Last week we looked at the process of allowing our minds to settle. This week, we'll take a look at what we might become aware of, once it does! Many of us begin our spiritual journey wanting the
absence of something. Think about that. We might think we want more peace and quiet, but what we actually mean is that we want
less stress, agitation, hassle, anxiety etc. etc. Preferably none at all!
We often begin at the outset with trying to 'get rid' of something. Thoughts. Negative emotions. Our ego. Determinedly making a huge effort to try and 'get rid' of what we don't want, can actually become an obstacle on our path. If it becomes a habit it can keep us from the very thing we desire by distracting us from what is already there.
It might seem far-fetched when we are in the middle of our busy working week, stressed to the point of almost tearing our hair out, when someone says 'you are love'. It couldn't feel farther from the truth!
Yet all the great spiritual masters assure us this is true, and the only way we can really know is to experience it for ourselves. ...and the quickest way to do that is to go directly to it!
This was taught to me many years ago by my mentor Anya Sophia Mann, who would repeatedly invite me to leave what she called the 'thought-storm' and simply 'return to myself'. To be present with myself. It took some years of experience and practice before I really knew what she meant! Like many of us, I wasn't aware that I had even 'left'!
Patanjali, the forefather of modern yoga, is said to have described yoga as simply "the mind settling into silence". Once we reach a point in our meditation where we become aware of an absence of thoughts we might at first think there is nothing there.
As we become more experienced at settling into silence we slowly become aware that the silence isn't empty. There is 'something' there and that 'something' is our own awareness. Slowly we awaken to the light of our own awareness. Our own presence.
"the more you continuously maintain clear attention to that open space in your heart, the more the seed of love grows. Space is where infinite qualities [love, joy, peace] are perfected. They manifest because what has not allowed them to manifest has been cleared."
-Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
How is it that spiritual masters can assert with confidence that we really are goodness and love, and that we are not our negative qualities? Because they have observed, and experienced, how our 'wandering' mind makes 'waves' in the form of our anger, jealously, sadness etc. and when it settles,
what remains is the source of our being. What remains IS goodness and love.
We can experience this for ourselves by allowing our minds to settle into what Anya refers to as 'clear space'. She describes the journey to 'clear space' as one of simply "letting go of whatever is in the way". In that clear space we become aware of our own presence, and come to know that as the source of goodness, joy, love and deep inner peace. From that place we experience life differently, because our view has changed.
If you want to learn more about living from clear space take a look at Anya's Quantum Alchemy Certification Programs, and/or her one-to-one mentoring program "The AMAYA Method", where you will learn the art of presencing for yourself.That's all for now see you next time, and in the meantime... happy exploring!
Best Wishes,
Ruth
