Recently, a friend said something like "It takes a kind of fearlessness to stay open to this inner work." It's so easy to get sidetracked when things don't go as expected. It's easy to close down to the inner 'work' and go into fear, resistance, judgment - the 'This is awful' kind of story - when things are challenging. We're all now experiencing a challenge that we've never faced before. And for many the global spread of the C-19 virus is bringing up a lot of fear- so how can we be fearless in the midst of fear? Fearlessness is not about experiencing no fear - it's about being fully open to the experiencing of fear. Fully feeling the fear - yet without identification with the fear. This distinction is so key. When you notice fear - stop everything and feel all feelings fully.
Like a welcoming host to these visitors - allow them to be felt wherever and however they want to move in your body. And at the same time or when the feelings have largely subsided - notice the One who is hosting them. Notice if that One is diminished in any way whatsoever by any fear passing through. The other day I got an email from a friend who believes she may have the coronavirus. She is fully at peace with what is happening and, with her permission, here is part of what she wrote: Last night, I listened to an interesting perspective on what's happening, spiritually. That the world is being forced to stop. Stop all the busyness and looking outward. Many schools and institutions are closing, businesses coming to a trickle or stopping altogether. Countries quarantined. We are being forced to stay home and face ourselves. This feels huge. Who are we when we are not constantly in motion? Time to turn within and go a little deeper. The stopping of so much of the external busyness
is a kind of invitation to go deeper to the stopping of the internal busyness. When we're not in constant motion 'up in our head' who are we really? The universal principle that peace is not only the end but the means makes complete sense - when it relates to world peace. But somehow when we turn within to inner peace the understanding that peace is also the means doesn't seem to make sense to many. Many seekers continue to believe that they need to change, fix, eliminate or fight with their thoughts and feelings and don't consider the possibility of simply being peaceful with them. Notice - how when you're not fighting with thoughts and feelings you can sense a space around them. Notice how powerful this peaceful noticing is - and what it reveals. If we believe we are evolving to become something we are not right now in this very moment then life will continue to feel frustrating, confusing and never quite complete. And when we have a glimpse that what we are is whole and complete right now in this very moment it is then our understanding of that reality that is ever evolving, deepening, expanding, widening... Without looking to thought for any answer sense Life directly right now. |
It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face."
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