I am a morning person. I prefer to be up and about greeting the day as soon as possible.
One of my favourite things to do is to get out of bed, just before first light and make may way to the beach, 20 minutes away and go for a swim as the sun rises.
Like Samael Aun Weor (when said that he sojourned on a roof top and greeted the sunrise), I too love to start the day with:
UUUUUUUUUUU
I do this whenever I can, whether it be summer or winter. Currently, the morning temperature is around 9 C (48 F) and the water is a balmy 16 C (60 F).
The only times I have decided to not go is when it is pouring down with rain (because of the inconvenience of getting all my clothes wet)!
I have noticed however, that my friends, every one of them, decide that it's too cold to go swimming and categorically decline any invitation I make to start the day in such a great way.
Such is Self-Will.
Obviously I cannot judge, since it is the same Self-Will that I exert when I decide that it is too wet to go swimming.
However, doesn't the Lord's Prayer have this line:
Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven?
In future, when I decide that it's too wet to go for a swim, i'll try to remember that this is My Will being done, and not necessarily Father's...
How many other times throughout the day do I exert My Will upon things? I decide. I want. I... I... I...
I need to do much, much better.
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A few weeks ago I began to notice the strangest thing: there was peace in my heart. More importantly, I noticed there was a glow in my heart.
And then it happened.
She-who-is-in-secret, my beautiful Divine Mother, kissed me, ever so gently.
And so began my second round of repentance. Because once you have been kissed by Divinity you see, quite clearly, the filth that is your life.
It is also wonderful to know that I can still weep. I realise that it is because I see the horror of my darkness balanced against the Divine Light.
I am in the darkness, but I have been kissed. I can see how I just am an old toothless wolf pretending to be a dove, but in truth I must become a dove and stop pretending.
NB:
For those of you who have not read Flight of the Feathered Serpent then these words will seem strange. I would encourage everyone to read this book.
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I was just watching the movie 'Peaceful Warrior' and it is a wonderful introduction to doing the spiritual work. I found snippet particularly informative:
Socrates: "Everyone tells you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you to find you own answers - they want you to believe what's theirs."
Dan: "Let me guess, you want me to believe yours?"
Socrates: "No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside yourself and start gathering it from the inside."
Dan: "What, are you part of some cult or something?"
Socrates: "People are afraid of what's on the inside and that's the only place they're going to find what they need."
For millennia, there has been the phrase which has been ignored for just as long:
Nosce te ipsum.
Know thyself.
Of course, when people read this, they will naturally assume that they know themselves pretty well.
How funny this seems to me nowdays (since it seems that I barely know myself at all)!
For instance, when someone says they know themselves, all you need to do is ask the simple question:
"Why do you get angry?"
More often than not you will get an answer,
"Because someone has done something to piss me off!"
Of course, when I first started out on this work, I thought:
I know myself pretty well, why should I study anger when I'm a very calm person? In fact, people have always commented about how calm and relaxed they feel in my presence!
This work, of course, goes much, much deeper than that.
Since starting I have found seething levels of rage within myself. I have found frustration and swallowed anger and much much more (and much much worse).
Dare to look inside.
There is another phrase (from Flight of the Feathered Serpent) which is equally helpful (but equally likely to be ignored):
The Path starts in the physical body with the five senses.
To awaken is to use them, and not to confuse them with you.
Are you a peaceful warrior?
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Just this morning I witnessed an event that, to me, highlighted my erroneous belief in what I considered to be compassionate 'feelings' and wish to share that, if I may.
What the world saw
There had been some heavy rain just after dawn this morning, leaving the roads wet and somewhat slippery.
As I was travelling through the city I saw a cyclist make a quick decision to change lanes, from a Bus Only Lane to a normal lane with cars on it.
Unfortunately, as he was changing lanes and was crossing over the paint on the roads, he slipped and fell: hard.
Immediately, there was a ripple of 'agitation' as both buses and cars in both lanes began their own emergency braking procedures: even before the cyclist had finished coming to a stop.
I noticed that nearly immediately, the cyclist was back on his feet.
He seemed very aware that he had caused two lanes of peak hour traffic to come to a stand still and quickly gathered himself and his bike and moved briskly off the road, onto the footpath.
A half minute later, I was passing the location of the accident and saw him sitting on the ground, in obvious pain: holding his knee. Another cyclist was giving aid.
Although feeling Compassion for this man in pain, I knew I could acheive nothing by stopping: I had no training in first aid, nor could I even offer to carry him nor his bicycle anywhere since I was riding a motorbike myself.
It was just then that I 'replayed' in my mind what I had just witnessed and found some interesting (and somewhat disturbing) pyschological traits.
What occurred internally
Even before the accident happened, my attention was drawn to the cyclist: for no particular reason. Obviously this was my intuition guiding me.
Apart from being particularly focused on the event as it happened, I was unaware that my intuition had acted however, until much later.
As I saw the cyclist begin to fall, as well as during his fall, I had this feeling of what I would have called Compassion. Until now.
What was actually happening as I watched the man fall was that my body tensed as if I were actually in the accident myself.
I was taking this man's accident, as it was happening, and replaying it internally as if I were the victim! I was creating a personal little drama all of my own, for no reason!
My pulse raced. Adrenaline coursed through my body.
My 'compassion' was based upon the fact that I was actually playing the drama of "I'm so glad that this isn't happening to me!"
Obviously and undoubtedly, this is not Compassion at all.
It was only when I passed the man that I had some true feelings unfold. It was only when I saw him holding his knee in obvious pain that I had a glimmer of real Compassion.
No one should be in pain like that.
Unfortunately, my psyche was still revelling in the "Poor Me" drama that my psyche had played out and was unable to manifest the superior emotion properly.
Compassion is borne of Love.
If only I had been more aware as I passed the man: It was only as I had finally parked at my destination that I also had the realisation that I had completely and utterly neglected to ask for this man to be helped...
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In Belsebuub Forums there was a post that gave a link to an absolute gem of a little book called
"Ami, Child of the Stars" by Enrique Barrios.
Being an avid Kindle owner, I quickly converted it from it's natural pdf and have been delighted by the story it contains.
If you have ever read "Flight of the Feathered Serpent" by Armando Cosani or "Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson" by Gurdjieff you will immediately detect that this simple story is much more than that. I hope you read it and enjoy it as have I.
It's now part of a little 'treasure trove' of books of mine and thank the author (Enrique Barrios) heartily for his work.
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