May-June 2005 - The Journey Magazine

BEING PRESENTBy Wah!You have somewhere to go. But you’ve neverbeen there before. So, how are you going toget there? You’ll get directions and followthem: go down this street, take a left, at the secondtraffic light, make a right, look for the second buildingon the left, enter door #2. Spiritual development is notdifferent from this. We are given directions, road mapsand techniques to follow. We follow them and find wholeness.But what if you are given two sets of roadmaps?At the same juncture, you might want to take both aright and a left. You cannot go in two directions at once.Splitting your energy makes it harder to reach your goal.You have to take one path and follow it with all yourheart.Any path will take you there. The macrocosm ofthe universe exists in microcosm within each one of us.What you do inside is reflected in what happens outside.The changes you experience in your heart andmind project outwards and rearrange your life. The lifesequence you are in is carefully tailored to you, to createa change in your heart. It is not important whichjob you have, which Guru you have seen, or who yourlife partner is. What matters is, are you growing? Areyou allowing yourself to change based on the experiencesyou are having? The view from the outside makesno difference. You could be a priest or a volunteer at asoup kitchen, and your inner dialogue might be thesame. You could be a yoga teacher or a politician, yourlessons might produce a similar outcome: a change ofheart.The first step in being present is to fully and unconditionallyaccept who you are. Take out who you areand start looking at it. Share the stories of your life,start uncovering what made you the way you are. Andbe present with it. Allow the presence of shame, joy,guilt, contentment... it is all there. What’s there is you.Being present is uncovering the essence. You are holdingthe essence of all life – in you, your teachers, yourfamily, friends, in everyone you have met. You holdtheir gifts, their struggles and disappointments. The entirehuman experience is sitting inside you.Giving full permission to yourself to be yourself isan all-important first step. When you give 100% to whateverit is you are doing, all your energy flows in thesame direction. Your heart can’t be flowing in one directionand your mind in another. One pointed concentrationis necessary. But you can’t just subdue yourmind and follow your heart. Your mind has unlimitedpotential as a psychic, intellectual and analytical tool.Your heart forgives, loves, goes with the flow. Both heartPAGE SIXMAY • JUNE 2005and mind must be united. They must be in harmonyand flow in the same direction.Everyone has distractions. The mind is attractedby achievements and knowledge and possibilities. Oneway to be in harmony is to dedicate everything you doto your object of devotion – your chosen deity, teacher,or loved one. Dedicating your efforts to God and notworrying about the outcome is a core theme in yogictexts. It moves all your energy in one direction.“Though attracted by objects of desire and thoughhe has not yet gained control over the mind, my devoteeis not overpowered by them, being shielded by hisdevotion to me. Just as fire steadily grows from a smallflame to a blazing fire and burns fuel to ashes, so doesdevotion to me blaze forth and consume all obstacles,”says Krishna in the Uddhava Gita.Another way is loving kindness. Applying love andkindness to every thought that arises in the mind canhelp move your energy in a direction of love. If youhave any doubt that your thoughts affect everything inand around you, you owe it to yourself to read MasaruEmoto’s book, “The Message from Water.” Emoto hasdocumented how thoughts, words, ideas and music affectthe molecular structure of water. Just putting aglass of water on the table and thinking “love” canchange ordinary water molecules into beautiful crystallikepatterns. If you can send loving thoughts to a glassof water and change its molecular structure, just thinkof what your loving thoughts can do to your whole being.Your intention becomes everything. You can healor hate in a single thought.Perhaps it is harder to release habitual thought patternswhich have had years to settle and calcify in thebody. And perhaps it is easier to forgive other people’smistakes than forgive our own. But it can be done. Forexample, if you are practicing yoga and you remembera tragic incident, your mind will naturally split - beautifulposes and expansive breathing on one side, and tragicmemories on the other. You will have two energies flowingin opposite directions. It is hard to be present insuch a moment.Forgiveness is offered to the sorrow. Light is broughtin on the inhale, letting go is given to the exhale. Acceptingall that has brought you to this moment. Sittingin love. Offering love to the part of you most needing it.You can align with love; your body will respond and heal.Body mind and spirit are held together by the magnetismof one powerful thought of love. Being present in aloving way is a trademark of saints and sages.THE JOURNEY