Post by ankupka on Apr 17, 2014 8:56:02 GMT
I’m just back from a weekend retreat with the wonderful Jeff Foster. With his compassionate and wise way he managed once more to open my heart to everything that I can find within me – namely my emotions, also the unpleasant ones, which I so like to suppress, the suppression making them even more painful than they may be anyway.
Do you really know who you are? Do you? One thing is for sure: you were a different person when you were a baby, a different one as a teenager, and you are a different one today than you were a year ago, a day ago, actually – even a minute or a second ago. Every time you breathe in and breathe out, your body changes. You are constant change such as everything in the material world is subject to constant change. Your thoughts and emotions change on an ongoing basis and in our effort to bring order into things, we try and limit ourselves. We want to define who we are and intrinsically we want to be good. So we suppress unpleasant emotions and undesired thoughts. Thinking positive is the mantra of our days. Sometimes we are even afraid of our thoughts and emotions, suppressing them further and further until they re-emerge as illnesses in our bodies.
But how about this: when you were a baby, when you were a teenager, when you were in love, when you were in pain, when you thought you cannot go on anymore, when you saw a sunset and it took your breath away … in all of these moments there was one thing that remained unchanged. The One thing that noticed that you were in pain, the One thing that noticed when you were in love, the same thing that was there when you were a baby and the same thing that is there today – the REAL you. The real You is not your body, it is not your emotions, it is not your thoughts, not your actions, not your ability to hear, smell, touch, taste and see – no, the real You is the one unchanging presence beyond all of this.
The rest is just content. It is content coming up and leaving within this everlasting presence. This presence has been given many names: ‘Silent Observer’ or ‘Silent Witness’, ‘Field of Pure Potentiality’ (Deepak Chopra), ‘God’, ‘Universe’, ‘Love’, ‘Soul’, ‘Stillness’ (frequently used by Eckhart Tolle who also calls it the ‘NOW’). This true nature of you, of all of us, of everything in existence is beyond all concepts and beyond form. Words will never be able to express it and especially words such as ‘Love’ and ‘God’ are so overshadowed by conflicting concepts today, that it might be better not to use any word for it at all.
A powerful metaphor that Jeff Foster uses to describe our true nature is the following: Imagine you are in a room at conference with a number of people. You discuss business. Two days ago there was a wedding in the room. A month ago a different function took place in the room and prior to this a different one and so forth. People laughed and cried in the room. Many words were spoken, many actions performed, many thoughts expressed. There was silence in the room. There were screams and laughter. Some people were very certain in the room, some were very uncertain. Everything in the room changes on an ongoing basis. The only thing that doesn’t change is the room itself. It is there. It allows every thought, atmosphere and action to happen. It allows it in the moment when it happens, without being threatened by it. It is the one constant in an ever-changing world of content. Your true nature is like this room. You ARE this room, only infinitely vaster than the room I just described. You are the immeasurable room. You can allow every emotion within you to arise without being threatened by it. You can allow every thought to come and to go. You can allow every experience to happen. You are the room – so infinitely vast that nothing that happens within you can threaten you. You can hold it all.
You don’t believe me? Think of New York (if you have never been there, just imagine it). Think of London now. Now of a pink elephant. Now of your last birthday. Picture the Chinese Wall. A scene from ‘Pretty Woman’. Within fractions of a second you can create all these pictures within you. One second you are in New York, the next second you are facing a pink elephant – it’s within you alongside the accompanying emotions and bodily sensations. How powerful is this? You are creating all of this effortlessly – you create it out of this unified field of infinite possibilities. It is all happening within this room that you are and if you can easily hold New York, London and the Chinese Wall within you, how can you believe that you cannot hold the emotions that sometimes arise?
