Life offered a practice opportunity recently that brought more Awareness, Gratitude, Unconditional Love and Joy throughout the whole experience than I was allowed to see at the outset. I was given the opportunity to say yes to a week-long experience with extended family, along with a great deal more people engaged in the event.
It dropped in this would be a wonderful workshop on the process of staying with the human and joyfully communicating from center during karmically challenging content. Right after, egocentrickarmicconditioning/self-hate came in with “yes, it will be hard but you can do it.” So sly, trying to seem like it was on my side, was there to help with this “difficult” experience that hadn’t even happened yet! I also saw there was no more joy involved in the idea of the event, because it would be “hard,” and it seemed impossible to be filled with joy. Then came the Mentor with, “Is that so?” and that shift of attention brought with it gratitude and curiosity. I looked at it more with my facilitator buddy, made recordings and went on to the event.
What I noticed is when I turned my attention to Life, I heard the guidance offered consistently and lovingly. It was there all the time. The next step was to follow the offered guidance. I had been practicing with that process before this event and that made it easier to do so when there was more resistance. Not that I didn’t have a few incredibly identified times, but I saw the communication coming from me was identified and it helped to stop the identified communication.
Every time I ceased, the Mentor would come in and offer a next step that actually met the needs of this person. It felt so kind, supportive and relieving. Sometimes it came in the form of acknowledging that I had gone unconscious and then letting the person I was communicating with know what I needed instead. Sometimes it was a brilliant way to meet the needs of everyone involved, and sometimes it was a reminder I could just be and nothing needed to change. In each case though, it felt kind, true and necessary, supportive of the principles of Practice. I had Awareness Practice to guide me the whole way through, and found joy in the experience of being present to each moment.
When I remembered the gateways of communication (Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?), everything that unfolded was a gift for me and not a sacrifice of the human. As there was more ease for me, I project there was more ease for others communicating with me. Before practice and even early in practice this event would have been difficult to navigate. Awareness Practice turned it into a beautiful and profound experience of practicing Awareness, Joy, Unconditional Love and Gratitude. I am forever grateful and in debt to the whole of Awareness Practice, the Guide, Monks and Sangha.
In Gassho,
Meg SN