There is deep gratitude for Awareness Practice and all of the practice opportunities that are available. It feels like a 24-hour, wrap-around service that completely envelops this person to wake up and end suffering. What is showing up again and again is that Life’s information comes in different ways and forms, and it is up to this practitioner to be present to receive those gifts.
In one of our ongoing retreats, “Going Beyond Fear, Resistance and Limitation,” this person is getting to have practice opportunities and support daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. This kind of practice opportunity allows one to receive the insights that Life offers constantly. An awareness came through that an activity that used to be seen as difficult is no longer viewed in the same way.
A belief is uncovered – that one has to sit with each insight and hold onto it, record and listen about it for hours. Life doesn’t expand or move quickly.
A variation on this insight occurred with kitchen duty several years back at a retreat at the Monastery, seeing how everyone (this person projects) was extremely present and moved quickly, busting the belief that to “do” Awareness Practice “right,” one had to always move at the pace of a snail. This is not to say that sitting with insights, waiting for clarity and recording and listening for long periods of time are not part of Practice, it just became clear that ego-I had hijacked those tools and made rules, standards and expectations of them. It was a blessing to see all of this!
It is a joy to practice with this insight by turning to and trusting Life, its pace and expansion. Slowing down or speeding up is possible from Center as well as from fear/ego-I, and paying attention to where the information is coming from is a beautiful cue and tool. Noticing when “I” doesn’t want to, either out of fear or resistance, and going ahead and showing up for the human anyway – at Life’s pace where there is no urgency or dread – is one of the best gifts.
Gassho,
Meg SN