Self-Realization
Are You Noticing Life Passing Through You?
“Wherever you are, that’s the entry point.” ~ Kabir
Notice the life passing through you. Well, you think it doesn’t matter. Or you aren’t paying attention to it. You want to do something else like reading a book. But if you aren’t aware of your life then you’re missing the treasures that reside inside you.
Death teaches you this lesson really well. All your attachments to things or people didn’t really matter. What mattered was the life, the breath, the pulses of your heart.
One day the boy wanted to enquire about the nature of life and God. So, the Zen Master decided to impart wisdom through a practical experience rather than verbal explanation.
The Master submerged the boy underwater, causing him to struggle for breath. After releasing the boy, the Master asked him what he desired most in that moment.
The boy, still gasping for air, responded with a simple yet profound answer, “Breathe.”
Enquiring big philosophical ideas yet missing the very life that’s present inside ourselves is identification with the mind. The mind wants to know about God, the meaning of life, the nature of life, and destiny.
The mind wants to understand life, not to live life. That’s what brings suffering. Try to grasp life, you’ll miss it.
Life is a moment. So live in the moment.
Have you noticed why children, animals, birds, and trees seem to be more happy and enjoying their life? They’re living in the moment and through the moment. For them nothing exists apart from this moment hence, being happy as life moves freely and spontaneously through them.
The struggling and agitation are of the mind because it resists the present moment. The mind crafts a cage to bind life to a narrow definition. It wants to fulfil its intellectual thirst.
But the trees and animals don’t take their life into their heads, instead, they let it flow through their body. Life can’t be caged, it seeks to move and its very nature is freedom. So, the question for us is: how can life be free? Well free from what. Free from the mind and who we think we are.
What you are is to be lived. Not grasping and hoarding. You’re not L-i-f-e. These alphabets mean nothing other than pointing. So what you are is to be experienced, felt, and sensed. You’re honoured with the gift of life. Not every sperm cell came to life, only one did (enter the egg). So you’re the chosen one. You’ve been given life to live it fully and thoroughly. Nourish it, enjoy it, and celebrate it and see how you blossom the life within and around you.
Life and God are the same. That which is moving through you is also moving through me. That which is still in me is also still within you. They’re one and the same. And both life and God are inside you. Feel it fully until you become one with it.
All of your past have been moments of presence. Eckhart Tolle
What a great realization is this. What you were searching for can be found here in the present moment.
Practical Tips:
Feel the inner body by breathin’ through the body. Live your life through the belly where once you used to live. Laugh with the whole body, especially the belly. Read my article by being aware of breathing via the belly. That’s going to anchor you inside being. Now even if storms come in your life, you’ll be like a deeply rooted tree connected with the source of life.
Put your both hands on the gut, and feel the pure life or breath expanding your tummy as if you’re pregnant and then slowly releasing it.
Note: I’m spending more time in nature. Being meditative is easy in those places. We can get distracted in our house and get caught up in our minds unintentionally.
By the way, I just came home from the park and I met the gardener. We were sitting across the benches and life was flowing through both of us and we didn’t miss it. That’s what being meditative means.
Prior to awakening, when I was on my phone or reading a book, I sometimes got lost in the content and forgot the one who was watching through my eyes or even the breaths I was taking.
So we can gently bring the awareness back to our naturally occurring breathing even when doing or reading. We can be engaged in an activity and yet aware of our being.
Well, every moment is an opportunity for awakening. Awakening has nothing to do with the past or future. Awakening occurs only in the present moment. So when I say “prior to awakening” it can be taken literally, or it can be taken in the context of a moment ago.
Moments ago I caught myself getting lost in the content and my awareness was submerged in the content and then I became aware of being, rather than doing.
Simplicity is the key.
