Living With The Mystery

Nugget 42: from my talk “Partnering with the Universe”

“…Tips for living in the mystery….”

See if you can find a piece of yourself in Joy. In Celebration. In Playfulness.

Feel deeply what these things are and identify with them. After all – you are creating them.
Playful things allow you to acknowledge the mystery. They are all things only available in the now moment. Playfulness can be a technique for developing a visceral relationship with your true self – to enhance the mystery – to serve the mystery – to partner with the mystery. Be playful.

Let go – into Imagination, Art, Dance, Music, Expression, Colour, Relationships, Body Work – things that take you beyond your habit of filtering life through your mind all the time – that take you outside of your metal, cerebral construct of what you are – outside of the safety zone of your mind – which is only a limiting device – and into things that challenge you – scare you – excite you – that you filter through your body – your heart – your gut – your loins. These are the things that acknowledge and give rise to the relationship that now starts to form between you and this mysterious being that your are. A force of life that is not just the real you – but a reality that is contained in all things. Yes. Just like The Force in Star Wars. Or like Ch’i to the Chinese – or Prana in Ayurveda. There is one truth to all this – and a million ways to write it down.

But this biggness – this mystery – you can have a relationship with it – it can be developed – it can grow – respond – become deeper – it can become dynamic – there can be a dialogue between you and your source. Contrary to popular belief, the universe is not a faraway place. You’re sitting in it.

Realize that you are a phenomenon. Look at yourself as a phenomenological being. Recognize that you are an activity of the total universe. The idea that your are a completely separate entity is part of the illusion of physical space. Recognize that billions of years of the evolution of the universe is being expressed through you at this moment. Realize that the intelligence of the body – of your brain – comes from the universe and is alive in this moment. Give the universe a little credit for what is going on with you. When you look at all the things taking place to sustain your point of view on the world – you’ll realize that you can’t take credit for all of it. There is a force within you that is not created by your mind alone. This is what you let go into.

Our perceptions are ancient and we share them all. All our five senses are universal. They are the way the universe has chosen to experience itself through you. Your touch is the same touch Leonardo felt when he picked up his brush. That experience is a part of you. Touch is universal – it is ancient. Your ears connect you to the spirit of Mozart forever. Anytime you hear the sound of one of his concertos, you enter a shared, eternal and universal space. Mozart arises with the offering – you arise to collect. That shared, dynamical space dissolves the concept of separateness into the experience of oneness. Music does that. Your gaze upon the stars in the night sky is identical to the experience Galileo had when he changed the world. The consciousness that is working to turn photons of light entering your eye into a subjective experience known as “the sight of the Moon” is identical to his. It may not feel like it right now, but you actually see the world through Galileo’s eyes.

Sight, sound, touch, smell, taste – all the things that you do to filter the universe into an experience of itself are ancient in the extreme – collective – and in these things you can find your true identity – you can relate to and identify with people from the past – people through whom you see parts of yourself in the collective experience of us all. The idea that human greatness took place somewhere in time, long ago, now absent, is false. In the realm of the mystery, each moment contains every other moment. In this way, you have access to eternity. Just by being here.

Find someone you respect or admire and enter their experience. You will begin to see yourself in them.

Get into groups. Spirits soar in groups. Look at any soccer game. The rise in spirit can be seen and felt. It is undeniable. That new, collective energy should make up part of the construct of your identity as well.

Choir. Teams. Games. Concerts. Festivals. Celebrations.

Even meeting with your friends can be transformative under the right conditions. Consider meeting a bunch of your friends with an articulated purpose for the meeting. It has to be to celebrate, recognize, honour. See how it effects the gathering.

Push that pencil off the table. When it falls to the ground – experience a distant but direct effect of the Big Bang which gave birth to gravity. Scratch your head. Go ahead. Scratch it. The energy it takes to scratch your head came from the food you ate – which came from adding energy from the Sun to soil and water – all of which came out of the Big Bang. Every ham & cheese sandwich is connected to the beginning of the universe. And if this is true for every brown bag lunch we ever had, think hard next time you tell someone you love them. How is this connected, too?

Remember: This is all about mystery. Don’t expect to understand how all this works. You need to know, deep inside, that it does. Do not look to your rational mind to OK all this. It won’t. It doesn’t do that. In fact your ego mind will resist a lot of this because it wont be needed during your times of being with the mystery. It has to learn to let you go. Just realize that you have a choice.