The Immeasurable Relationship between Giving and Receiving.
Where the day begins and ends is not up to us.
~Thomas Merten
Most of us are familiar with the movement of Yoga - the different Asanas or postures (called seats) and how they offer a great benefit to flexibility, concentration, and a sense of well-being. If you've practiced on the mat, there's no doubt that there are certain poses that are certain to become conduits of energy that shift our field of experience, inside and out. And, what starts as a goal, becomes a Vow, motivated by the Intention toBe True:
I am committed to this practice that serves the whole Self. I arrive the best I can. I willingly stretch this body (of beliefs), relieve this mind of its need for certainty, and expand into this spacious heart, with the intention to connect this soul with the divine (Truth, God, Love) ...
From this stand (model), we can assert that certain attitudinal poses like kindness, gratitude, and compassion practiced with the Right Intention, allow certain transformations to thoughts, emotions, and meaning. When we arrive empty and willing we become wise - understand that the model works on infinite vibrational planes, is in constant communication, hosts simultaneous quantum perspectives and complex relationships yet is One Consciousness.
The way I scratched at a tiny scab on my left forearm yesterday and felt the most bizarre ZAP! travel into my armpit, radiating around my heart. It was just so absolutely unexpected. I can't even remember what I was thinking about. Now, as I reflect with you, and after investigating the Chinese System of Meridians of Energy, I am able to reconsider the effect this random action (picking my scab or even biting my nails without awareness) has upon the responsive, whole, healing relationship of this elemental body.
Like those Asanas, I can confidently predict the effect my unconscious actions will have on my family, friends, environment, and so on.
It all reminded me of a leak we had inside the living room a while back. We assumed it was coming from the space above the drip. But, after taking apart the gutter, discovered it began outside the kitchen when the painters nailed their ladder to the roof last Spring; over time, gravity had drawn it into the other room. Stuff happens all the time; all we can do is patch the hole and maintain the integrity of the roof and gutters. Nothing we do or know will ever stop the rain.
Life is a lot like this: discomfort (suffering) causes us to investigate the conduit of emotions, thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations. It causes us to turn in, and challenge the reality of what it is that we are "trying" to fix and allow a higher power of intellect to guide us.
Like this idea about what love should look and feel like.
This brings me to this article I was reading about the human heart. The heart pumps so that all parts of the body, all the organs - brain, liver, kidneys, intestines, etc - are receiving blood, oxygen, and nutrients. It doesn't have the desire to be anything else other than itself, but it does need the other organs (internal and external) to do their part. It's not measuring what the other organs need or are receiving, is not micro-managing the vessels that transport (unaware that the liver is purifying) - is not preferring another organ, "Hey, I'm gonna send some extra oxygen to the brain, because the brain is more important than the liver," doesn't demand or defend, "I no longer pump for Trump!"
It is indiscriminate - has no preference. It just pumps! That's its duty, its dharma:
Pump!
There are four chambers - two upper chambers and the two lower chambers - that easily reflect the metaphysical and physical nature of reality: the two upper chambers are receiving and the two lower ones are pumping. The effort is on the physical plane, but the receipt is on the spiritual plane.
So this tells us something: the things that we do will guarantee some return and the reason we do it will confirm how we will feel. We can trust in this, however, we need to take care not to be attached to what form it should take lest we miss it altogether. To "do" so that we can feel "good" takes us out of our stand/posture- to do so because it is our responsibility/dharma/duty brings us back into the position where our actions and efforts serve the Whole.
Having this openness allows us to receive the formless, metaphysical (spiritual) gift - to receive the nutrients of our pure intention to pump! - to be kind, to give unconditionally, and to receive graciously -- to not feel, "I have to do something back in order to deserve this" or to attach hidden expectations on what we cannot control.
To do so for reasons that only benefit the ego breaks the transmission - takes us out of posture.
Everything is here, Now, wrapped up in this understanding and this Vow - toBe True- within this willingness to take a metaphysical pill and go down the rabbit hole and be like Alice in Wonderland - to recognize what appears as small is really big and what appears as big is really small.
And so we must!
We must be willing to explore all of this - to turn it upside down, work it backward and forwards, spin it around, and find something reliable that we can trust no matter -- no matter where the dial spins - no matter how much it pours - there is something constant that we can trust.
This comes through a sense of faith- through the wisdom intuition unfolds and through our untold devotion to this Self- through the postures and prayers that move stuck energy and which bring us relief; and we have to be willing to investigate and open up space for the possibility of how this new information can bring us great freedom from trying to remember who we are when we are leaning so far outside our posture and duty that we disallow ourselves from just "becoming it" ... no longer having to "be" it because we "are" that which we have been seeking:
...not someone else to be in the future - not something "done" in the past - but "that" which we "are" Right Now, without effort, immeasurable, loving, and in eternal receipt.