16 May 2006 @ 11:59, by Enocia Joseph
[[Mr. Banks: Just a moment, Mary Poppins. What is the meaning of this outrage?
Mary Poppins: I beg your pardon?
Mr. Banks: Will you be good enough to explain all this?
Mary Poppins: First of all, I would like to make one thing quite clear.
Mr. Banks: Yes?
Mary Poppins: I never explain anything. Mary Poppins]]
A few days ago I went for a walk with a friend at a local park. My friend wanted to sit on the grass but it was spitting at the time. He pointed to the dark looking clouds and said he could see rain in the distance. He believed we were about to get drenched. I neither agreed nor disagreed with him. I had a knowing it wasn't going to rain. We sat on a park bench and chatted for a while. It drizzled for a while then it stopped. While we walked round the park I pointed to my friend that it hadn't rained after all. I said I knew it wasn't going to rain because I "saw" us walking in dry weather. In fact, it was dry all through the night. When I walked home around 1.30 am, it was still dry.
Is this an example of positive versus negative thinking? Was my friend seeing the glass as half-empty while I was seeing the glass as half-full? It had nothing to do with positive or negative thinking. I was simply seeing beyond the clouds to the sky.
The sky represents our real essence that is always in bliss and in joy, while the clouds represent appearances, beliefs and thoughts. Most people know deep inside that they are the sky, i.e. their nature is bliss, but because they are focused on the clouds they get distracted into believing appearances are real and forget who they are. Before you know it you're living by appearances. You're like a meteorologist who is predicting the weather based on the atmosphere. You're like a doctor giving diagnoses based on your patients' symptoms. In other words, you are constantly looking for causes to appearances.
What would happen if we didn't try to find explanations and let things be?
Two days ago I had an itch in one eye. By the evening the eye was bloodshot and had stuff around the corners. As far as I was concerned there was no cause for it to be itchy and red. I didn't even raise the issue with my mother who I'm living with. I simply knew who I am as the sky, bliss, and left it at that. The next day the itchiness and redness had cleared up.
If I was someone who was distracted by appearances, I would be trying to identify the cause of the redness. When I'd determined the cause, I would seek out the right treatment or make one up. And while I am busy focusing on the cause and cure, I am magnifying and prolonging the situation. Furthermore, I am forgetting who I am as the sky that is wholeness and harmony.
When you know yourself as the sky you're not fooled by the clouds. You simply appreciate the clouds for what they are. Some clouds look so pretty in formation. Have you observed clouds at sunset? What a work of art! Similarly, I know that no matter how beautiful or menacing things appear, they are only appearances that are constantly changing. I focus on my true self - the sky.
Later that same evening my friend said he was experiencing lots of movements in his solar plexus, which he interpreted as emotional issues seeking release. He asked me if I felt emotions. I said I felt joy and bliss. At one point my friend had a coughing fit and he was trying to find a cause for the cough. I reached out and grabbed his hand. In silence I was inviting my friend to soar with me above the clouds. We walked hand in hand until we parted company.
Incidentally, while I was working on this piece in the library I noticed I couldn't connect to Google. Other Internet users started complaining that there was a problem. A man beside asked me if I was having the same problem. I told him I wasn't. In the meantime, the library staff were calling their IT department. One librarian said the whole network was down, which was affecting other libraries in the area. I remained calm and focused on being the sky while I continued working on the article on Word. Within a few minutes, the Internet was back to normal.
As interesting as the clouds are, I am not of the clouds; I am the sky.
Enocia
Related articles: Stop Looking for a Cause!; When Being Good is Not Enough; Water Off a Duck's Back
|
|
