A question from a student came up recently:
“why do we do all this practicing— can’t I just let my Guru or Jesus or the Divine Mother handle it?”
I replied, “so you want someone greater than you to save your ass, ride in on a golden chariot and fix your poor choices and inefficient decisions? You want to claim no personal effort?”
The horror of the situation struck this person, that no one is going to save you— You have to practice— Lee said, “If you want to be in relationship be in relationship, if you want to practice, practice— no one is going to hand you your life.”
To practice without skipping any steps requires an unwavering effort to stay connected to your inner life. You need to release your #sheildsofsabotage of fear, judgement, blame and shame; if you’re pissed off and angry at your external circumstances you need to look at what you’re doing on the inside with clear and compassionate non judgement. Judgement, I find helps me fall into a pit of enlightened ego— the hell realm I like to call it and that serves no one.
The thing is you cannot skip steps to practice— because if you want to live a life AWAKE, you have to WAKE UP there is no short cut. That doesn’t mean we neglect our responsibilities it means we actually stay in our bodies, in our commitments and we go through our day in the present moment, without expectation or anticipation of what could or should be. The could and should bes are what put us into the hell realm— we have anticipation of what we expect of people and we lose our present moment.
Sri Aurobindo wrote,
” A hasty and ignorant mind, a too eager force easily forgets the necessity of practicing at every stage. this is not only an absurd expectation, it is full of danger.”
How do you lessen a hasty and ignorant mind— you practice you WAKE UP in that moment and #rememberyourself.
Your mind can turn dark and become full of shadows if you let it— your ego does not want you to wake up— it wants you to sleep to hope that someone comes to save you— and in those moments you need to be clear and know that -“Oh no here it comes the cloud of uncertainty” as an awake practitioner you have the ability to without judgement shift your focus to the present moment and stay in your body in your breath and in your practice. We are really available to not sink into the hell realm— we just have to choose to not become victim and do what it takes. In that moment you need to stand in your practice, to apply personal effort— no one is coming to save you. You cannot make a personal sacrifice in order to receive the Work— there is no lottery that will grant you an “all of a sudden” what you perceive to be “perfect” life— you have to WAKE UP to your maturity and reject the notion that if you just “give it up” all is coming—