Life is like a flowing river. This is because life is, in essence, the flow of awareness. The flow of attention by wholeness and all those points of focus, of us, within that. We experience the effects of that flow as both life itself and events in our life.
If our own attention and actions are in step with the larger flow, we are whisked along and enjoy success and happiness. If we are trying to move against the current, if we are resisting the flow of life, we will experience challenges and frustration.
Life flows through all aspects of our being, so we may find some areas of our life are smooth sailing while others are more bumpy or stagnant. These illustrate to us where we have resistance. The trick with resistance is that we’re resisting awareness so we don’t see clearly. (same thing as karmic blind spots) We are blind to our part in it. We just experience the consequences and regurgitate an old story of who or what should be blamed.
Intuition can be profoundly useful here but we have to be able to settle past the mental and emotional noise and excuses to listen; to feel our way into attunement. I’m not talking about making a mood of feeling good here – any artificial mood is just fakery, another form of resistance to what is. This is about learning to listen to that still small voice. It really isn’t so small once we learn to listen.
It’s also worth noting that life evolves and changes. The direction of flow shifts in unfolding time. We find ourselves trying what used to work but now doesn’t. I was reminded of this last year. My work life seemed to be going in circles. The apparent solution was unexpected and required change I was uncertain about making. But after getting feedback from people I trusted (reassuring doubts), I made the shift then marveled at how much smoother and better life was in a very short time. Not only was the immediate issue addressed but lots of benefits were added and I accomplished things I’d not thought feasible.
Sometimes, we do have to push through some rapids. But if they continue, it’s worth checking in. Seeing if the bumps are self-induced. Do you want to ride the wave or sink? It’s a choice we face throughout life, in every decision. Which voice are you listening to?
Davidya
I’m finding that when I tune out my mind and surrender the old stories I open up to new possibilities. At first, there’s resistance but that’s when I need to push a little to get into the flow again.
Well put, Masi. But I would tune that slightly. It’s not so much you tune out the mind but rather tune out the stories its offering up to ‘explain’ things. When you stop asking for stories and allow things to be as they are, the mind will stop regurgitating them. Instead of running our life from the stories (past), we shift much more into the present moment. This can create a surprisingly large shift in perception and, as you mention, open up all kinds of possibilities. Possibilities that were there all along but were not seen as we were filtering through the stories.
Notably, the story process is also the mechanism of the wheel of karma. When we stop engaging the junk and move through the resistance, the stories wind down and the karma along with it.
The mind makes a better servant than master. But we don’t want to tune it out completely. Under the emotional noise and stories are intuition and feelings and our ability fulfill our purpose.
Good to see you back Davidya. Keep them coming!
Thanks, TS. I have a list of subjects as well as a years worth of notes, full of more. Just enjoying some downtime back at home, catching up with friends and family.
Please keep sharing! It’s really very useful.
Righto! 😉