I was listening to Adyashanti’s latest course Philosophy of Enlightenment. He’s talking about separation, non-separation and referred to people as Unique Expressions of Life. I love this description! Inspired from that, we explored our life energy and unique expressions in our daily practice.
The present moment isn’t always pleasant or easy. It’s the way it is. We can acknowledge we need to let go of resistance. How do we actually do that? It really is that moment to moment tuning in, notice we don’t like whatever it is, welcoming it. Over time our relationship with experience shifts and we gain confidence that we really can be present with what is happening internally. Then the momentum builds in that direction.
The root of resistance is ideas that life is supposed to be a certain way. We could all make a big list — life is supposed to be happy, peaceful, fair, we are healthy and surrounded by people who love us, and we die in our sleep when we’re 99 with a fully functioning brain having enjoyed a rich, fulfilling life. These are ideas! Then there’s real life. This is important to keep working with. Honor the struggle it is. Keep coming back over and over even as we keep being disappointed. That takes courage.
As hard as it can be, life is real. I love that! We all do things to soothe ourselves, like watching an action movie or romantic comedy on Netflix. I enjoy that sometimes. Life is organized, everyone gets to be happy and living a good life by the end of the movie. I get to feel happy too. And the whole time I’m watching it I know it’s not real. It’s more benign than many things I could do to soothe myself but it’s not real.
We have deep honest, authentic sharing in our daily 8am Eastern meditation group http://zoom.us/j/645904638. We show up for ourselves and we show up for each other. We’re real and people respond with kindness and affirmation. “I get that” instead of “What, are you nuts?”. This then becomes the standard for our relationships with ourselves and others.