Hello dear friends,
Today's mini awakening practice inspired by the meditation teacher Adyashanti is about the courage to choose love over fear with an emphasis on the word courage.
When the great 20th century Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi was asked to describe the characteristics of an enlightened person,
He answered,
Steady abidance in the self,
Looking at all with an equal eye,
Unshakable courage at all times and in all places and circumstances.
The operative word there being courage,
What he meant is that it takes courage to live an enlightened life.
There are so many ways we can shrink away from being courageous.
Sometimes it takes courage to be truthful.
Sometimes it takes courage to be peaceful.
Sometimes it takes courage to love.
Just because we might wake up from identifying with ourselves as an ego,
Does not mean that the ego disappears.
A lifetime of dysfunction does not magically fall right out of the ego.
Some of it can,
And for some people a lot of it does,
But there's always something we need to attend to.
So this practice is simple and pointed.
It's about courage.
Remember that each time you notice a fixation,
Each time you notice a sticking point within you,
Each time you notice a place where you're holding on or overly insistent or pulling back too far,
It will take courage to meet those places.
It takes courage to be honest.
So the invitation today is throughout the day to pay attention to the moments when courage is called for,
Whether you're dealing with a situation,
An interaction with someone else or your own thoughts.
Ask yourself,
Where in my life right now is a bit more courage called for?
What spontaneously comes to mind when you ask yourself that question?
Where am I holding back because I have not yet been willing to be courageous?
Pay attention to the places that invite or require courage,
Whether it's the way you relate to some part of your own experience,
The way you relate to someone in your life or a crisis in your life.
When you notice an area where it may take a little more courage to embody your own truth,
To embody your own love,
The invitation is to step into that courage.
Often we get hung up thinking we have to wait until our fear goes away or that we have to engage in some process to remove the fear.
But if you wait for the absence of fear,
You'll wait forever because you never know when a moment of fear or hesitation is going to arise again.
What happens when you stop waiting and begin to exercise courage?
Not in a cavalier way,
But in a conscious way.
Ask yourself,
What might it mean for me to be a little more courageous right now?
The question can open pathways through which deeper insights can flow.
Courageously clearing these pathways for insight means confronting hesitation,
Confronting doubt and confusion and fear.
That's how it's done.
You can't avoid them.
We must face them.
It takes courage to do this kind of inquiry and confront our own conditioning.
And it's also a pathway to freedom,
To having our own vital life energy that's been locked up,
Return to us.
And so,
My dear friend,
I invite you today in whatever way is meaningful for you to step into your sovereign courage.
You know where it's needed.
I wish you well,
My dear friend.
Thank you.
