The Great Mystery

When you are expecting things to go one way, but life brings the unexpected, what happens inside of you? What do you allow? What do you start believing in when challenge arises?

We are all aware of these moments in our lives where something we thought would happen didn’t happen and so the mind went into thinking that something is wrong and went on a downward spiral. But there is nothing wrong.

There is just what is and that is-ness is part of the way. It’s not in opposition to the way. Know that, because in that knowing there is immense ease and freedom. There is freedom from wanting to control everything.

Otherwise, we are constantly struggling and trying to control; so much worry and anxiety because we know there are so many variables to life and any variable might go off, at any moment.

We must do our best, give our best to every moment but always have room for the unexpected, the unknown. And when the unexpected arises from the field we should accept it, embrace it, not fight it, not react to it, not go into a story in the mind that something is wrong, thinking that you are losing something because we cannot lose anything here.

The promise life gives you when you are born is that it will constantly bring up the unexpected, the unknown.

As we cultivate this practice in our consciousness, we become free from circumstances and the only thing we see is the way, not the obstacle, as the obstacle is part of the way, part of the flow of life.

All the rocks in the river are part of her way. If they need to be swept, she will sweep them off. If they need to be left, she will leave them. Maybe there will come a time where she will crush them and, sometimes, she will leave those rocks forever there meandering her way around them. That’s how life is and that’s how the consciousness of the awake being is.

Equanimity with what is, accepting what arises fully, adapting our consciousness to it, and accommodating, meaning leaving room open for the future shifts that will happen, instead of getting attached to any is-ness as the is-ness will keep shifting and changing.

The consciousness remains the same, unbounded, Sat Chit Ananda. Sat, in tune with the truth, timeless. Chit, pure consciousness, unbounded, unaffected by the changing variables of the relative world. Ananda, deeply experiencing bliss and love no matter where you are and no matter what the experience is, no matter what your circumstances are.

A time to pause

Take a few moments to tap into that deep silence and reach that state of equanimity where all opposition, all reactions of the mind to what is, drops away.

Endeavour to transcend whatever needs to be transcended and accept fully whatever needs to be accepted, not from a place of conflict or reaction but from that deep, centered, calmness.

From this position, life is a great play. Otherwise, life is a battlefield.

So, when life brings the unexpected, the unknown, the challenge, the obstacle, go to the playing field, not the battlefield. If you don’t master your mind, the mind will start fighting what is. The awake mind goes to the playing field, accepting what is fully, opening the heart even deeper and then it’ll be clear what needs to happen, not from a place of reaction but from a place of response.

Otherwise, we experience such stress the moment that something outside the parameter of our expectations occurs and stress is not food for intelligence.

When you are in equanimity, there is no stress. Your intelligence peaks and you are able to see the way clearly. When you are not able to accept what is, you are not able to rise to that equanimous state, your whole body-mind apparatus goes into stress, reaction, taking your intelligence down. Neurologically, your brain becomes more focused on survival, on the habit pattern, unable to access the creative centres of the brain.

Life happens in the mystery, in the unknown.

The element of the unknown, the unexpected, is far greater than the known as the expected is within thought, the parameter of time, what we know in the linear progression.

Yet the unknown is not our enemy. It’s the great beloved, part of the great mystery of life itself. So I invite you to really bring this practice into your life. To truly realise that each challenge, each obstacle is part of the way. The awake being knows that and experiences them with a deeply equanimous heart. She is at peace with all that is, able to accept what is, and take the invitation of life.