The Symphony of the Universe

Last night, a fly came into the house with me. It flew quickly around the kitchen, bouncing off the ceiling and the walls and a light. 

The night before, I woke up around 3am. I had worries quickly flying and bouncing around my mind just like that fly. About family, about teaching, about work, about choices.

Fortunately, by Grace and by practice, I caught this thought as soon as it showed up: “Ugh, I just want to go back to sleep!”

Instead, I rolled over onto my back to intentionally be with that part of my experience, and I gently made room for my mind to run its course and settle down on its own.

(Ever notice how trying to get the mind to settle down doesn’t actually work. For me, it’s more a practice of taking my foot off the accelerator and just letting the mind coast itself to quiet. It also helps to speak calmly, gratefully, and lovingly to it.)

Almost immediately, by Grace and practice, my mind settled.

Then my stomach started making noises.

I ate dinner late that night, and my body was digesting at 3am. Again, a judgmental thought or two showed up, and I just brought my attention back to my body doing its digestion thing, thanking my mind for trying to help.

My digestion was like a symphony! A sound on the left side, a sound on the right, some hollowness in one sound, some liquid in the other. It was beautiful.

Here’s what I saw (by Grace and practice) that night and still see so clearly: the body is always serving us.

Nearly all of its functions - we’re blind and deaf to them. While I could easily distract myself with worried thoughts, I’d miss the symphony of autonomic digestion. While I could listen to music as I walk, I'd miss the incredible detail, strength, and precision of my foot, ankle, leg, hip, and torso joints. 

Not only do we live in God’s Sculpture Garden - we’re always an audience to the Symphony of the Universe. Each part of our being - the mind, the heart, the body, the senses, the spirit, the relationships - and each part of the universe outside ourselves - the birds, the breeze, the cars, the footsteps - plays an instrumental role in the Symphony of the Universe.

By Grace and practice, we can learn to hear it more clearly and more appreciatively. 

Much Love. ❤️

P.S. When I wrote “the body is always serving us” above, I questioned whether that is true or not. Cancer, for instance - that’s not serving us, is it? Well, it’s not, but it intends to. It’s doing what it “thinks” it’s supposed to do. Just like our minds when they worry, like our hearts when they get anxious - parts of ourselves doing their best, and sometimes it’s not actually helpful. Should we hate them for it? Fight them because of it? Or learn that, maybe, this too I can love? And perhaps that love can help heal…

(As always, 100% human-written.)

Be It Til You Feel It

In a recent conversation, a client said to me that he never really liked the phrase “Fake it til you make it.” Me neither. So we coined a new phrase (at least new to us!):

Be it til you feel it.

I like to think of times of challenge as being in our spiritual dojo. When the challenges show up, it doesn’t matter that they’ve shown up - what matters is how we be about it.

In many ways, most of us are hateful to our discomforts. We suppress it. We fight it. We avoid it. We resist it. We want and pray for it to be different. 

We be this way to our feelings. We be this way to our minds. We be this way toward other people. 

We be hateful and hope that it resolves the discomfort. 

Does it work for you? (It doesn’t work for me.)

Just because I feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean I have to be uncomfortable. Just because I feel resentful, doesn’t mean I have to be resentful. 

That’s the beautiful thing about being - it doesn’t depend on our feelings, and it doesn’t depend on the default thoughts our brains are spitting out. 

You know how lawn mowers have the cord that you pull to get the engine going? For me, a single thought can be that way. It can pop into mind and then rev my emotions right up.

When I’m being compassionate, though, or patient, gracious or loving, the energy doesn’t get stuck and it can move. 

By being more compassionate, I eventually feel more compassion.

By being more loving, I eventually feel more love.

By being more patient (peaceful), I eventually feel more at peace.

Do we have to feel compassion to be compassionate? No. 

Do we have to feel love to be loving? No. 

Do we have to feel patient to be patient? No. 

Here are some powerful questions worth considering when you’re faced with your next challenge:

How can I be more understanding toward this challenge?

How can I be more patient with this challenge?

How can I be more loving with this challenge?

How can I be more curious about this challenge?

How can I be more gentle with this challenge?“

(This challenge” may be a student, a family member, a colleague, the weather, traffic, or yourself.)

Your challenges are your spiritual dojo. Be intentionally toward them. 

Be it til you feel it. Then keep being it.

(As always, 100% human-written.)

The Details vs. The Mechanism

One of my teachers, Michael Singer, likes to remind his students that we’re spinning on a ball of dirt around a star that’s 93 million miles away. It’s hot out? That’s the star’s radiation warming our planet enough for life. It’s raining out? That’s the star’s impact on weather systems that allow life to flourish.

By zooming out a little, we begin to appreciate the mechanism instead of being distracted by our judgments, opinions, and insecurities about the details. 

When I get hooked by a thought or a feeling, my attention focuses in on it, and I suffer. When I can back my awareness off the detail and witness the mechanism, I get free again.

Regardless of the details of my experience - a particular feeling or thought, a memory or a projection into the future - the mechanisms of human being are beautiful.

For me, meditation isn’t trying to attain the absence of thought or feeling. One way I meditate is by relaxing my awareness beyond the boundaries of the details - I'm practicing witnessing the mechanisms. 

The mechanisms of being human are beautiful, powerful, miraculous. That we think, that we feel, that we move. Beautiful, powerful, miraculous.

It’s backing up from a single brush stroke and seeing the whole painting on the canvas. It's moving back from a single leaf to see the tree.

There’s freedom, peace, and insight in backing off the details a little to recognize the mechanism at work.

What I most want for myself in this life is an experience of being unconditionally in love with being alive. So my explorations, studies, and practices are usually in service of that desire (and my purpose: elevating the well-being of all life, no one left out). Uncovering the mechanism behind the details of my experience is one of the ways I find myself accessing more love in my life - witnessing and then expressing gratitude for the mechanisms, I get to fall more deeply in love with being alive.

Much Love. ❤️

(As always, 100% human-written.)