February 2020
“The only constant is change”, they say. Nothing remains forever. Our ability to let go dictates our ability to flow…
Letting go does not equate to detachment and a lack of care or concern. In letting go we allow eternal love to bless us. In holding we exert control. This futile attempt to prevent change will result in stagnation and ultimately invite the pain teacher until we learn to accept and welcome transience.
How can we find and nurture our ability to accept and embrace change? The key is to find the balance between passivity and forcing (or trying to control and manipulate outcomes to align with one’s egoic wills and wants).
In the Tao Te Ching there is a concept known as wu wei. Wu meaning “not” and wei meaning “action” or “doing”. However, if we delve deeper into the true meaning of this Taoist tenet of being, the best and most accurate understanding can be defined as “not forcing”.
I have written before on the concept of the currents of nature and a flow of innate wisdom that we can tap to guide us on this earth, to help live a smoother life and avoid unnecessary, stress, strain and struggle.
Not forcing can be easily misinterpreted as not doing, or not taking action. This misconception can lead to passivity and ultimately disconnecting from the guidance and messages from our higher self and/or mother nature. This repression of our truth can make us feel lost and without clear direction or purpose.
To get one’s bearings one must remain anchored and connected to stillness. It is in stillness, by opening up to the quiet place within that resides in all of us and makes up the foundation, the blank canvas, of experience, that we can we hear the voice of the higher self. If the mind is too busy with past or future worry, too noisy with fear or concern, we are unable to listen to the constant whispers of nature.
If we are able to attune to those whispers, they gradually become louder and our confidence in following these impulses of knowledge grows.
How can we know that these whispers can be trusted? What am I listening for? This is where we must step into the sensory territory of the heart and gut. The logical and conditioned mind can struggle to hear and trust these signals.
This is why we must first settle the mind and from the eternal and never changing foundation to our awareness we can begin to hear the truth of our heart and trust in the intuitive receptor that is our gut.
The heart speaks in the language of frequency and resonance. It is attuned to the gentle and soft words of love, passion and compassion. The heart knows what it wants, but when our overriding frequency is dominated by excessive fear, we cannot hear the heart’s song. It’s beauty and subtlety get drowned out and we feel alone, disconnected and fearful.
If we can move beyond the mind and connect to the frequency of our heart this then leads us to the next step….
When our heart is open and listening we can hear the deeper and more subtle messages of our intuition, which can be felt in the gut.
Wu wei as we discussed is not passivity, but rather action that is frictionless, that is not forced and does not create stress or strain. We can consider wu wei as the path of least resistance.
Now, how can we find the map to follow this path and make it a reality in this life? How is it possible to always have spontaneous right action and flow through this ephemeral life where the only constant is change? If the terrain is ever-changing how can the map be accurate? How can we avoid getting lost?
The key to this is our intuition. Now, we are all human and in the relative physical world perfection is a concept that only really exists subjectively. It can only be considered possible or realised experientially from the standpoint of unity consciousness where we are all one, nothing ever happened, and there is no such thing as change, or even life. Or as Bill Hicks would say “that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves”. Our intuition is our inbuilt weather forecast.
Leaving that concept of perfection behind we must understand that in this world the nature of life is to grow. Growth is a process, there’s no ultimate destination and growth results in change.
As we grow we learn to deepen our appreciation of change and welcome the unknown. As we learn to stop clinging to the past and grasping for the future we are able to experience a deepening trust of the currents of nature.
As our ability to follow the cues of our intuition grow, as we begin to better recognise the signals of synchronicity and follow the true desires and impulses of our heart, we are able to finally relax.
In that relaxation and grounded in the alert restfulness of our inner stillness we can hear the satellite navigation of mother nature.
Knowledge is structured in consciousness. The real and most sophisticated search engine in this universe is contained within us. To find our true and highest path in this life Google maps is not the answer.
Look within and you will find your way.
Learn to be quiet.
Learn to listen.
Find and nurture your inner light.
Bring it with you into this world.
It will guide you, even in times of darkness.
One step at a time.
Don’t let your love of life become overshadowed.
We cannot avoid change.
Life is ephemeral.
We are eternal….