On New Realities

Tags

awareness, illusion, permanent, reality, Tran sformation

I have to admit that I wasn’t ready to face the reality of returning to in-person work on a full-time basis this week. After two years of remote work, I didn’t know if I even remembered how to function in an office among people. However, rather than stress about it, I decided that I was going to take it one day at a time, and no matter what, inject some lightness and fun into each in-person work-day.

On the third day, which was Friday, I ended the day by returning to the trails in the Metro-parks near work which I used to walk regularly before the two year pandemic hiatus. An hour or so in the reservation helped me process the new realities, and reminded me of some old ones that I had forgotten.

The first reality is that Nature doesn’t forget, even when we often do. The hidden entrance to one of the trails, the welcoming oaks, the river almost covering the embankment, the lightest of light blue flowers – they were all still there. I had forgotten their soothing nature, but it all came flooding back in the first few minutes, once I chose to be present to them. Their welcoming embrace was complete, the sense of familiar joy was full, and it was as if two years of absence had collapsed into a single moment. I experienced the reality of nature’s power over time and space.

The second reality was about Nature’s beauty. It is in full display, but we often close our eyes and ears to it. One section of the trail, about a quarter of a mile long, was resplendent with white on both sides. It was as if someone had taken canvases of green, sprayed them with white flowers in all kinds of random patterns from head to toe, and then spread them on both sides of the trail to create a tunnel. Why had I never noticed these when I walked this same trail dozens of times before in years past? Maybe I had developed a new awareness, a sense of slowing down after two years of being away? Was this my new reality?

The third experience of reality was a heady mix of the new superimposed on the old. After emerging from the tunnel of flowers, I was going to bypass circling the lagoon. I thought that some sections of the perimeter would be impassable, as used to be the case in the past after heavy rains. I walked by the first entrance with the intent of visiting one of my favorite benches that overlooked the other end of the crescent-moon shaped lagoon. As I got closer to this other end, I noticed that the trail entrance at this end looked a bit different. Where did all the gravel on the trail come from?

This deserved some exploration, and what followed was an amazing walk along the lagoon after all! I met with new wooden bridges and walkways constructed over all the previously impassable parts of the water. I simply couldn’t believe the brilliance of the newness of it all. I admit that I did miss the unpredictable nature of the natural paths which used to often abruptly end, and have me turn around at random points on the three-quarter-circle trail.

New realities of bridges and walkways had made the beauty of the lagoon accessible to so many more people, as evidenced by the people fishing, dog-walking and bird-watching on the trail. Time will tell how the increased human activity bears out for the lagoon’s waters and its wildlife, but so far so good.

As I drove back home after the work-day that ended with my heart and mind full of new realities, I slowly absorbed the new conditions I had experienced over the week. Nature exists to remind us of what is permanent and what isn’t so — what we do with such reminders depends on our inner state. Is it perhaps true that we have the ability to create our own realities by choosing the degrees of awareness, bliss, truth and attitude that we bring to any given moment? If yes, then we can be creators of our own destiny connected to permanence, can’t we? If no, then how do we get out of being immersed in the state of our mind’s illusions?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat in #SpiritChat, Sunday June 5 at 9amET / 1pmGMT as we explore reality and such. I will bring some questions and banana bread. Do visit. Namaste – AjmaniK

A steel and wood bridge over the East branch of the Rocky River…

On Light and Lightness

Tags

autumn, light, lightness, Tran sformation, transitions

More than the change in the early morning temperatures, there is a remarkable stillness that comes with dawn as the season make the turn from summer towards autumn. You can feel the stirring of change in the leaves as the ones that are to yield their greens to the yellows and reds and oranges get ready to lighten the load of the branches with their eventual precipitation.

I have been watching this transition brought about by the change in the angles and intensity of light for many years, and yet, every year the totality of the letting go of the deciduous ones rarely fails to amaze me. It’s almost as if autumn comes to remind me of the benefits of harnessing the change in light within to take another step towards lightness on the path.

There is a sense of urgency that comes with the shortening of the days as the setting of the sun in the distance moves ever so slightly Southwest every evening. Every day that winter comes closer, the physical light that we have access to grows a few minutes shorter. The birds know it, the bees know it, the butterflies and lightning bugs that have disappeared knew it, and yet, somehow, sometimes, us humans choose to forget it.

Maybe it isn’t so much that we forget about the shortening of the days but it is that we have our mind immersed in the past or the future that we are unaware of the transitions. External unawareness reduces the sensitivity of our inner sensors, as they collect dust from living a life of blindness towards the gift of the presence of light.

It has taken me about thirty minutes to write this post on a crisp Saturday morning. The two boys across the lake on their swing set have been going back and forth like pendulums all this while. The stillness of the forest has gone from the steady hum of insects to the awakening of blue jays. The young puppy has gone from calmly sitting on the dew covered cushion to chasing its tail in circles.

I sit here wondering about how the developing of the practice of focusing on the source of light within the heart has improved my awareness of the importance of lightness in my life. Lightness can come when we are lost to the external world in the moment, when light within returns to the source. We often experience lightness in joyous external activity like music, painting, dancing, writing, cooking and the like.

It is when attachment to activity and inactivity stops, when all the colors merge into One, when the letting go is effortless in its completeness, that the immersion in lightness is complete.

No matter the season, spirituality and spiritual practice is perhaps about being in that lightness, carrying the awareness of transformation within us, in every moment.

Onward. Bring on the new colors. I am ready to let go. How about you?

Kumud

P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and conversation with the #SpiritChat community on Twitter – Sunday, Sep 13 at 9amET/ 630pm India. Namaste – @AjmaniK

Where all the colors merge into One, in that light we can experience lightness…