Acceptance and Dissolving Comparison

With this episode #12, we continue our journey of  ... explorations in Consciousness, ... Silence, ... Self Realization, ... Self Discovery, ... The Mystery ... Download Acceptance and Dissolving Comparison | Pop-up ViewerIn this episode I want to continue the...

With this episode #12, we continue our journey of  ... explorations in Consciousness, ... Silence, ... Self Realization, ... Self Discovery, ... The Mystery ...

In this episode I want to continue the subject of acceptance and dissolving comparison ... primarily through some personal vignettes from our journey ...

At the outset of JoyChats launch, we had emphasized that we preferred Consciousness dialogs that were grounded in direct life experience vs read or learned. ... The personal brings an "alive" quality, however I always hesitate to delve, too much, into such aspects because the story can "take the stage" vs. the message ... so it is always a tricky and subtle balancing act.

Anyhow ... in the last episode I suggested that acceptance is .. living the life that arises out of stillness ... and I am again reminded of the Indian mystic poet Kabir's remark that he "... glimpsed the Mystery for 15 seconds and spent the the rest of his life serving it ..."  and   Joseph Campbell's remark that one can "get it only in the here and now ..."  and that "...the function of life is to experience eternity right here and now..."

How will you survive? ... how will your basic needs be met? are the key questions when someone is pondering these remarks or considering living a life that is not directed by the mind or the rules of society and culture.

Again, as I've said in the past shows .... the "How" can not be pre-determined ... there is no prescribed formula ... no one knows ... The exhilarating yet terrifying challenge in this journey of Self Realization is to let the "How" be revealed. ... Of course, Joseph Campbell's classic and very well known answer is " ... Follow your bliss ... " and doors will open where they did not exist before.

I am reminded of a moment from our past ... we were pulling out of a gas station in the small town of Dolores, CO after filling up the tank with the last of our money ...   and that was the year 2000 ... we had no idea what was ahead ... and how life would unfold and how we would take care of our basic needs ... but here we are ... ten years later, creating this show, in our home in Santa Fe NM ...

Of course, we met countless challenges but obviously we survived ... and we are still meeting some of the challenges from that time but we are also still celebrating the unending joy and gifts from that time.

Grace was unfolding and informing our life then ... and now ... Acceptance was present then and now ... Comparison was absent then and now!

Undoubtedly, there are lots and lots of details to the story but I won't go into all of it other than to mention that in 1999 we had decided to let go of our previous life ... our beautiful home in Santa Fe, NM and a joyful life full of wonder and many many gifts and prized possessions.

This decision arose out of the deepest stillness both for me and my dear Beloved wife ... it was the "voice within" that arose out of Silence yet it was deafening ... It was the ocean of Consciousness ... with its waves gently lapping at the shores of our awareness ... beckoning. ...  It was the tsunami of Self Discovery!

We returned in 2006 and, for now, have been making a life here. ... Not all the answers for future are known but we have what we need ... we know what to follow ... Life's "ups and downs" certainly continue ...but peace is ever present in the midst of unbridled joyous moments and also in the thick of the darkest challenges ... this is the peace that is not attained ... but is effortlessly here.

That moment in Dolores CO did have a sense of dread but was thankfully full of trust and devoid of any comparison ... with anything external ... with some imagined ideal ... with some other situation ...  and even with our own past.

There are so many story-lines and sub-story-lines in our journey that repeatedly remind us of the magnificent gift of acceptance. ... For us, the fundamental message is that one can indeed go forth and live their unique and Divinely informed yet surrendered life!

So ... I leave you with Rumi ... the one whose many many utterances are about annihilation into the Divine ... the splendor of Self Realization. ... In one of his poems; he asks how do birds learn to fly .... and he himself answers that they fall and in falling they are given wings ...

Joe's paraphrased quotes are from "The Power of Myth" PBS series with Bill Moyers. and the Rumi reference is my understanding and paraphrasing of a poem segment from "The Essential Rumi" by Coleman Barks.

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We also have two other channels available: PolitOpine re contemporary American politics and Obama Presidency and RumiTime re mystical poetry readings from Rumi, Kabir and others.