Namaskar - Oct 09

means to stay awake. But reveiller means to wake up or awaken. This came as a little
revelation! To awaken is to awaken to something that is already there. Perhaps to awaken is
to reveal something that is already there!
In the region of the spiritual heart, a wonderful balance can be created between the
transcendental and the mundane. The anahata chakra and the deeper, mystical spiritual heart
lie mid-way between the three higher chakras that seem to have the power to transport us
beyond the mundane world and the three lower chakras that keep us stuck in the mundane
world. Over the years, in my own spiritual practice, I have found often when my aspiration
for the Divine has been strong, some kind of hostility or, for want of a better word, ‘fedupness’
has developed towards the world I inhabit and towards some of its denizens.
At other times, I seem happily caught up in worldly activities and my aspiration for the
beyond seems weak. The Hridaya meditation showed how a balance can be created between
the two worlds till unity between the two worlds is experienced, a balance that reveals the
mundane is not devoid of the sacred and ultimately, that the mundane is sacred. Life is
worth living because it is already and completely infused with the Divine, with the sacred.
Perhaps nothing from Shakespeare’s opening quote refers to ‘no thing’, no substance or no
form, all of which point to the divine essence that is formless yet pervades all, all beings
and all things. So, life, though an illusion, no matter how dark or badly lit it may seem,
points to the Divine. If we could remember this every moment of our lives, this illusion,
dream or movie of life would become a song and a dance, a sacred celebration, to be lived
with honor and reverence, mirth and joy, intensity and passion. The following Sufi words
seemed to point to this truth - when you possess nothing, nothing possesses you.
The Hridaya retreat was truly heartwarming. These words came up during meditation:
The mind thinks. And the heart? It sings.
As in Buddhist retreats before, unresolved
mental and emotional stuff came up
constantly. Claudiu’s observation that the
ocean doesn’t say damn, that weed is still
there, rang true. There was recognition that
the mental and emotional stuff had every
right to be there. Above all, plumbing the
shadowy depths of my psyche didn’t seem
scary any more. The retreat transformed my
meditation practice from a self-imposed
chore to a game of discovery to be
approached with a sense of wonder.
For more information: agamayoga.com/
hridaya (66) 89 233 0217 or
info@agamayoga.com
Tia writes from
Dharamshala in the
Himalayas, where she is
studying Buddhist texts,
Tibetan and scripts at the
Library of Tibetan Works
and Archives, completing a
writing project and
painting mandalas.
40