Asking the books and the stars?

I have been a seeker and I still am,but I stopped asking the books and the stars.I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.- Rumi

Asking the books and the stars?

Since time immemorial, there is a sense of lack, imperfection and incompleteness in us. Perhaps it comes from observing ourselves and our functioning in the world, experiencing mistakes that we make and their consequences. Perhaps it also flows from some deeply rooted conviction that man can achieve perfection, be immaculate.

From these two factors comes our desire to repair ourselves, to intensively improve ourselves according to our current image of who the perfect man is. This image can come from within or be the result of patterns imposed from outside. The latter phenomenon relates to a large extent to the correction of our external appearance, as well as to the behavioral patterns promoted by the media. It happens that we do not pay attention to whether these external canons harmonize with our internal truth. We are not taught to listen to ourselves and to respect the knowledge that flows to us from Silence. When we try to form ourselves, we are reminded of Cinderella’s sisters – we “cut” ourselves to fit the desired template. We strive to meet the ego’s expectations, unrealistic demands arising from disrespect.

One of the most difficult things for us, people, is to accept what is and agree to what is. We reject self-consent to our appearance, current level of consciousness and self-consent to what is happening at the moment. From this disagreement flow anxiety, nervousness, a feeling that we still have to run somewhere, improve something and achieve something; learn, acquire, accumulate something. As a result, we are in eternal pursuit of an imaginary ideal and neglect what is now and who is now. We neglect our current self, our current body, our current understanding, our current feelings. This is a great trap into which our mind has caught us. It is as if we did not give love and attention to a newborn child, telling it that we will love it when it grows up. The result is great suffering from energetic malnutrition.

We are taught to run our minds from ourselves and from now into the past and the future, into abstract considerations, into various pleasures or into work. We are not aware of what is “closer than our arms and legs”, which is God speaking in us, nor are we literally aware of our “arms and legs”, our body what is happening in it, what it is trying to communicate to us.

Esoteric wisdom says that the Spirit is Life, the mind is a creator and the body is the result. Our bodies are a wonderful gift and tool on the path of self-knowledge. Listening to our body, empathizing with it, contacting those parts of us that are squeezed, blocked, painful, we can recognize in what aspects our mind has moved away from the Spirit, creating false ideas, illusion and thus suffering. Indisposition of a given body part is a picture of a distortion symbolically corresponding to the truth of the Spirit. However, this is not a reason to condemn ourselves, but a signal from the body to dissolve false ideas, recognize the truth and love ourselves.

Any lack of acceptance is suffering. To tune in to perfection, we don’t need to train, scold or reprove ourselves. We do not need to acquire wisdom from the outside, techniques from the outside to force and to control ourselves. We need to listen to the wisdom of our heart, to the wisdom of the present moment and the wisdom of our body. We need silence, not ready-made formulas. We need receptivity instead of imposition.

That’s why Lao Tzu said[i]:

Those who seek knowledge, collect something every day.

Those who seek the Way, let go of something every day.

All techniques of working with ourselves invented by other people are their own wealth. We can, of course, be inspired by them, but we need to be very careful here to make it consistent with our inner truth. Sometimes, we imitate other people, we imitate them, their methods, and we do not see that this imitation is a shadow, a reflection, a copy – instead of the living truth of the present moment. All imitation, repetition of techniques learned in working with ourselves is drowning out the wisdom of our heart, the living wisdom of Now. All worldviews are an attempt to force the inexpressible Truth into theory. Eckhart Tolle in his talks often points out that when we see or hear a bird, for example, and our mind immediately recognizes that it is a blackbird or nightingale, we settle for it and close ourselves off to the multidimensionality, depth and truth of this being and to what is happening right now. We settle for labels instead of tasting reality.

What we need to work on is to accept the present moment without objection, to observe the deeper wisdom that emerges from every experience. That is “letting go of something every day” to become empty, free from prejudice. Our body is a great help here. Embracing its holiness and wisdom. Sensing to painful places where we feel discomfort and giving them awareness, attention, and enfolding it with love. We don’t need any techniques or commands here. Our inner wisdom will be our guide. Our heart, its ability to feel, connects us with the spirit, and the spirit is the inspiration for the mind. When we follow this lead, we become whole and perfect in the image and likeness of God – not in the image of perfection, invented by an egoic mind. The key is the ability to listen to the wisdom of the heart, to the wisdom of the body, to the wisdom of the present moment and to give everything respect, attention and acceptance, in other words – Love


[i] Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48

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Date: May 31, 2020
Author: Emilia Wróblewska-Ćwiek (Poland)
Photo: Unsplash CCO

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