"Once upon a time there was a woman who was swimming across a lake with a rock in her hand. As she was getting close to the middle of the lake she began to sink because of the weight of the rock. She would go down below the water and then pop back up again. As she did this, the people who were watching from the shore were screaming at her to drop the rock. She continued to swim until she could no longer hold herself above the water and even though people were shouting to drop the rock, she wouldn’t do it, and just before she went under one last time, not to come up again, the onlookers heard her say, “I can’t, it’s mine.”
One of the things that I love about yoga is that it supports us in getting clearer about what is us, and what is the story of us. We get to this place by way of making contact with our internal witness. That spacious grounded place within that clearly sees the way things really are--without story.
The story maker within all of us is strong and without clear insight into its nature we can be so deeply enmeshed in our stories that we lead our whole lives in fear, shame, guilt, remorse, delusion, and despair. Usually stories revolve around projecting into past or future our ideas of what should/should not happen to us or others. Good signs you're in story mode are thoughts such as "I really should have said...", "They should really do it this way", "I can't possibly do this", "They can't get away with this", "I'm not this enough", "They are not this enough", etc..
There are many more concoctions of story manifestations but to some degree or another many of us circulate these variations around in our minds, and like the woman who wouldn't let go, we drown because we hold on so tightly to who we think we are, what we think we need, and what we think we should be doing.
Yoga practice gives us a chance to meet our stories head on, and with compassion greet our stories with understanding. As Byron Katie points out in her book "Loving What Is" it's impossible to drop our stories. Thoughts come from nowhere and return to that same no where. She says rather than trying to let go of our stories our task is to simply meet our stories with understanding and they very often let go of us. Their grip is not so strong and we can then be free and in the present.
When you practice this week meet your stories with understanding and see what happens. Remain open and spacious as stories come up "I can't", "The teacher really should have done this", "I'm not this enough to do this", etc.. See if the grip of your story softens just a bit, and notice who you are and what happens when you are free from the entanglement of your story maker.
I'll leave you with a great practice to support you in this journey. It's an exercise from my book "Heart Fire: Practices To Awaken, Expand, and Engage Your Heart" called "Practice cultivating the witness through listening". Try this exercise, even if you’ve never meditated before. Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes.
Let your breathing be calm, so that you don’t have to think about the breath at all. Now take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. Notice that in the instant that you tell your senses to listen, all of your thinking stops momentarily. The idea with this meditation is to gradually lengthen the amount of time that thinking naturally suspends by staying in a state of active listening. In the listening state, we are receptive and open, taking in auditory information through our senses. Almost instantly the mind starts naming the sounds we hear. Start to notice that, and let it go. Say to yourself, “I’m naming again.” And then come back to listening.
Become even more acutely aware of any sound that enters your perception. Let curiosity be your guide, and stay interested in what arises. Don’t try to figure it out. There isn’t a right way to do this. There is only listening.
The idea isn’t to stop the flow of thoughts altogether. This isn’t possible. The mind will keep thinking. That is its job. The idea is to become less attached to identifying with those thoughts. And in that process, the witness naturally grows stronger, and more familiar. Just remain in a state of active listening without naming as long as you are comfortable doing so. When you’re
ready, open your eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment