Lila: The Razor's Edge

 There are certain triggers and dials inside us that can massively alter our experience of Life.

Our experience of anything is always down to what is happening inside of us. We are creating our experience in each moment. This is why a million people can go through the same thing in a million different ways.

Yoga is designed to give us access to these internal dials.

For example, you know what it feels like to try too hard. If you’ve ever tried too hard to have fun, you’ll know it’s the surest way to have the least amount of fun possible.

On the other hand, we also know what it’s like to check out completely—to not give anything of ourselves to the experience. That too guarantees not much fun.

What we’re really looking for is the razor’s edge.
The place where we are fully engaged, without pushing too hard.

This is Lila.
The play of Life.

The ability to be right at our edge… not giving too much, not giving too little.

We all have the capacity to over-give, and we all have the capacity to under-give. Each of us probably leans more toward one or the other, depending on the situation.

We over-give out of a sense a lack—maybe it feels like others aren’t giving enough, so we compensate on their behalf.
And we under-give when we don’t want to be there, when we’d rather withhold and avoid engaging.

Behind both tendencies is the same thing: fear.

We over-give because we fear that unless we control the situation, it will all go wrong.
We under-give because we fear that if we engage, we might lose something.

The way through is to step onto that razor’s edge.

The moment you place yourself there,
you are no longer functioning from the ego.
Which means you no longer have a limited perspective on the outcome.
You are wide open, available for almost anything to emerge.

That’s what happens when we stop pre-determining Life with our over- or under-giving.

The beauty of it is—it requires almost no intellectual intelligence.

It simply asks you to stay right there. To stay open.

A fearlessness to bring yourself just here.
Not resisting, not controlling. Just here.

Your body already knows this. If you give it permission, it will find that place again and again. But it does require a psychological switch—out of the mechanisms of control and resistance.

Let go of the fear.
Let go of the compulsions.
Place your body right here.
Let the mind fall away.
And see what happens.

If you master this, it will change everything.

Sometimes, in a situation, it may look like you are saying or doing nothing at all. But in that space, you are creating room for something else to happen through someone else.

Otherwise, we go around stealing other people’s opportunity to give.

Sometimes it is simply our inability to rest with the silence that prevents what needs to happen from coming through. Sometimes it is our fear of acting that holds it back.

Every situation is on the cusp of greatness—if those involved can put themselves in that space of availability, tuned into what is needed.

Open up and see.

You don’t need to know how something will be before it happens. In fact—you can never know.

Stop trying to bottleneck Life through your limited ideas.
Let Life flow fully.