On Light and Lightness

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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…

On Stages and Transitions

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seasons, stages, transitions

At this time of the year, when a change of seasons seems imminent, it is natural to think about transitions in our lives. The notion of transition was brought home to me with great force this week as I found myself stretched thin to support two very close families who were experiencing major transitions of their own. The first was my mentor of twenty five plus years – a father figure of sorts – to whom I found myself saying farewell to. I took along a few of my favorite spiritual books, sat with him, read to him, reminisced a bit about our years, and wished him well on his transition.

The second transition has been more of a roller-coaster ride so far. My ex-neighbor of many years, fighting the battle of his life, who keeps making one remarkable recovery after over the past two weeks. I thought I had said my final farewell to him (in the physical) Friday night, only to find out that he had a good night’s sleep and was sitting up in a hospital chair this morning! It made me wonder, at least for today: how far does the extent of knowledge and expertise of experts and specialists (in medicine) really reach?

So, here I am. Talking to you about life’s stages and transitions. I am truthfully at a loss for words to describe the experiential, first hand observation of the strength that goes beyond the physical. It is one thing to believe in the immense power wielded by the energy dimensions beyond the physical, but quite another to experience it twice within a week. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the Upanishads:

“No mortal lives by the in-coming breath (Pråna) or by the out-going breath (Apåna), but by another on which these two depend” – Katha Upanishad

Why do I use these two examples to talk about transitions? It is perhaps because these two events reminded me to focus on, draw strength from that which lies beyond what our senses inform of us of. We tend to trust what we see, hear, and feel, and the opinions of authority figures, say in fields like medicine. It often takes transition events to inform and educate us, to look beyond our sensory inputs. It is perhaps in transition from one stage to other that science meets spirituality. To parphrase one of the most famous scientific figures of the last century:

“I want to know the thoughts of the divine – the rest are merely details” – Albert Einstein

On my nature walks, as autumn approaches, I am led to ask – where does this seemingly immense amount of energy that it takes to transition one season to another come from? (And yes, I ask that same question in spring too!) In a similar vein, where does the energy that fuels the will to live come from? How do we prepare for the next stage of our storied lives, and to experience the great transition that we refer to as ‘death’ (of the body)? What is the nature of the energy that fuels our transition to the next stage of our spiritual journey?

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. I invite you to join all of us in the #SpiritChat community, Sunday September 17th 2017 at 9amET/1pmUTC. We will try and share some light on this subject (with an attitude of lightness). If you cannot join us in the live hour on twitter, I invite you to reflect on the topic and share some of your ‘transition’ experiences. Namaste.

Flowers in various stages of transition ~ Summer flows into Autumn…

Related post: https://spiritchat140.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/transiitons-and-spirituality/

Transitions and Spirituality

Tags

nature, spiritchat, spirituality, transitions

Transitions are everywhere. In nature, night transitions to day in the form of dawn, midday brings a second transition, and dusk brings the onset of night. Among the interplay of light and dark, other celestial bodies like the moon, the stars in their various constellations and the planets have their own various transitions in space and time. Closer to earth, some of these transitions manifest as solstices and equinoxes, solar and lunar eclipses, and the seasons.

One common message conveyed by all these transitions is the sense of motion and change felt by our senses when we open up to nature. As we observe nature and her transitions, we can get a sense that even though the boat of personal life may be sailing in ‘smooth waters’ for now, the wind and waves can change at any given moment. In our daily lives, transitions are felt in a job change, a home move, a health challenge, a relationship shift, our taking on of a caregiver role for elderly parents, and much more. The extent (of success) with which we handle these personal transitions can often depend on our level of preparation for them.

How do we prepare for the transitions in our lives which are bound to happen in time? The breadth and depth of our preparation is reflected in our daily practice. We are using our physical, emotional, financial and spiritual energy on a daily basis. Awareness of the rate at which we are depleting our energy reserves can provide guidance on which areas of energy need replenishment. If we do not replenish our energy reserves consistently, we may find ourselves facing a transition with an empty cup of life energy. The more our lack of awareness, our lack of regular ‘stock-taking’, the emptier our cup, and the greater the effort to refill it during a transition. The impact of transitions on us is non-linear, if we are not prepared for them.

One great example of this non-linearity, this disproportionate impact of a transition on our lives when we neglect our daily practice, comes from nature. In my recent daily walks in a parkway, I have noticed many giant oak trees simply fallen over into the river which flows through the park. On closer observation, these trees have not been felled, as if with an axe, but seemingly uprooted clean out of the ground, roots and all. My speculation is that over time, the current of the water eroded the soft soil around the roots of these trees, and the trees, being unable to take corrective action, eventually succumbed to the transitional force of the river. There was no mighty axe or bolt of lightning (even though I have seen many trees felled by those too) – in their case, it was the work of the current.

The good news is that we are not like trees. We do have the ability, the consciousness, the awareness to take action, through our daily practice, to pay attention to these transients which bring transitions to our lives. The good news is that we have active, vibrant, giving, sharing communities who can help us navigate these transitions. We simply need to be open to connecting with them, sharing with them our life experiences, our transitions and how we navigated them, and what we learnt from them along the way.

In closing, I invite you to share some of your stories of transition with the #SpiritChat community – in the comments here, and on twitter, in our weekly gathering Sunday, September 27th at 9amET/1pmUTC. From where I sit, there is a slight chill in the breeze that comes through the window, heralding the transition to autumn, on her wings that glisten in the sunlight filtering through the soon to be falling leaves in the backyard… Autumn has arrived, and it will bring us a glorious lunar eclipse in its wake. I am ready. Are you?

Namaste,

Kumud