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To me, the breath is the key. I have to stop and remember to breathe every now and then, usually when my 4-year-old has pushed every button he knows (and he knows a lot of them!) to challenge me to be a better person. I find myself muttering my mother’s pet phrase, “God give me strength!” … how many times did I hear that as a kid? 😆
But I do find that I hold my breath sometimes, and that’s usually when I’m about to blow a gasket.
I mean, how can you forget to breathe???The little guy’s my best teacher, though, and makes me laugh when I’m getting freaked out by all the stuff I have on my plate lately… “why don’t we do some yoga, mom?” Gawrsh!
Hmmm… interesting topic… 😉
From personal experience… I’d say detachment is the key here… To try and remain equipoised in your mind and see the world for what it is… If you let everyone get to you then you will fall further away from your goal. Try to be unaffected by others (I know this sounds a little cold, but it works in bringing about an enlightened state). Try to yes; radiate love. But do not depend on this love for your joy… just love for loves sake, as love is your true higher vibratory creative and healing potency. But do not let mundane feelings of sadness and joy effect you. You must become a master of your senses and equally positioned on the equator of your emotional barometer (if that analogy makes any sense 🙄 ) 😀 Try not to let the world get you up or down… just be in the world but not of it… see with equal vision the tree, ant, dog and dog eater… By reaching such a state of equilibrium your mind will be open to higher realizations and natural bliss that is your constitutional spiritual position.
Try it… who knows…
Here’s something I found which explain my thoughts a lil better…
What we need is to be interested and to watch, but not interfere or be caught up in what we are thinking. Don’t think of the past, don’t anticipate the future, don’t get fascinated by the present. See it as it is. Just be there with it. A thought is just a thought. An emotion is just an emotion. It is like a bubble. It will burst and another one will come up.
When we first begin to put this into practice the mind begins to split. We develop what is called the observer, the witness, the knower. This is an aspect of the mind. It is still just mind, conceptual mind, but it is a mind which is standing back and looking at what is going on, as if at a distance. In itself, this is not ultimate reality, because it is still a dualistic mind. But it is a vast improvement on the way we normally think, because it gives us the space to see a thought as a thought and an emotion as an emotion. Then we can decide whether this is a useful thought or emotion or not. We know it for what is, rather than being absorbed in it. We no longer identify with it.
If we develop this inner awareness, which is like an inner space, we can ride the waves of life. People imagine that to be a meditator you have to always live in very tranquil situations and that you are likely to be inundated if a turbulent situation arises. This is true for beginners, just as it is for someone who is learning how to surf. At the beginning, they have to stick to the small waves otherwise they will be bowled over. But an expert surfer looks for the big waves. The greater the waves, the more fun, once you have your balance. The secret is to be balanced, to be poised. To be a good surfer you need to be neither too tense nor too relaxed, just balanced. This is what we need in our practice, too.
When we develop this inner space, everything takes on a dream-like quality. Not dream-like in the sense of being sleepy, but in that it is no longer so solid, so real, so urgent. It has a quality almost like an illusion. You don’t take it quite so seriously, because you are not so totally involved in it. Now when we have that sense of stepping back and seeing life with a degree of clarity, we are able to respond to situations which arise with freshness and spontaneity, instead of our usual automatic response, which is like pressing a button on a machine. We begin to respond naturally and in an appropriate manner.
–Ani Tenzin Palmo, From “Reflections on a Mountain Lake”
I mean, how can you forget to breathe???
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