‘People desire to separate their worlds into polarities of dark and light, ugly and beautiful, good and evil, right and wrong, inside and outside. Polarities serve us in our learning and growth, but as souls we are all.’ Joy Page
There are many different ways I can look at things or events or processes. For example a dog is just a dog. In one way there is nothing special about it; at the same time it is extraordinary, even miraculous. It all depends on how I look at it. I could say that it is both ordinary and extraordinary. The dog doesn't change when I change the way I look. It is always just what it is. That is why dogs and flowers and mountains and the sea are such great teachers. They reflect my consciousness. It is my thoughts, my outlook and my choices that change. And with this new discovery the real voyage consists not in ‘seeking new landscapes but having new eyes.’
When I become aware, through seeking with new eyes, new possibilities can arise. In my understanding things are whole when you can see and connect with them on different levels, when you can see fullness and connectedness as well as individuality and separateness. Your thinking expands in scope. And your feelings dance like they’ve never danced before.
I realise how I am part of separateness as well as the whole. The whole is constant it is the bigger picture it is everlasting and always. It is ALL. So I am the dog and He is me, and I can also just be me in times of challenge, resulting in feelings of loneliness and separateness. When my eyes fail to seek beyond - perhaps through fear and limitation of my self. All such beautiful messages availing themselves for me to go deeper and heal more.
I find my self feeling separate when I am challenged and processing my challenge. I find myself to be separate when I am in every body else’s business, when I blame and point fingers for instance, “why are you late, deal with your mother and you make me feel this way” I am aware though, that this is exactly when I must attend to my inner feeling of insecurity and inadequacy – my little girl that just doesn’t feel good enough. I also feel separate when I blame and shame and judge the universe for catastrophes like the Haiti Earthquake disaster, or war. The effect is separation when I am mentally in another persons or the universes business.
So could separation be an illusion, I thought, but for me it is a very real feeling and has a profound effect on me. I am aware that it reminds me to attend to myself and that this is very, very genuine. So separation is a part of me it is something that I will always have a conversation with and in so doing be able to take it home, listen to its messages and then set myself free.
This is a truly liberating experience. It can take you beyond your limited preoccupations within yourself. It can put things into a larger perspective. It will certainly change the way you relate to the dog. I think of how children act with so much awe and excitement when they see things and it doesn’t necessarily need to be for the first time. They are the dog and the dog is them – Wholeness – no question.
When you observe things through the lens of mindfulness, whether it is during meditation and breathing practice or in daily living, you invariably begin to appreciate things in a new way because your very perceptions change. Ordinary experiences may suddenly be seen as extraordinary. This does not mean that they stop being ordinary. Each is still just what it is. It's just that now you are appreciating them more in their fullness. I realise that the energy beyond is what wholeness is, and although I strive to be part of this I am still a physical being on earth having a physical experience here to learn more about who I am, to expand and grow myself even more through each of the moments whether they be moments of separateness or infinite wholeness.
