Lionheart: The Story of US
.. and the heart met the head on the silent field called BRAVE and together they stood in COURAGE.
This past year has brought us to a place beyond words. And it's no surprise that the result is sheer exhaustion - a longing to lay down our arms and weapons - to surrender - and let our souls rest in the Heart'field' of silence when "the world [is] too full to talk about."
Still, emotion is rising, but for 'what' is it longing?
Is it asking us to fight for our rights ... to speak our truth... to chase after ideals or to watch and wait, to stand our ground - to look?
Without awareness, we can't action ourselves on the truth of our heart and it's easy to get caught in the churning motion of reaction - where our thoughts turn into sticks that we chase until exhaustion. It's hard to see the freedom that's here, available by our very nature (our True Nature) and within our capacity to chose the world in which we want to live.
Don't get me wrong, my stick-chasing buddy, Henry, is a constant Source of enchantment and play, however, he teaches me more about rest and acceptance when he chooses to be still with me so the meaning of this moment finds me, like these words.
It calls to mind the great Tibetan Yogi, Milarepa, who cultivated the practice of Mahamudra - the clarity of awareness that arises in the stillness of mind. This stillness (also called Mindfulness and Peaceful Abiding) provides the ground for awareness (called Shamatha) - and allows us to be available for ourselves and our deeper needs and for the potential of this field. He urged, "don't be like a dog ... be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once."
I like those odds - the efficiency of energy and the effectiveness of present inform - awareness in the light of ignorance!
My heart is longing for US to (re)turn, to see from where that stick came, to notice how we feel about watching it rather than reacting to it - to accept what we see and to stand still enough to answer the question challenging of our collective Lionheart:
If the truth will set US free, then why do we continuously run away from it?
The answers are not in the thought chasing stick, but in the truthful accounting of our history - in the freedom of Self-knowledge - and in the compassionate abiding of our ONE Heart:
Let US not forget our darkness, let US forgive it!
Let US not find fault, let US find faith.
Let US not fear or chase the light - let US be divine transformers of darkness!
In love and peace,
Annette