to it being their only chore. It is finding the joys of EACH moment, in the NOW… not looking back in regret or worrying and fretting about the future, but being consciously aware of each precious moment. Each cell in the body makes up our humanness and yet we take so much for granted. Every moment makes up our lives and yet we treat each one so haphazardly.
I think it is passion of spirit and love that is the key to this state of lucidity to me. To live and give passionately. To have faith in God passionately - loving the world around you for all of its tiny grains of sand, not just because it is part of the beach you get to take your vacation on. I tell my children that it is their job to find their passion and live the life they’ve always imagined… for it is that passion that leads us to fulfillment in all areas in our life, in body and in spirit. True passion leads to joy and a deep satisfaction. It is a gift.
We have often heard a sports announcer say of an athlete “she has lost her concentrationâ€.
Anyone who has played both party bridge and duplicate bridge will recognize the great chasm separating the two forms of bridge; playing duplicate bridge is for serious players and party bridge is what the phrase implies. Party bridge is fun and games and discussions and eating cake and drinking coffee or wine.
The individual who has struggled to improve her golf swing or tennis serve can comprehend that the duplicate bridge player is like the person who is determined to improve her game.
It appears to me that few of us have learned in our schooling how to improve our intellectual game of reading, listening, and thinking. Our schools have seldom provided any of us with the experience of reading, listening, and thinking with determination and concentration. Our schooling has aided us in becoming sleep-readers, sleep-listeners, and sleep-thinkers.
If we adults are ever to correct this deficiency we must do it on our own. The major barrier to correcting this deficiency is our ego. No vigorous self-respecting ego is going to stand idly by while its brain accepts this as being true.
How can adults correct this deficiency? Like a good golf swing; if we have never experienced it can we recognize it without a coach? I think we can but it is a pain in the brain.
I understand your’s and Bob’s awakeness and even agree with it to a point.
To be fully awake is to release everything and let go of all things you hold dear, by releasing these loves you become more aware of the fullness of the universal energy and become a part of it.
I am not now ready to be fully awake because there are too many experiences and loves here that have yet to transpire and I don’t wish to miss them. I love this life too much I guess is what I am saying. This life is the one thing I cling to that keeps me from awakening and moving on. One day I will let go and awaken but until then let me have these sweet dreams and nightmares for they are mine all mine and they nourish me.
Reach inside your mind you will feel a wall surrounding it, it is that wall that is your will to live or rather keep this life it is also a fear of losing all. Once you breach this wall then you awaken. You spend your entire life building the strength or knowledge rather, to breach this wall.
Passion for life is a good knowledge building strengthener but, also you need to realize and accept the negative and learn from it and embrace it to be able to fully let it go. Once you can smile at the pain and understand it, it becomes a part of your strengths not a weakness.
I am honoured that you have shared this most valuable moment with me – or should I say, that timeless moment between two heartbeats which gives us a new perspective. The fascinating thing about such moments is that language generally fails, although in retrospect we find comparisons and images that serve a purpose. The “word†we hear is in fact an insight that holds a thousand words, if we are eloquent enough to use them well. Your description gives a good impression of the way in which you have been touched.
Yes, they are infrequent – at least the special ones are. There can be numerous experiences of spontaneous inspiration, just as timeless as this one, but short and ephemeral. I like the way a German theologian put it: “Like a star that shines on us in a special night, fading in the daylight, but leaving us yearning for its return.â€
Very true. Monsieur Ibrahim, played by Omar Sharif, says (in ‘Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran’), “I have always been careful to be slow in life, never wanting to make a lot of money, or have my customers queue up to buy things from me.†Quality of life is experienced in the slow moments, we learn the most essential lessons of life and death when we expect them the least. Insha’Allah!
Pass the rest by and follow love, O heart;
Reality’s folk obey love, for their part;
Love is more ancient than all that’s known to exist:
They sought love’s beginning, but found it had no start!
Shaykh Muzaffer (1916-1986),
Sufi teacher of Istanbul
You know what helps me “wake up”? Thinking about how many times (and this is my personal philosophical thought) we, as the universe, have gone through this circle, this endless cycle. Going to sleep, forgetting, and then waking up again. Going from nothing and dust, into a whirlind of planets and stars and birds, and flowers and rivers, mountains and people, back into nothing and out from it back again, to forget and to realize our oneness once again.