Aparigraha and The Place From Which Everything Arises and Everything Returns
There is nothing we can’t resolve with the breath
There is nothing we can’t resolve
when we understand —
within ourselves,
to the degree to which we are willing and have the capacity:
Where everything comes from
and where everything returns.
It is the solace of all solace.
It’s the peace of all peace.
It’s the message that yogis shared so emphatically
with all those who had ears to hear.
What you are seeking,
where you have come from
and where you will go to eternally abide
is found within yourself,
deep in the chamber of your own Heart.
A great place to connect to it
is on the end of your exhale,
where you just rest
before anything happens
and after everything ceases to be.
Find this place.
Rest in it.
Come to know it.
Feel the unshakeability of it.
Feel how it can never be taken away from you,
because it is the essence of what you are.
Find your peace.
It doesn’t make life easy.
It doesn't mean you don’t feel
all of the comings and goings —
things that get gifted t o us,
and then inevitably dissolve
and get taken away.
The inherent loss.
The sense of pain
in ‘losing’
that which we love.
That pain is still there,
but the resolution brings it to the right place.
It doesn’t make it “OK.”
That’s just trivialising things, isn’t it?
But it brings it to resolution.
It returns it to truth.
Every experience you’ve ever had
has arisen and dissolved.
‘Suffering’
is holding on
to an experience
that’s already gone.
That’s suffering.
It’s not even real.
We suffer the illusion —
because you can’t hold on
to that which is gone.
But the real question is —
Where does it come from?
Where does it go to?
Every experience has an origin
inside of us.
Otherwise —
where do you experience it?
It comes from,
and it goes to,
the same place.
This is the place to find.
Can you feel why the sages pointed to this place
so emphatically?
They said:
this is the end of suffering.
It is not the end of pain.
or the end of coming and going,
or the end of change.
That’s a very important distinction.
In fact,
Life becomes grander
more expansive and inclusive
in its range of possibility
the more you rest in this place.
Because it is simply open to everything.
It’s closed to nothing.
Because it’s the source of everything —
it can be with everything that happens.
So it’s not a detachment from Life
that leaves us cold and separate.
It’s an absolute inclusion
in the unbelievable, infinite display of Life.
But it’s there as a reminder
of where it comes from,
where it goes to,
and what is unaffected by this coming and going.
We never lost anyone.
It’s a big message —
because we’ve all ‘lost’ someone by now in our life.
Or if we haven’t, we will.
It is simply inevitable.
We’ve definitely lost things anyway,
things that have arisen and subsided in our experience.
They’re still in you.
They’re resting in pure energy in your heart,
where they belong —
in the love of your being.
Isn’t that a beautiful place to take anyone?
All this can be understood through the breath.
There isn’t one master
from any tradition,
that hasn’t pointed to the same place.
And because they know it,
and they stand in that absolute conviction of it,
they become a way to it —
all these great beings
that have arisen have stated:
This is so.
I’m absolutely loving
coming to these sessions at the moment.
I’ve never experienced
a group of people so with me,
in such totality and commitment,
in my whole 30 years of teaching,
as what’s happening right now.
It’s like there’s hardly a ripple of distraction
in the entire room
the whole time we’re here, isn’t it?
The amount of energy that you leave behind you in this space,
is intense.
It’s prayerful.
It’s conscious.
It’s like —
"I want to be here.
It’s important that I'm here.
I’m here in my fullness."
It means that when we share and talk like this,
it goes into such deep levels of our being,
that we’re being transfigured
and transformed by it.
That is the most holy of holy things to happen.
We are celebrating our coming together.
The Yamas
These Yamas, huh?
They are hitting so deep.
It feels like the sangha has really taken them in
and allowed them to do their work.
They hit tough sometimes.
They hit deep.
But the deep part of us is in celebration of that.
They are delusion-shattering principles.
So we come to the end of it —
before we go into the Niyamas next week,
which is even more exciting.
We’ve surrendered to the love that we are.
To the truth within ourselves.
We learn to stand in our own integrity.
And we’ve learned that
the unwillingness to commit
masquerades as freedom.
Unwilling to take root.
unwilling to root down,
unwilling to go still,
unwilling to be with something
for long enough to go far.
My teacher said:
“Discipline brings freedom.”
That’s Brahmacharya.
To commit
to the Life that lives you.
Committing to the outpouring
of the Great Spirit
that is greatly expressing itself
through my life.
Wherever it might take me.
However tough it might be.
Aparigraha
So now we come to number five.
Aparigraha.
It’s basic message is:
Nothing here is yours.
