Svatantria II

Apparently I did not turn off my contemplation motor as the Svatantria contemplation that I began yesterday, continued to run.  (Sometimes I envision contemplation as a motor in a well - bringing up awareness and understanding).  That contemplation started as a trickle yesterday. Today it is the size of a creek. Sometimes it can become like the Columbia River - or a firehose! -  if I stick with it long enough.

"The world tells us about the divine" ~ Carlos Pomeda

I woke up thinking about water. Springs and rivers and lakes and oceans and salmon. All of it is water - basically.   Salmon - nicely contained packets of water -  are born at source - move with the current downstream, swim the huge fluid freedom of the ocean. And then comes the mysterious call of return and they engage great discipline to swim against the current - upstream - returning to source, where they die and dissolve the boundary of separation (fish - water) and become unbounded water.

Why go to all that trouble?  Why not stay at source - skip the whole journey to the ocean and therefore avoid the consequent arduous path of return?  Or better yet - why not just remain "Unbounded Water". Why be a fish at all?

Evolution. Ongoing and expanding Life.

OK - so the world tells me about the Sacred. Why am I living in a contracted state of separate self - usually unable to relate to the teaching that I am unbounded consciousness....svatantria. Why has my awareness enfolded to create Karen Sprute-Francovich? Why not stay at Source - skip the whole dual part - and the consequent arduous discipline of the path of return?

Evolution. Ongoing Life. The Universe is expanding. God is growing. ( Take your well-disciplined strengths and stretch them between two opposing poles. Because inside human beings is where God learns - Rilke)

Or maybe - as Krishna says to Arjuna - "If I were to stop acting - all these worlds would perish"

Inside humans beings is where God learns.  Do I know what this means? No. But it sings true in me. The alarm rings - it's time to return, to step on the path of authentic practice (which is arduous).  The difference between me and the salmon (beside all the obvious lack of scales and gills, etc)  is that I can decide to cooperate or resist. I can hit the snooze button all morning, losing precious swimming time.  But, according to the Yoga tradition, in the end the resistance is futile.  The great path of return WILL entrain you to its current.  And you will be in service to the Work - to the Great Process of Divine Evolution - engaged in skillful discipline and on your way home to remembrance  - a long journey to unbounded freedom.

JUST AS THE WINGED ENERGY OF DELIGHT

Just as the winged energy of delight
carried you over many chasms early on,
now raise the daringly imagined arch
holding up the astonishing bridges.

Miracle doesn't lie only in the amazing
living through and defeat of danger;
miracles become miracles in the clear
achievement that is earned.

To work with things is not hubris
when building the association beyond words;
denser and denser the pattern becomes
being carried along is not enough.

Take your well-disciplined strengths
and stretch them between two opposing poles.
Because inside human beings
is where God learns.

— Rainer Marie Rilke (1924)
translated by Robert Bly