It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of you own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of
your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or
to remember the limitations of being a human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from ITS presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full
moon, "YES!"
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Developing Awareness
by Jennifer Hoffman
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The awareness of how powerful we are allows us to realize where we could have chosen differently, made other decisions or even where we had signs that transformation was possible and we completely missed the opportunity. Instead of judging or criticizing ourselves, which only serves to set us back farther, we can learn to develop an awareness of transformational events and how to use them to our best advantage.
The potential for transformation occurs every moment but without awareness we can either miss these opportunities entirely or make the same choices each time. It is only after our choice has been made and we are out of the emotions of the moment that we can step back, detach and realize that we could have made another choice. We know that we always get other opportunities to learn our lessons so how do we prepare ourselves for them? Developing awareness will help us recognize the opportunities for transformation, remain in the present moment and prevents us from repeating past behavior.
The emotions and feelings we have about people and situations are our best indicator of when transformation is occurring. Others participate in our lessons and help set them up for us. It is then up to us to use the information they provide to make choices. If we are always in reacting mode we make decisions and choices from our emotions and do not use the tools of detachment and observation to assess what is happening and see an array of opportunities instead of the one that seems to be the most obvious. Without awareness, the most obvious choice is the one we have always taken. With awareness, the field of choices is much larger. Then we must decide whether we can take a different path or not.
This requires discipline and a willingness to disengage from old patterns of behavior which create more karma for us. The person who pushes our buttons does so because that is their role in our life until we learn the lesson they are helping us with. With awareness we see that this is occurring and can decide whether we want to respond the same way each time. Why are they able to do that and what can we do to step out of the situation and into a different way of being? With awareness we step into a space of peace and calm, no matter what is going on around us. Then we can make choices that best utilize our opportunities for transformation and move ourselves into a path that ends karma and creates peace, joy and new opportunities for our reality.
Labels: awareness, spirituality, transformation
A Swami was having a conversation with Lord Shiva one day and said:
'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.
Lord Shiva led the Swami to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the Swami looked in. In the middle of the
room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of
stew, which smelled delicious and made the Swami's mouth water.
The people sitting! around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.
They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.
But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The Swami shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.
Lord Shiva said, 'You have seen Hell.
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the
same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.
The Swami said, 'I don't understand.'
'It is simple,' said Lord Shiva.
'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'
In perhaps one of its briefest definitions spirituality is about the relationships that we have with our self, with others and the Universe. It is characterized by several key concepts, one of which it is that it is paradoxical. Otherwise seemingly opposite conditions, entities or experiences coexist comfortably together. For example, spirituality is both subtle and powerful. It is like our breath. We go about most of our day not even realizing that we are breathing. Yet our breathing is so powerful that if we stop, we die.
Spirituality is personal. Each of us has to discover that on our own, in our own way. It is highly useful, in that it deals with a spectrum of life's issues, from learning basic trust and getting free of suffering. And spirituality is experiential. To appreciate it, we use it, to realize it, we have to experience it. We cannot know it ultimately through our intellect or through reason. It is not knowable. It is only be-able.
It is indescribable. It is so vast, that even if we are to read all of the world's great holy books and listen to all the great spiritual masters, we would still not fathom it. Spirituality is inclusive and supportive. It does not reject anything. And I have found here is where organized religion may enter, because it is part of spirituality. Thus, while spirituality is not organized religion, it includes it; it supports it and then transcends it.
It is both healing and growth-inducing, so of course it is the ultimate fulfillment! The journey of discovery and healing described here is actually and ultimately a spiritual journey. It may have taken us some time to get here. As we enter and work through each healing stage, we move to the next stage. And when we move from one stage to the next, we do not abandon or cancel the former stages. Rather, we transcend them, which means that while we still respect and use them as is appropriate and spontaneous for us; we are now living and operating our life from an entirely new level of consciousness, awareness and being. These levels of consciousness parallel several descriptions of our spiritual path.
I love you as I meet you in the place in which you are.
~Only Love~