Overcome the illusion that anything here belongs to you.
You are not the possessor
of anything.
It’s all a passing gift —
a certain expression of Life
going through its own cycle.
Any experience
that arises from the great energy
to complete its own life cycle —
any person,
any object,
any thing at all —
is not owned by you.
It is owned by Life,
and always will be.
We are suffering
our delusion of possession.
Instead of enjoying our capacity
to freely and openly
allow all that is
to rise and fall
in our awareness
without needing to grasp it.
The need to grasp things —
just to feel “mine” —
is the cause of our contractions,
our tensions,
and causes an incredibly limited
field of receptivity.
It stops us receiving
what could be coming to us —
if we weren’t so possessed
by our possessions.
Anything we possess
is possessing us.
It’s a massive teaching.
You can have anything
in the realm of your experience —
temporarily.
It is a visitor,
it is a gift,
from the beyond,
arising for you to experience, love, and learn from
but you don’t possess it.
The moment we relinquish our possession of it
it becomes free in it’s own expression
it becomes free in our energy,
and our capacity for joy increases to the degree we release it.
Patanjali says:
The outcome of overcoming
this delusion of ownership
is an immense uprising
of a natural and all-pervading generosity.
The one who is not trying to own or possess
is naturally generous
with everything arising in their field —
because they know
it was never theirs to own.
Therefore —
they share.
According to Patanjali
that is our nature.
The power of releasing your grip on things,
is that you liberate them.
Their energy and potential
is released to its maximum
It doesn’t mean you can’t
hold someone in your love and care.
Doesn’t mean you can’t
take responsibility
for what’s in your field.
Just don’t add the layer of:
“Mine.”
The more we release the grip
the more Life can give to us.
The more we try to hold,
the less we can have.
The law of abundance simply states:
If you're releasing what comes,
as it comes,
you're available
to what is to come next.
If you're holding on
to what just came,
which is already on its way through,
you are not available
to receive what's coming next.
In other words,
our lives can potentially become
so self-possessed,
so locked in,
that we're missing
almost the entirety of our existence.
I know that’s a scary message,
but if it is received well it can open up our lives.
Because then —
I realise how possessive I am.
And I’m honest enough to say —
“It’s time to release.”
Sometimes it is really tough to release but,
we know the mechanism within ourselves.
It is not alien to us.
We know when we are grasping
and we know when we are releasing.
We know that grasping leaves us unfulfilled.
And tense.
And it leaves us in fear.
The fear of losing
what I'm gripping.
It also reduces my capacity
to use what I've just been given.
To love and enjoy it.
I know.
I can feel that.
And I can also feel
The opening.
The releasing.
The freedom.
And The love that starts to move
when I depossess myself from my possessions.
Aparigraha
What an invitation.
And now you're feeling into it,
because you're a genuine, sincere aspirant —
you’re feeling into your life
and everything you're holding onto right now.
That’s how it works.
That’s is the work.
I do it.
You do it.
It is what Yogis do.
We look where we are holding on with a tight grip
and we say, “maybe I could start to relax that.”
Then the suffering I am causing diminishes,
and I am inevitably better
for the thing or person that I was holding so tight. `
Now I am in service of them
Rather than in possession of them.
It’s often people we’re holding on to,
but it is also our identity,
our beliefs,
our politics.
It is everything we create conflict with.
When we possess them
we are possessed by them.
The world is full of people possessed by knowledge.
Not wisdom.
Because wisdom is only available
in the relinquishment of knowledge.
We can be possessed
by anything.
Just different forms.
Same misery.
Become unpossessed
and you fall back
into the lap of God.
You don’t belong to this world.
You came from somewhere else.
You come into this world —
granted.
But this isn’t your place.
This isn’t your home.
Obviously.
Because you’re going to leave it.
And where are you going to go?
To the exact same place
you discovered on the end of your exhale.
Hallelujah!
Back you come.
Learning the lessons
again and again
until we are walking in this world
free and full of love
because that is what is there when we are not trying to possess it.
Set everybody in your life free.
That is a big step to make.
And you can do it.
Set everybody free of your resentment.
Anyone you’re still holding resentment towards.
It’s time to let them go.
We’re full of people we don’t like.
That’s not good news, is it?
We go to bed with them.
We wake up with them.
Release it.
This is Aparigraha:
Release the resentment.
Release the ones you love —
because you love them enough to do so.
Release the idea
that you have to achieve
such-and-such and such-and-such
in your lifetime
in order to be good enough.
Feeling the freedom?
Swimming again
in the great ocean of possibilities.
Namaste.
Comments
Post a Comment