Recently I got an email message from a woman who told me about some difficulties she is having with both her meditation, and with life -- she said her entire life has been turned upside down.
She asked, "I need to connect with someone who understands. Do you think you could shine a little light this direction?"
Here's my reply. I didn't give it a lot of thought, which is probably why I liked what I said when I re-read it. I've added a few links.
Hmmmmm. I think I understand, because we all are so similar. Yet also, so different. All I can do is share a few personal thoughts that will echo stuff I’ve shared in blog posts.
(You can use the Google search box in my blog’s right sidebar to find blog posts I’ve written on all kinds of topics over the past 10 years or so; kind of scary how wordy I’ve been, but I’m a wordy guy.)
I no longer enjoy feeling special in the same way I did before. If there is a theme in my meditation these days, it is “be as little and insignificant as you can be.”
The rest of the day, I do engage in a lot of active activities. But even in those I try not to take myself as seriously as I did in my Sant Mat days, when everything that happened to me was viewed as having some sort of cosmic significance.
Hey, stuff happens. It happens to everybody. Some people have to deal with crappier stuff than others, some have to deal with nicer stuff than others. We all have to deal with whatever we’re dealing with, though.
I honor and respect our special human capabilities. However, staying in touch with our animal nature is important also.
Our dog seems to be generally happier than my wife and I are. She lives in the moment. She doesn’t ponder the meaning of her life. She doesn’t worry about what is going to happen after she dies, or even what will happen tomorrow.
She eats. She smells. She poops and pees. She runs and plays. She sleeps. She enjoys being patted. She likes to go to the dog park. She seems to enjoy dog training classes.
Our human capacity for introspection and abstraction is great. It also can screw us up.
As I wrote in last night’s Churchless blog post, I really enjoy going to a local brewpub on their Science Night. Two days ago I drank a beer, ate fries and a hemp burger, and enjoyed a biology teacher’s talk about evolution.
He echoed the fact: we are animals, and we can benefit by watching how other animals deal with their lives. (His theme was that teaching evolution should be based on some lessons about how other species teach their young.)
So I guess my “little light,” which really is little, amounts to a few simple thoughts.
Relax. Laugh. Do things you want to do. Don’t do things you don’t want to do.
Especially, don’t do or not-do something just because you used to believe that was a good thing to do or not-do. Look at how you feel today, this moment, the only time that really exists. Take chances. Feel like a part of life, because you are.
Flow. Breathe. Dance.
If I sound like I’m talking to myself, I am. I’m me, not you. So much or all of what I just said may not resonate with you at all. March to the beat of your own drummer, not anyone else’s.
Last thought, for what it’s worth:
Perhaps for much of your life you’ve followed a drummer who wasn’t yourself. Maybe you’ve worried about doing the right thing, because you looked outside yourself for guidance as to what that thing is.
Who knows? Could be that what you’ve been looking for isn’t far away at all. It’s you, the way you are right here and right now.
— Brian
OK. That's a 500+ word response to the "little light" my email correspondent asked for. Here's a two minute dance video that speaks more eloquently. One of my favorites. Blogged about it in Alex and Twitch's dance message: "Get out of your mind!"
(Couldn't embed the You Tube video, so watch directly.)
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