I love this message from 5 Rhythms teacher and workshop leader, Tim Broughton. Enjoy!
Rising
up into consciousness like the phoenix rising from the ashes. It seems to me
this is why we are here; to enter on a lifelong journey from our instinctual,
patterned, habitual and repetitive behaviours that condition our biological
existence, and undertake a migration within ourselves. To rise within ourselves
to embrace the awakening and movement of consciousness within us.
Like
turning on the light within us, sometimes it is just a flicker, and even that
flicker is significant enough that we can't quite ignore it. From that flicker
of light within us, our dawning consciousness can further flicker. If we pay
attention these flickers can grow little by little until it is a strong and
established fire within us. I am not talking about the "look at me, I'm
burning bright" of the ego. I am referring to something that has a quality
of humbleness, is quiet and yet can be celebratory and even ecstatic too. It
includes concern for others and where we are collectively going, as well as
looking after oneself. It seems to me Jesus was someone who completed this
transformation. He is one of a number of beacons for how we can be. Rumi was another,
Buddha and Osho to name just a few. Perhaps Gabrielle Roth* too.
For me, Easter is a reminder to continue attending to this
inner resurrection, this inner rise into consciousness, no matter what our
life's circumstances, no matter what we may experience at the hands of another.
To do what ever needs to be done within ourselves, and in relation to others;
and in relation to the Earth whom we are intimately in relationship with, and
which sustains our very life. In choosing my journey I have slowly come to
realise that choosing is a moment to moment, living, ongoing choosing that I am
endlessly invited to make. Sometimes I have gone in the opposite direction or
slipped back; and this has been an essential part of me gradually clarifying
the quality of consciousness through my choosing.
I think this is a lifelong journey and beyond.
I remember occasions of the still small voice of
consciousness within
me as a child. I remember the unhappiness and dissatisfaction with my life
which, in my early twenties somehow drew me to Encounter Groups and others
workshops. Through them I began to wake up and feel inspired by the
possibilities for how we can be as human beings. I have gone through many
heartaches and crucifixions - emotional, psychological and mental deaths,
gradually growing and rising through them. I say rising because it is both an
expansion within as well as rising to stand upright. There is always the danger
that the Ego will ride on the back of these changes and hijack us again.
Feelings of self-importance and aggrandisement are just two sure signs our ego
has slipped into the driving seat again!
I am
sure I have many more lives to go in undertaking this personal transformation.
It seems to me the collective transformation is only seen as a reflection of
the sum of the personal, uniquely individual journeys we are each invited to
make through the living of our lives. I am glad to be this far on the journey,
living the journey, some days vibrantly, and sometimes in survival. It requires
me to pick myself up over and over again, getting to the dance floor, getting
my clothes on, having a shower,(not necessarily in that order!), getting to the
cooker, seeing my therapist, paying the bills, sitting in the sun, visiting a
friend. All these everyday tasks gradually being brought into the service of
transformation where these everyday tasks of living can become the miraculous,
can become ecstatic, or quietly intoxicatingly beautiful. OK, there are areas
of my life where I have yet to make this transition, effortlessly completing my
Tax Return for example. It isn't that I don't want to complete it. It's more
that the ordered collection of everything needed is not my strong point. I have
a strong pattern to choose avoidance in the face of certain tasks that require
order. The discipline of Staccato, of being ordered is not strong in me. Give
me a Chaos situation and I can happily hang out in it for years! Turning the
same everyday activity from base metal into gold; that, I think, is the
remarkable invitation that is our human being journey.
I imagine you have your own sense of how you transform an everyday activity
into gold; the activity essentially remaining the same; just that your changing
experience has become the transformation.
So
for all the terrible things that human beings continue to do to themselves,
each other, and the rest of the natural world, I remain optimistic about the
overall journey that we are all on. I don't think our journeys are isolated
journeys. I think ours is a relational journey, and, only we can undertake our
personal journey. Happy Easter Rising.
* Gabrielle Roth was the creator of 5 Rhythms www.gabrielleroth.com
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