Connection-The Place Where Being, Doing and Feeling Play

One thing about the western civilization is that we are so concerned about doing and performing that we don’t take the time to muse, to contemplate, and to feel and be.  That is the great thing about being here.  All the classes and discussions have a sense of contemplation in them.  A sense that not knowing is OK and being within that feeling and allowing something to emerge, is also ok.  That is the eastern way of handling a process.  It helps one to slow down, not stress about time, and become aware of what another person is feeling, how that feeling resonates within one’s self and to wait for the space to have something emerge.   What a different way to relate.

When we are aware of being aware of what is going on, be it brushing our teeth, making tea, walking to a place or listening, we are totally in the experience instead of planning for the next experience to take place. I love the analogy of the apple cider. When first pouring the glass, it is cloudy. When we allow the juice to relax, it clears, settles and quiets down. So it is with our thoughts. We allow them to settle, get quiet, and then we can be totally in the experience.

As we practice becoming balanced in living and being, we find we are more aware of feeling and being in the experience instead of wanting it to be over and get to the next experience. We can also locate within ourselves how we react to someone else who is living their experiences and find that place of contemplation or awareness so that we have the ability to respond instead of reacting.

I love putting a reference of vibration and wavelength on a person’s energy level and your relationship with them. It helps to know whether the wavelengths are long (the
extreme of experience) shorter, (disengaged in the experience), or middle (neutral to experience). It is interesting to feel the vibration of fast, medium or slow energy level during these experiences. Then you can have a way of regulating where you are in relationship to another’s energy and you can become more easily in tune with them, or not. If you cannot, it brings you to a place of disconnection, where am I on the scale and why am I uncomfortable? Again, contemplation and opening a space for me to be and become aware of knowing or not knowing.

All of our relationships are about awareness in the moment of feeling, doing and being. What are the internal dialogues going on in any situation? How am I involved in the experience and what is my part in the outcome? Does there need to be an outcome? Is the connection simply enough?

The Naropa Experience

I was so fortunate to go to class with Shaun yesterday. The topic was sustainable economics. The energy of connection and presence was so clearly felt. I stepped into a time zone of the future, now. We started with meditation, intention and a bow. It was so open and right now. Everyone’s attention was focused. Ideas were flowing. It was truly “education” the drawing forth of the learning. We talked about the allowing of the frustration of “not knowing”. Not knowing the answer, not knowing how to solve a problem, coming up to the wall and surrendering. We, in the west, do not know how to be in that void of not knowing and surrender to it. We fight, we think, we come up with any answers just to know something, we talk and “make” rules so that we can know (feel in control). Just to be in that place and observe your emotions, your body, the tension, the thoughts, and return to being is an incredible experience.

We created sentences, each person contributing a word, not knowing what the person before them was going to say. Wow, what an experience. We were connected. Every group that creates an experience, creates a company, wants to change the now, needs to connect on this level. What comes out is what Shaun calls the collective wisdom. We are all a part of the whole.

Angle of Perception

I sit down. I notice that the grass is damp and cold and I am already feeling like I will not want to be here long. I ground myself and began to breathe slowly watching my breath. Thought, thought, thought, breath. Wow I must really find this un-fun? However I notice that when I move into the sun all of the sudden I feel much better. The sun is warm and its rays bright. My mood is immediately improved and I am feeling happy and joyful. On the ground I feel sturdy with my legs crossed. Planted and leafy, like a large stalk of corn. Distance. I shift to a standing position and immediately I feel my lower chakras kick back in fully. Standing up my body feels mobile and my legs want to run. I peer around noticing the stillness of the cold. Standing up I feel less grounded but more in my body. My perception is one of a giant, compared to my previous position and because of this I now notice that I am feeling more separation from my environment. I begin to float and realization comes as disconnection. Cosmic connection is pervading.

I lay down in shavasyna on my back, hands out stretched in the palms up position. I can again feel the earth under my back and ground supporting me like a stretcher ready to carry me off if needed. The earth is supportive and I can feel all of my energy grounded and in rest formation. I close my eyes and consciousness becomes calm. Thoughts disappear and feelings subside. I begin to sink further down, deeper into the sturdiness of the earth. The darkness swirls and my ears begin to wake up from their slumber. I can hear the gentle whisp of the wind, the slight moving of water in the canal behind me. Thoughts? No. Feelings? No. Breathe? Yes. I open my eyes and light streams back in rushing me back to the present. I sit up, experience shifts. Life awakens and speeds. I stand up and walk home.

Courtesy of Dailypainters.com