Our psychology is an interesting thing. We have such power in our memory and imagination to either raise us up to life or make ourselves fall. We can build mental walls and imprison ourselves, paralyzing our action and involvement with life, or allow our life to flow. I have personally experienced how addictive a mechanism the mind can be, catching me in an incessant stream of thought that darkens and overwhelms. I find great relief in the sensible reminder that my mind should work FOR me not AGAINST me, and in the truth that I decide how I feel and what happens within me.
Mythology and the great fairy tales of the past are wonderful analogies for the human play of life. And I heard a great line in a movie the other day - "When life throws up a conundrum, we (humans) can turn it into art". Indeed, the creative arts are a human necessity for expressing, balancing, and healing our experience of life in all its shades. From storytelling and writing to music, dance and drama, the arts are a more life-enhancing way to feel and think through our existence.
This brings me to dragons and pearls. My imagination conjured up a picture of me slaying my mental dragons which keep me limited and sometimes imprisoned, and diving for pearls of wisdom that are innate in nature and life all around me. I don't ever have to look far ... the treasure is right there in front of me in everyday life if I have the clarity to see and a heart open enough to receive. As I ponder the story of my life so far, I am excited by the potential and feel empowered to create what my heart feels is good. My experience of life is my creation and continues to be up to me.
When life has felt dark in my mind, the beautiful Vedic sciences have reminded me that my wholeness is far greater than my thought, and that I can put it aside whenever I wish and draw upon an abundance of living intelligence inside and outside of me. If I don't make too much of my thought, I have the choice to use whole body intelligence and pay close attention to the great play of life.
The Yogic system observes a more detailed understanding of the human mind, recognizing it as part of the physical body and utilising intellect, sense of identity, memory, and an awareness that is untouched by memory. But while acknowledging the amazing instrument that it is, they are aware of its addictive nature and how basic and limited it is in its functioning, compared to the core intelligence that causes us to breathe and be animated, and conscious of our "aliveness".
The Yogi and Mystic Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev uses an analogy of our intellect being a sharp cutting instrument that works to protect our identity, and that our identity (self, family, community, country, the world, life) is the hand that wields that intellectual "knife". We can cut and divide with our intellect, or discern for clarity? He reminds us that we cannot know the completeness of life and reality by dissection and details, although we may gain some understanding of the separate parts. He reminds us that we are all “life” at the core and should use our intellect in service to the big picture, rather than for self-interest and to divide and compare. The Vedic Scholar, Dr. David Frawley, and Mother Maya Tiwari, echo this age-old wisdom and encourage us all to be in living relationship with the great web of life; that we cannot act like we are not interconnected and interdependent without causing destruction, and our human ability to be conscious of this is our greatest strength as a humanity, not our limited mental and physical nature.
They cause me to reflect on my own sense of identity and what I fearfully try to defend and preserve. Do I create division between myself and others, or am I inclusive and concerned about the big picture? I see the truth that we are all expressions of living intelligence, built from the same biological and elemental foundations as each other. We are interconnected and interdependent, so we work against ourselves when we divide and destroy the wholeness of life as it should be. I think this truth is both profound and practical at the same time, and I am thankful for this clarity.
Our awareness does give us choice and puts responsibility in our hands to either nourish or destroy life. Individually and collectively, we make a difference through our action to bring about a result. What will we choose? To feel individually empowered to affect change is realistic not idealistic. We each create a result every moment, so we can make it a deliberate result.
Nature is simple about its process. It has no expectation of us, but physical limitations and boundaries plus potentials; natural laws to work within and cooperate with. Unlike other animals in nature, humans are gifted with an awareness that allows us choice - a powerful ability that we are still learning to use properly. We can be mindful creators rather than mindless destroyers. We are supposed to be an evolved life form after all, so we could each leave the planet better than we found it! But it seems we have been mindless destroyers more than anything.
I often go beyond my mind now to find deep peace and dynamism in the life animating me and running through me. While I am breathing, I cannot question that the life in me wants to live, despite what my thoughts are doing. Nature is a phenomenal intelligence and my wholeness is much broader than my intellect. My clarity is to keep my body/mind instruments well so that I can experience the possibilities of life and contribute my skills to what I feel is of long-term importance. I think I will create fewer mental dragons now, because I feel relieved by the truth that all I need to do is live in grace that I am already part of something much larger and more fantastic than I can imagine, and to rest in its intelligence and contribute my natural skills. That is all I need to do. At the end of the day, to have been sensible and joyful is a worthy way to exist, rather than trying to live by human-created ideas and expectations which are often divisive, unrealistic, and fraught with disappointment. The life in me wants to live, not be stifled by my mind. To be truly inclusive of all life and appreciate the beauty of the whole working mechanism, feels worth being alive for?
I hope we can all value our individual contributions and work together with nature on whom we fundamentally depend. May we use ourselves positively and not limit our life possibility with our small psychological structure or wear out our lives with external human pursuits to try to feel content and whole or reduce life to economics and biology. We are all a part of something much greater and more beautiful that I for one would like to see future generations have the privilege to enjoy, just as I have. I will be encouraging the people around me to cultivate a living relationship with nature, and to pay close attention to the wonderful intelligence that is already there.
As I continue to slay any dragons and dive for pearls, I will be encouraging my three children that life is theirs for the creating in connection with nature, and to take heart in the phenomenal possibility of every day they are breathing and not waste a minute of their life-time.
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