Life Energy - Shakti - is inherently and wildly generous.

Life Energy - Shakti - is inherently and wildly generous. Shakti is the Divine feminine. She is awakened creation emanating out from the still point - Shiva - like a vortex wheel or a blossom, here and now, in you as you, in your life as it is. She is embodied, organic and tremendously alive.

Shakti's generosity is expressed in Leonard Cohen's song "Come Healing":

.......

The longing of the branches

To lift the little bud

The longing of the arteries

To purify the blood

....

If I accept life as it is, exactly as it is, I give life - Shakti - permission to move in my life, to shower me with the generosity of Her amazing Grace.

And then I can - I must - express that same grace outward with unstinting generosity.

I can't force ripen or force-blossom Shakti. I must open and wait and accept Her in my life as it is. Just as the dark night must be faced before dawn can appear.

My Sanskrit teacher Dr. Katy Jane Poole writes: 

"It's a test, my friend. Can you face that dark night? Can you have faith?

The word for "faith" in Sanskrit is Shradda, "the feeling of an expectant mother." She has no other choice but to sit and wait.

Rest assured, the moment of change is coming. It's inevitable. You just don't know what it is. And you can't control it.

…………..The dark night of the soul isn't supposed to be fun.

The whole world is in a pregnant waiting pattern. Sometimes Shakti makes us  wait, makes me sit where I am and face the unknown where I can't see anything. But you know what? I say YES to Shakti even in her dark phase. A big YES. In a practical sense, for example, I am taking the "flatten the curve" effort seriously. I take it on as a practice not so much for myself personally but for the whole world - like a prayer for all beings. Just because I am lucky to live in a sparsely populated area does not entitle me to ignore the efforts of humanity to flatten the curve. When I have the impulse to "not comply" I name it in myself as "my will and my way".

Instead, wait. Open to grace. Listen deeply. Practice. Surrender to waiting. Don’t measure the waiting.

The image of a Lotus works beautifully here. 

First: surrender to the grace of gravity - your roots in the mud. Dark. Waiting. 




Second: grow a "stem". You will need the muscular energy and discipline to engage principles of alignment  and right action. 

Third: Open, shine outward. Let the lotus blossom and your heart open to the world. Offer it out as prayer or a blessing - however you can serve the generosity of Shakti.

And begin again.

1. Open... to the grace of gravity. Sink your roots in the mud. Not knowing. Wait.  Surrender to Life - as it is - here and now.
2. Align... Muscle energy and discipline.
3. Expand...your heart in an expression of fierce and sweet generosity. Shakti will show you ways to do this even while you shelter in place. 

And begin again.