Throwing off the sheet I pull on shorts and a tee-shirt and walk down
the path through the sand dunes to the beach. Its dry white sand
squeaks slightly under my bare feet, punctuating each step. Specks of
phosphorus sparkle in the whitecaps. A full golden moon circled with a
purple aura lights the cloudless windless starry sky and bathes the
landscape in a clean clear glow.
I amble to the water's edge and stand there with my hands on my hips
letting the warm waves lick my toes. On a whim I breathe in as deeply
as I can trying to inhale the entire seashore. The tang of salt laden
air opens and cleanses my lungs.
It's one of those nights when being alive is its own reward. It's one
of those times when all you have to do to be completely and totally
blown away by the beauty of all of creation is to open your eyes and
look. Everywhere you look it's a feast for the eyes.
There are times like these - perhaps too few of them - when the
voice-over isn't constantly jabbing at the way it is,
constantly undermining the beauty of
what's so,
the sacredness of the way it really is. This way, out of
reach of the jabber, is clearly the way it always is. For
the most part, what it takes to see it this way is a crap shoot: it's
to get it during these moments when the voice-over is on vacation.
Being that the voice-over is a workaholic, that's almost
never.
I'm not a yogi. At least I'm not committed to yoga as a way of
life even though I acknowledge the depth and the profundity and the joy
which comes from its disciplines and practices. A central tenet of the
yogic tradition is quieting the mind,
stilling the mind, even taming the mind.
Doing that, or at least trying to do that, was a big part
of my daily routine before I got to know Werner. I've a different
context for the mind, for the voice-over, now. I leave it alone.
It's not
resisted.
It's not changed. It's not quieted nor stilled nor tamed. Rather it's
allowed to be what it is, whatever that is ...
What's required is to notice it and to acknowledge it and to leave it
alone. In that way, when I leave it alone it leaves me alone. That's
how I get to be on the beach with total openness and bliss and the
wonderment of all of creation with no voice-over jabbing in. Imagine
taking a friend with you to the beach but tying her up and gagging her
because you want to quiet her, to still her, to tame her before you
muster the freedom to experience your experience. Now imagine taking a
friend with you to the beach, acknowledging her, thanking her for being
with you, and appreciating her for being your friend. In this way, both
of you get to revel in the beach, the feast.
The most remarkable aspect of all of creation for me is this: things
are, things can simply be. This makes me happy. The
absolute result of being truly aware of what is is a sense
of exquisite beauty. It's a feast for the eyes when you get it this
way. It's all gorgeous, all celestial,
all divine. There's nothing you have to do to get it this
way other than create space for the voice-over to be.