Inner peace is a two parter.
The first part is connecting to who we are within. Destroying the ignorance of our true nature with the light of consciousness.
The second part is calming the storm, healing our unresolved experiences.
The Yoga Sutra describes both as an effect of Self knowledge. But we often need to more deeply target what is unseen and unresolved. For example, it’s common for someone to awaken, then to have old junk come to the surface to be resolved. Sometimes this can be great enough to knock us out of the peace or the bliss. Other times, it may be more like a disturbance on the surface that doesn’t disturb what is here.
If the awakening is established, there should be no concern. The clarity will return once the fog rolling in has cleared. If it’s less so, the clearing will help it become more so.
If we engage this well, it can take time but our quality of life will get progressively better. And then we can be said to embody the shift, to live it here in our lives.
We don’t have to wait for awakening before we engage in healing. What we do now will improve quality of life near term plus help with quality and smoothness when awakening appears.
Just be careful with moderation. Seeing yourself as broken and trying every healing modality to fix your inherent limitations as a person is folly. Peace comes with acceptance. Allowing you to be who you are under all the stories and fears. That’s where the deeper healing is.
Davidya
This is very timely for me. My best friend is a therapist and can’t let go of an issue. I deal with it every day with her, I think this blog will help.
Thank you
You’re welcome.
I have a bunch of articles talking specifically about healing. Some are linked under Key Posts, like this one:
https://davidya.ca/2007/09/07/clearing-the-heart/
Thanks for directing me to the clearing the heart. I love reading your blog. I feel my dharma is a healer and I have backed off doing healing work because I feel I want to be awakened in order to be more effective. I like that you express that in your blog.
Hi Celeste
I would suggest you consider healing and awakening to be distinct. Waiting for something you have no control over is not self-authority in your life.
Yes, an awake healer is ideal. But also very important is good skills. Healing is primarily a skill. You may find this series useful.
https://davidya.ca/2014/06/28/healing-everything-part-1-of-3/
The reverse can also arise. People can think that because they’re awake, they are now a teacher or a healer. But both take skills, something that awakening doesn’t typically bring. Getting skills is useful in any case.
David, you wrote: “Just be careful with moderation. Seeing yourself as broken and trying every healing modality to fix your inherent limitations as a person is folly. Peace comes with acceptance. Allowing you to be who you are under all the stories and fears. That’s where the deeper healing is.”
I’m reminded of this …
“A person should not strive to eliminate one’s complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs one’s conduct in the world.” ~ Sigmund Freud
Hi Jerry
Thanks – yes. We might also call them our laws of nature. They may not be what we’d choose but they’re what we’ve got. (laughs)
It also reminds me of your comments during your BATGAP interview that (to paraphrase) there has to be enough sense of a person/ ignorance for Brahman to be lived.
It also brings to mind a couple of recent articles I’ve written on Means, based on the Rig Veda quote:
“By virtue of unitedness and by means of that which remains to be united, I perform action to generate wholeness of life.”
https://davidya.ca/2015/08/06/the-means/
https://davidya.ca/2015/08/27/more-on-means/
That’s quite an interesting synchronicity, David. I looked up that quotation from Rik Veda a few hours ago, thinking I might write something about it in my comment here. I’ve something I might be able to say about it in reference to the dynamics of Brahman Conscousness, but it will take some time to put together. (In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, take a look at the little essay I emailed you, “Regarding Mind and Brahman.”)
Hi Jerry
I’ve referenced the closing paragraphs of the Rig Veda several times here, but only recently caught that point on means.
The second link is to a similar idea in the Isha Upanishad.
I look forward to your comment and I’ve not yet had a chance to read the essays but also look forward to that.
Thanks!
Thanks for this post David. I would be interested in your perspective on the following, if you have one: I’ve noticed that when an upset arises (that is sticky enough for me to feel disequilibrium and go entirely into my head to solve it), after it has settled (usually less than a day), I can’t remember what it was about, even a day later. Does this sound ‘right’ to you? I ask, because I like to check that I am not in some cul-de-sac of say, disassociation. To be honest, I really enjoy life being this way, but it does freak people out when I don’t remember the content of recent happenings … Thanks 🙂
Hi Amaryllis
(laughs) Actually, this is a running joke with some of my awake friends. The trick is, biological memory operates based on charge. We remember things best that have a strong emotional component.
If the experience has little charge – like what we had for breakfast a few days ago, it is quickly forgotten.
If the experience has a charge like you describe but the experience doesn’t “land” – isn’t taken on but is just processed away – it is similarly forgotten. Many awake people i know live very now. Past and memory have little relevance.
For an ego, our experience is completely associated with the past. Every experience is compared with the past before it even becomes conscious. (biologically) So forgetting is loosing control. Horrors! (laughs)
I discovered that in past golden ages, people would “bookmark” important events in consciousness they wanted to come back to later. They used a different mechanism.
So yeah – very normal.