The Magic Happens ...

I've just been to a great talk by my teacher Maharaji (Prem Rawat). It was a great few days of learning for me. For one thing the event was announced at very short notice so I had two days to get there or not.

My head kicked in with all the reasons why this was too little time for me to get there. The questions came up - How would I juggle things? Why was the notice period so short?
Then the moaning - It's not fair! This is just too much to expect. I don't like to be rushed And what about the guys pulling this together how will they do it in time.

My head decided that the whole thing was too much for it and settled into a sulky "I'm not going and that's that" stand off.

My heart moved my hands to the computer and reserved a seat just in case my mind changed. Then by chance I spoke to one of the guys organising it and was he concerned? NO! "Ah just let the magic happen and it will all come together", he said.

I thought about that and saw that I was so in my own way. The river was flowing and I was letting my thoughts strand me on the dry rock in the middle safely and miserably out of the flow. I decided to get out of my own way. The flow started. Another telephone call offering all sorts of easy solutions, travel with good friends, accommodation for all of us in another friend's house. We went and had a marvellous time.

As he spoke Maharaji talked about illusion and the tremendous power illusion has to seem so real. How does the illusionist pull off a stunt? With clever distraction. The illusions in life are no different and what stunts are we not noticing? What are we allowing to distract us?

So short notice or perfect timing? I can only love what is and in this case the timing couldn't have been better as it allowed me to shed another set of concepts. What a gift to have been given. I was only saying a few weeks ago that I was finding training for Byron Katie's The Work tough going as I was running out of issues to work on. Boy did I find a few issues when the comfort zone of planning, of thinking I could know for sure what the next week would bring, was removed. I found the illusion that life can be known beyond the moment was shattered and the distraction of diaries, plans and arrangements are just ideas of what might happen but might or might not have any bearing on the reality of what is happening.

It was even fun to see my mind run riot again. That hasn't happened for a long time and thankfully an ego based sulk couldn't hold up against a heart that has been fulfilled, strengthened, expanded and bathed in bliss by the simplicity of Maharaji's teaching time after time after time.

The whole experience reminded me too of something Maharaji said some time ago - the ability to be in touch with the heart is no different to eating. It has to be done every day. You can't eat and then say that's fine, I've eaten now I never have to eat again. No every day the food has to be ingested and every day connection has to be made with the heart. A day skipped is a day spent hungry.

I'm grateful now to have experienced the hunger and the filling in the space of yet another 24 hours on planet Earth.

Something New

Well it's been all change in the world or has it.. Fear affects us all in so may ways. I've been holding myself back for some time now from committing to establishing a healing centre in the small town I live in. But I'm following my heart and the Fusion Centre will open May 5th to offer The Work of Byron Katie, Intuitive Mentoring and Energy Healing. All things I've been doing for a while now but not in a committed full time capacity. My decision to offer it via the centre is largely based on my commitment to my own path and walking the walk as it were, rather than hiding behind the many excuses for not just admitting that writing and healing is all that I do.

And for all out there who may be feeling the effects of all the global fear please realise that this global lesson is a financial one. So many of us have come to see our worth and the worth of those around us in purely financial terms and that is such a slippery road to go on. In reality no money is secure, banks can fail, stocks become worthless, property prices fall, countries revolt. It's all a game and if we can't see that our only asset is love, family and community and the ability to give and receive love to our partners, family and friends then we truly lose because we are not recognising that the only currency that has any value or endurance is the currency of love.

The question we can ask ourselves in this situation is what did we value? What did we expect to gain from having houses that were so much bigger than our actual needs? Why did we need four wheel drives if we were living in urban or inner city ares? Why did we think the chemical peels, the botox or the facelifts would prevent the natural aging process? What did we really expect to gain from any of these transient things?

In looking at the false idols that we devote ourselves to, we may begin to get a sense again of what is real. So from a work perspective I would ask not "is the world economy in crisis" but rather "is our 'meaning of life' view being challenged"?

That's a nice question to sit with and do an inquiry on...