In a morning meditation this week, I was offering gratitude to the spirit guides that have walked me though life thus far. Protecting me from dangers, bringing me to teachers, people and circumstances to value, love and cherish. This included tough and painful circumstances that offered great teachings. By the time I was done, my whole being was humbled.
If and when we learn to see with our heart and follow our gut, the mind will cooperate with gratitude and presence.
If and when we let the mind be our eyes, the heart gets blurred and the gut discombobulated. The mind is like a puppy. It can be trained or it can run out of control and wreak incredible havoc.
These are very unique and unusual times. People are living with incredible stresses to stay on top of the ever changing pandemic perimeters, as well as everything else. Doing the right thing to flatten the curve and find balance in restrictions and stay home orders is a lot for most. Not seeing those you love also weighs heavy on the heart. We have never known times like this. All of this is hard on the mind. Be kind to yourself.
I’m not sure if you feel this, but it seems that for every piece of breaking news, there is a conspiring side. It’s healthy to read into what challenges the way we see and there is no shortage of finding contradictions and oppositions. It might be easier to believe that other camps of information are misinformed, radical or have swallowed the wrong pill. To many articles I’ve looked into, there are equal panels of intelligent science and medical professionals. All with convincing arguments that anything other is crazy. This too is hard on the mind. Be kind in your openness.
I like to keep in my back pocket two teachings: Buddha says, “Don’t believe it because I said it. Do your own analysis.” And the Dalai Lama's reminder that there are at least six sides to every situation that should be considered. Our sanity doesn’t rest in our judgements. It rests in us maintaining connection to our inner values while being agile in openness and the premise of perhaps.
I had a dream this week that I would love to paint, if I painted, that is. The dream came after watching a conspiracy video about the vaccine that left me wrestling with a dark cloud. The dream was very interesting. I was night walking in a magnificent meadow with billowing grass. The fields were lit by hues of Aurora Borealis type lights. Vibrant colour structured like dancing search lights from the cosmos. They were natural, and mesmerizing. It was easy to be enraptured. Then I realized that the meadow was mottled with deep dark holes also ready to swallow me. If I only concentrated on the lights, I’d fall into a dark hole. If I only looked down for dark holes, the lights would go away and so would my capacity to see at all. One brilliant element in nature was all giving and another element was ready to take all I had. I woke up with a sense of threat to my safety, but even more so that life's dance demands that we use all our senses.
The dream lingered into the next morning meditation where I imagined it as a painting. The teaching seemed to be, to take only what is useful, bring everything into the light of possibilities, act in your highest interest and remember it's easy to fall into dark holes.
Here's to letting our hearts feed our senses and our gut take the lead. Have a great week.
