Inner strength in the face of uncertain times of crisis

 Written on Thursday 13 August 2020

The prospect of the current crisis is undoubtedly worrying and difficult for everyone. Not to mention those who have lost loved ones, those who have lost their jobs, those who have gone bankrupt, those who are hungry, etc. 

However, we can see that the joys of sport, artistic performances, public, religious and traditional gatherings and celebrations are in danger of disappearing, or at least of going through a period of suffering that will lead to a different orientation and motivation. It is also apparent, when we take note of the facts which tend to show, in this period of crisis, that the joys which are dependent on the outside remain fragile and passing, and this, even if they come from honourable sources as mentioned above. 

Is not the only joy that really lasts the spiritual joy? Is it not, when it is realised within oneself, a joy without reasons that is born of a quality of being more than of a search for external artifices that are most often compensatory to a certain discomfort? 

It is in these dark moments that we can become aware of the reality of our searches, our ideals, our ideas and our desires, are they vectors of inner strength? 

We may feel nostalgic for the material joys we have been given since the post-war period with the rights to freedom of expression growing with the years and with a certain form of democracy. This feeling of "freedom" especially in our Western countries seems to be taken away from us.

Although painful, this feeling could allow us to better perceive the cycles of life. These cycles speak of a movement that has no end, but is periodically renewed according to the state of consciousness of humanity. 

The human being is ontologically driven to grow, it is like something vital, he implements this momentum that he feels internally without necessarily being aware of the fallout, in reality, his consciousness should continually be ahead of his actions. 

The very state of current evolution and human consciousness shows us the need for a change to another cycle of life. This other cycle may bring us into contact with our fear of the unknown, with the fear of death. 

In the face of this fear, is not meditation the only true remedy to perceive the interdependence of all that is? The Buddha said, "Where there is life, there is death, and where there is death, there is life. Interdependence gives us to co-exist with the other side of things, we exist at the same time. As light and darkness must coexist, so death and life coexist, so death does not exist, at least not as we understand it). Symbolised by the yinyang sign, interdependence is in all things and all is change between the cycles of death and rebirth, only identification provides a sense of loss, division, attachment, beyond which even death is not death as the cycle continues, arguably, in a different form. 

Meditation enables us to tame these states of death and rebirth and brings us closer to interdependence from the smallest of our cells into the vastness of the universe, the whole. In this way, we learn to interpret the events of life not as fate, but as a fluid of energy that transforms without ever dying. The only thing that dies is the human ego and its mental representation of identifications.

Some personal views on the practice of meditation. 

Meditation : 

The outcome does not matter, let us play a game, the game of life, whatever the game is, let us live it with acceptance, welcome and detachment. Meditation and all the existence that preoccupies us is but a vast theatre, the theatre of life. There is nothing to do even to become the observer, the observer emerges naturally when the desire to control evaporates. 

THE PRESENT : 

What does it mean to be the present? 

It must mean living in the moment without projecting any other desire than the state of being in the moment. Whatever the pleasant feeling of the moment, let's live it without looking for something else, let's stay open. 

Whatever the unpleasant feeling of the moment, let's remain open by welcoming without seizing the feeling, without appropriating it, nothing is fixed, even the unpleasant feelings are transformed. 

What does welcoming mean? 

Letting go, accepting to go through the feeling and what emerges from it. 

Authenticity: 

To be ourselves in our innocence, in our truth, beyond the concern, the doubt of the representative image that we send back. Having the courage to challenge our fears of being judged. To live our lives in observation and detachment, without going into battle, just living what comes and accepting it, facing it with authenticity, and, if it still remains painful, accepting with confidence that it will pass.

SatyamAstro