A Window is Where the Wall is Absent: Unburdened

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Unburdened

I chanced across these words:

"If you are content with being nobody in particular, content not to stand out, you align yourself with the power of the universe. What looks like weakness to the ego is in fact the only true strength."
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

There have been moments where instead of fighting against myself or anything else, there has been an open-sail sense of being united with a vast flow of energy. Moments when I disappeared from my own thoughts and surfaced invisible, unbaffled, silent.

There have been moments when I had no idea who I was and paradoxically felt more clearly myself than ever. The mind relaxes past definitions, expands, and is caught in the tailwind of a life force careening through everything. All the things I thought I needed to be happy, complete, and at peace are leaves scattered in the wind, and nothing remains but happiness, completion, and peace. The mind is unburdened of heavy notions of needing to do something big and flashy, and the sun coming through the window says everything that needs to be said.

3 comments:

roseduncan said...: Bliss. You can count those moments, but I believe there are others who are closer to this, really live their lives wrapped in this sort of feeling. Or strive harder for it, so attain it on a regular basis. There are moments I think of, usually when my children were young and I was just standing in the kitchen, watching them play outside, or when I was walking through Paris, looking at everything and not thinking, not thinking too much just seeing and being there . . .; February 3, 2010 at 5:29:00 AM PST
Unknown said...: Yes, I can relate to the feeling you describe, Naomi, in Paris when I was in Florence. Maybe because it is new. Sunlight in particular looks different in Florence because it lights different spaces and different surfaces and is surrounded by different sounds and rhythms. This post reminds me mostly of those many weekends taking pictures in Fort Tryon park - getting in the zone, feeling so alive and aware because I am looking at the familiar intently and with eagerness.; February 3, 2010 at 4:31:00 PM PST
Colleen Loehr said...: I agree with you Naomi that these moments of just seeing and being there, small moments that have an inherent blissfulness, can be courted in a way. As the saying goes, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." What we value draws forth our attention and energy, and when present awareness is valued, it becomes an increasingly palpable aspect of experience. Meditation helps because it's boring to do nothing, but then the threshold of boredom is passed, and we see without the barrier of mind-noise. Cyn it sounds like the creative activity of photography heightened your attentiveness to the moment, and the energy of attention itself seems to be intrinsically beneficent, being in the zone...That's what I love about creativity, it always involved heightened attention.; February 3, 2010 at 4:51:00 PM PST