Night Without Boundaries

Sadhguru, darkness and the moon...

In the words of 
Rainer Maria Rilke:

“I love the dark hours of my being. 

My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.”

The discussion on "night" in the video and this picture strike a chord in me. For one thing, darkness is my name, and I mean it literally. And for another, my initials are M.M., a.k.a Midnight Moon during my younger days of yore. Primarily, I was always awake till midnight and after, and I had and still have an affinity with the moon, a reflection of the sun's light.

Once again I am struck by the whole idea of the night as a time when boundaries easily disappear. It is experienced to be most conducive for many things. For me, it is the best time to pray or to meditate... a time when the wall between "me" and the "other" vanishes and we become one. 

It is also the time to experience the silent comfort of the dark womb, so to speak. The best time to reflect and to write. For, it is in this dark womb that the seed of understanding is planted, and from where it grows quietly. And then, when the time is ripe, something beautiful is born.

I love nights..... especially when the moon is in it. Come to think of it, I am the darkness, the moon and also the owl, perched on a still branch, watching everything. 

Life is in the detail

Ludwig Mile van der Rohe, a German-American architect, once said, "God is in the details." Sadhguru says it differently with "Life is in the detail..."

God... Life... both are synonymous to me.

It is not easy to speak about God or about Life. But, it is quite easy to experience God-Life. The secret is in the details. When we slow down or even stop to pay attention to the details of what is right before us, we can be lifted from what is ordinary to what is extra-ordinary, to what seems to be mundane to what is magical or sacred, or magically sacred. It is right to say that God... Life.. is right under our noses: the march of ants, the spider's web, the bark of a tree, the flame of a candle, a dry leaf.

Drop all thinking... Just pay attention... to the details.      

God is in the details. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/ludwig_mies_van_der_rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_mies_van_der_rohe_101419

d is in the details. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_mies_van_der_rohe_101419

God is in the details. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_mies_van_der_rohe_101419

God is in the details. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_mies_van_der_rohe_101419

The man, the crippled fox and the generous lion

           Are we aware of our angle of perception, or our mindset when we try to read the message of life or God to us? Most often than not, we decode these messages according to who and what we are or, how we want to see them.
           Take for example this story of a man's encounter with the lion and the crippled fox. Through this story we are invited to be aware of our own automatic reactions to life's situations. We don't want to live life on auto-pilot. Are we living like the crippled fox or the generous lion for most part of our life? If we are a crippled fox, are we ready to make a conscious shift and become a generous lion? This is rather important... this desire or conscious decision to shift. For, we essentially draw energetic situations that correspond to our own make-up. If you decide to be a generous giver, you will always have something to give. Think about it.

Do we allow Life to bring us back to life?

       

True spirituality engages with life. I am suspicious of any path that despises the world and devalues the senses. The senses have their functions. But, they are not ends in themselves but means to  higher levels of experience. Accordingly, to be fully human is to be divine. 

       
Hence, if we want to grow spiritually, we have to be come back to our senses. We have to see clearly, listen attentively, taste slowly and feel intensely. They are doorways to a deeper experience of life.

         
Take for an example, water. Is it absurd to be amazed at how water flows? How it tastes? How it is wet? How it escapes from our hands as it washes away the dirt? Do we allow ourselves to be captivated by it? As we touch water, do we allow water to touch us?

       
Do we allow life to touch us? To see us? To listen to us? To taste us? 

       
Do we allow Life to bring us back to life?

So, do you think you can dance?

According to Sadhguru, Shiva, the first yogi, had walked the earth over 15 thousand years ago. But, the counter position states that Shiva is not a historical figure. 

A debate on it is not necessary for me to understand that there is such a thing as Primordial energy. In dance, the primordial can be experienced. Quite interestingly, there's the Nataraj, Shiva and the cosmic dance. If Shiva is considered primordial, then he is not strange to me. 

In my early years, I was into choreographed dances. I had lots of fun. Later on, I had the taste of free movement dance, an encounter with the deepest self. It was a primordial experience. Since then, I have conducted Free Movement dance sessions with students and close friends.

It is said that in dance, we let our energy flow. Yes. But there's more. For, in dance we are IN the Flow. It is said that in dance, we express ourselves. Yes. But there's more. For, in dance something greater than ourselves finds expression... in and through us. In dance, we transcend the body and encounter the primordial, that which connects us to everything and where everything finds its place. 

Dance is meditation.

  
Breath becomes eternal...
Prana vibrates..

May Adiyogi descend upon me

Mince my existence
and let it break into pieces

Let me be absolute
And now let me be whole

My Encounter

I was introduced to Sadhguru by my husband who showed me a video of him on YouTube more than five years ago. Since, my interest revolves around psycho-spirituality, among others, I became impressed with the way he erases the dichotomy between spirituality and science. He knows so much. Not the kind of knowledge that is heavy or burdening, like the yoke of an oxen. Or, that kind that makes your brain explode. His knowledge frees because it does not come from the kind of knowledge that the world understands it to be. His knowledge is quality, not quantity. His knowledge is energy not rote memory or stored up facts (though it's obvious that reads a lot). At least, that's how I perceive it to be.

In the years that came after that first encounter, I would bump into Sadhguru once in while, in one way or the other. I'd listen to his talks and all. My interest in him increased all the more when he spoke of "Inner Engineering" and when his book came out in 2016. It was also my husband who got me the book along with "Mystics and Mistakes". It is good to mention that my husband is not at all interested in spirituality, but it it is through him that I got to know Sadhguru and to get these books. Life moves in unexpected ways.

Why the attraction to Sadhguru? Those who know me wouldn't be surprised. At any rate, I found Inner Engineering most interestingly practical and other one, whimsically enlightening.

When Sadhguru was preparing for the Maha Shivaratri 2018 and I saw last year's event in 2018 promo vids, an event that didn't cross my path, I got swept off my feet by the song Adiyogi composed by Kailash Kher and written by Prasoon Joshi. The power of  music! Things took a serious turn. It was sort of like I was a piece of paper, helplessly sucked in by a vacuum cleaner. Vacuum... isn't that interesting? The whole experience was utterly beyond words. As I listened to this song, images would subtly appear and fade away. One time, my mind took me to Sadhguru's rock at Chamundi Hill. First, I googled images to see "The Spot" because I have not seen the place, not once, in picture or in real. Because of this inner experience, I've been moved to create this page and I titled it as such.

Indeed, in all of us, we have that special spot where we can transcend time and space and from where we connect to all animate or inanimate things. Sadhguru's spot at Chamundi Hill can be found within us all. And most certainly, he invites us to sit there in union with him and from there expand ourselves far and wide, encompassing and loving all that there IS.