It seems as though Life is conspiring to give me the opportunity to see the interconnectedness of dropping resistance, taking risks and receiving grace (unmerited divine assistance is one partial definition). Not only has Practice supported this through the recent "From the Guide" article and a Practice Intensive prompt, Life has joined in and asked me to take some risks.
For two years, I have been working on a big project. I have been offering workshops around Yoga scriptures. The challenge is that most people regard Yoga as just the physical movement — downward-facing dog, warrior pose, deep relaxation — and so are not inclined to go to a class to talk about Yoga. Realizing this, I renamed the workshops, including one that received the new title, “Inviting Grace into Your Life.” While I had the content I wanted to present, I had not yet seen how that content would support the title. On the day of the workshop, as I sat at my computer trying to “figure it out” Life dropped in the suggestion to “go have lunch, nourish yourself, relax.” And with no resistance, I did just that.
In hindsight, dropping resistance involved “taking a risk,” a risk to conditioning, that is! Egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate would have had me sit at the computer, forego lunch, wrack my brain and get something “fabulous” to offer, not giving me a break while bombarding me with better ideas right up until the moment I’d have to leave for class. Instead, armed with an archived radio show playing, I fixed a delightful, nourishing lunch, listened while I ate until the end of the show, then did some recording and listening. By the time I made it back to my computer and re-engaged designing the class, it dropped in: taking risks is one way to invite grace into your life.
When I dropped resistance to Life’s guidance of caring for myself and took the risk to leave the computer and conditioning behind, I left it up to Life that a guiding principle would occur when appropriate. And it did! Where was the grace, the unmerited divine assistance? At first, it appeared that it was the “solution” to how to present the class, the insight that grace can come with taking risks. And yet, it was also in all three places — the grace in dropping resistance, the grace in risking a new pattern of behavior and the grace in receiving Life’s wisdom.
Musing about that afternoon, I now project that grace is always available. The only time it isn’t is when I’m identified with conditioning. With willingness, compassion and unconditional love to drop resistance and “risk” turning away from conditioning and toward what nourishes and lights me up, grace is invited in (and happily shows up!) to transform and fine tune me to resonate with Life every single moment.
Gassho
Beth