You aren’t your emotions. We tend to identify with our emotions but they are merely energy fields which you create within the room which you truly are. If you are vast enough to hold images of New York, London, the Chinese Wall and everything that you have ever experienced within yourself, you are also vast enough to allow your emotions to be. They come and they go. You don’t have to be afraid of them. You don’t need to avoid them. Be fascinated by the vastness of what you are – that you can create and hold emotions so powerful. In the midst of it remember that they can’t touch your true essence. And if fear arises, even this can be allowed to be. Because whatever arises, remember – you are vast enough for it …
Do you really know who you are? Do you? One thing is for sure: you were a different person when you were a baby, a different one as a teenager, and you are a different one today than you were a year ago, a day ago, actually – even a minute or a second ago. Every time you breathe in and breathe out, your body changes. You are constant change such as everything in the material world is subject to constant change. Your thoughts and emotions change on an ongoing basis and in our effort to bring order into things, we try and limit ourselves. We want to define who we are and intrinsically we want to be good. So we suppress unpleasant emotions and undesired thoughts. Thinking positive is the mantra of our days. Sometimes we are even afraid of our thoughts and emotions, suppressing them further and further until they re-emerge as illnesses in our bodies.
But how about this: when you were a baby, when you were a teenager, when you were in love, when you were in pain, when you thought you cannot go on anymore, when you saw a sunset and it took your breath away … in all of these moments there was one thing that remained unchanged. The One thing that noticed that you were in pain, the One thing that noticed when you were in love, the same thing that was there when you were a baby and the same thing that is there today – the REAL you. The real You is not your body, it is not your emotions, it is not your thoughts, not your actions, not your ability to hear, smell, touch, taste and see – no, the real You is the one unchanging presence beyond all of this.
The rest is just content. It is content coming up and leaving within this everlasting presence. This presence has been given many names: ‘Silent Observer’ or ‘Silent Witness’, ‘Field of Pure Potentiality’ (Deepak Chopra), ‘God’, ‘Universe’, ‘Love’, ‘Soul’, ‘Stillness’ (frequently used by Eckhart Tolle who also calls it the ‘NOW’). This true nature of you, of all of us, of everything in existence is beyond all concepts and beyond form. Words will never be able to express it and especially words such as ‘Love’ and ‘God’ are so overshadowed by conflicting concepts today, that it might be better not to use any word for it at all.
A powerful metaphor that Jeff Foster uses to describe our true nature is the following: Imagine you are in a room at conference with a number of people. You discuss business. Two days ago there was a wedding in the room. A month ago a different function took place in the room and prior to this a different one and so forth. People laughed and cried in the room. Many words were spoken, many actions performed, many thoughts expressed. There was silence in the room. There were screams and laughter. Some people were very certain in the room, some were very uncertain. Everything in the room changes on an ongoing basis. The only thing that doesn’t change is the room itself. It is there. It allows every thought, atmosphere and action to happen. It allows it in the moment when it happens, without being threatened by it. It is the one constant in an ever-changing world of content. Your true nature is like this room. You ARE this room, only infinitely vaster than the room I just described. You are the immeasurable room. You can allow every emotion within you to arise without being threatened by it. You can allow every thought to come and to go. You can allow every experience to happen. You are the room – so infinitely vast that nothing that happens within you can threaten you. You can hold it all.
You don’t believe me? Think of New York (if you have never been there, just imagine it). Think of London now. Now of a pink elephant. Now of your last birthday. Picture the Chinese Wall. A scene from ‘Pretty Woman’. Within fractions of a second you can create all these pictures within you. One second you are in New York, the next second you are facing a pink elephant – it’s within you alongside the accompanying emotions and bodily sensations. How powerful is this? You are creating all of this effortlessly – you create it out of this unified field of infinite possibilities. It is all happening within this room that you are and if you can easily hold New York, London and the Chinese Wall within you, how can you believe that you cannot hold the emotions that sometimes arise?
You aren’t your emotions. We tend to identify with our emotions but they are merely energy fields which you create within the room which you truly are. If you are vast enough to hold images of New York, London, the Chinese Wall and everything that you have ever experienced within yourself, you are also vast enough to allow your emotions to be. They come and they go. You don’t have to be afraid of them. You don’t need to avoid them. Be fascinated by the vastness of what you are – that you can create and hold emotions so powerful. In the midst of it remember that they can’t touch your true essence. And if fear arises, even this can be allowed to be. Because whatever arises, remember – you are vast enough for it …
