Break-ins and Breakthroughs
I wanted to come out again to convey my sincere thanks to so many of you who wrote in response to my newsletter about the burglary. When I came out of a session that afternoon and saw the number of emails in my inbox, my first thought was that my account had been hacked (good old fear)! Then I saw that there were indeed so many "real" emails.
Just a few weeks ago, seven years and dozens of newsletters later, I had been wondering if people really read my newsletters and why I even bothered, and now I receive so much feedback! Was it the word "Burglary" that caught your attention or was it the unfortunate event that made you want to reach out to me?
Whatever be the reason, I am grateful for your emails. Your support and your sentiments have meant a lot to me. It really feels good to know there are so many people out there who care about Full Bloomed Lotus.
(Just don't blame me if I am looking at yellow journalism with a new respect these days!:))
In addition to the burglary, your responses to my processing the event were very encouraging and helpful. Many of you emailed me with questions and comments that I would like to summarize in reply as follows:
About Living the story: Each event on the outside triggers off a certain emotional reaction in us, thereby revealing our own hidden perceptions and illusions about reality. These knee jerk reactions are really very old and unique to us-they come from the background of nature, nurture, culture and so on, all of which the Eastern teachers simply referred to as "Karma". While I responded to the burglary with responsibility and guilt, some of you have said would have felt anger and a sense of violation. There are no "right" and "wrong" emotions.
The important thing is to be present to what is, with awareness and faith.
Leaving the story: It is a week since the break-in occurred and more waves of other emotions have come up during this time, although with much less intensity. Each time, I have followed the same steps: "feel" the emotion and let it move through without either attaching to it or resisting it, and when I feel released by the grip of that emotion, I move on.
When the entire baggage that is to be released through this manifestation has passed through me in this manner, I don't leave the memory, it leaves me!
Lesson or not?: While I did say there does not always have to be a lesson, I did not mean to say there never is! I was sharing my own tendency to start looking for a lesson on the outside as a way of processing something instead of actually feelingit. like one who turns to the last page of a book to know how it ends before or even instead of reading the book through, some of us need a lesson to justify entering into the experience. In fact, I have often been annoyed by books and movies that were inconclusive and believed them to be without a purpose, not realizing that the author wants the experience itself to be the purpose of that story and not its outcome!.
When we focus solely on the lesson, it only changes what we know, but when we live through the experience, we embody the lesson, thus changing both- what we know and who we are.
So the point is: be open to the experience and the lesson, if any, without needing it.
Loving the story: These two aspects of us- the objective knowing and the subjective feeling- referred to as Shiva and Shakti in Eastern spirituality. the process of uniting our thinking side and our feeling side, is the journey and the destination called Yoga, the Union, which spontaneously leads to peace and love.
I am attaching the link to a great clip by C.K. Lewis as he so eloquently makes the point here: watch it to the end.
Thank you again for all of your replies. I have enjoyed reading every one of them, reflecting and coming up with this reply. We should do this more often....and without a burglar's help the next time!
