The Universe teaches me lessons like this: I hear, see or experience something that I find interesting. I make a note of it in my mind, I say hmm, and then I wait for the other parts of the lesson to unfold in countless, fascinating ways. The Universe knows now that I pay attention to signs. We have established, over the years, a viable method of communication.Recently, I noticed in 2 people the interesting inability to hear stories of animal abuse. It is not that they simply do not like to hear those stories, who does?, it is that hearing those stories raises so much anxiety that there is the possibility of a panic attack coming on. A simple definition of the experience of a panic attack is when one is completely overwhelmed by their emotions. I am an animal lover myself, but I find it perplexing to not have the ability to process the emotions that arise from just hearing about real life. There is brutal suffering in this world, to be sure, but becoming paralyzed in the face of suffering is not helpful to either the observer or the situation. We need to find a way to go on- to serve, to love and to find peace and joy. Thinking about those 2 people made me think of that movie with Jack Nicholson where he growls, "You can't handle the truth!" Less than 3 days later, while watching television, I happen upon, you guessed it, that very movie, A Few Good Men! Now I know it's on like donkey kong- this is a full fledged lesson so I am really waiting and watching now.
The next part of the lesson, unfortunately, was me hearing about something that I did not want to hear about, something that was true but was a hard truth for me to hear and carry around. Immediately I felt compassion for people who cannot hear and handle the truth because now I was one of them.
Last week a shaman came to the shala for a workshop. Shamans are the medicine men and healers from indigenous traditions. I met with this shaman for a one on one "journey" as private sessions are called. As I sat holding a severed chicken foot in one hand and spoke to a man with a coyote pelt headdress (really), the conversation turned to what was happening for me right now. I spoke of the painful truth that I was carrying and I said fleetingly "ignorance is bliss." The shaman said, profoundly, that part of growing up is learning to hear the truth, to speak the truth, to recognize the truth and ultimately, to live the truth. No matter how painful the truth might be, if we want samadhi, union with the Divine, this is part of the path.
Once upon a time......
Yashoda, baby Lord Krishna's nanny, was watching the dark blue one play with some other children. One of the children lied and said that Krishna had eaten dirt. Yashoda said to Krishna harshly, Lord, please open your mouth. When baby Krishna opened his mouth, inside Yashoda saw the entire material Universe- stars, moons, planets, infinite space. She said, Lord, please close your mouth.
We all think we want to see God/Goddess, but the scriptures are full of stories about people who are offered just that and cannot handle the truth. Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita sees the now grown Lord Krishna in all His fullness and he also asks for the vision to be taken away. Prajna, full understanding of the divine plan, is so unfamiliar to us, so immense that we need to prepare for more and more clarity of vision. Progressively, the light of understanding dawns and learning to live in harmony with truth is part of the quickening.
