Knock, knock

Who’s there?

Awareness

Awareness who?

Not who, but where

A where-ness of being
 
A sense of your place in the universe. 

Are you in on the joke?
Or are you always the bud,
Flowering with enthusiasm,
A bumblebee belly-deep in the nectar,
In the oozing gold honeycombs of love.
 
Mmm, I want more!
How could one not?
 
To be alive is to desire.
To want. To reach-out. To grasp.
To be in perpetual motion.
 
From where to where?
 
We begin to measure this in vectors,
Through that which we create space.
As we wind-up our clocks,
Through that which we create time.
 
And yet a deep pounding “Where?” continues to ring out into infinity.
 
The hip young spiritual passionately exclaims:

Here!

It is in the now!

It is in the present moment.
 
A little squirrel bolts across the patch of grass just behind me, fanatically retracing its steps to that delicious long-lost tree nut.
 
A spitting image of presence. Focus. Embodiment. Could you even say it’s in a state of flow?
 
The squirrel is as present as it could be, engaging all of its bodily functions and receiving all the life has to offer.
 
Nom, nom, nom. It nibbles on the nut, taking in the sweet, sweet fibres of life.
 
And yet is a there a sense of where-ness?
 
The squirrel is here and yet with no context as to where it lies in the breadth of creation.

A human spends much of their life in that very same state. Nibbling on the nut. Chasing a leaf that blows with the wind.
 
And yet it appears that sometimes a greater gift is bestowed upon the human being. The bipedal ape who, for the first time, looks up in awe at the vastness of a starlit night sky.

Ahhh
 
What did we do to deserve such a fate?

Why us?

Romanticizing an ancient eastern mythology we hear:
 
If God were to create the universe, to make it so rich and bountiful, so exquisite and beautiful. They would want to experience it for themselves, every drop. Every moment. Every drop of flesh.
 
But to experience its true depth and power anew
 
They would need to forget it.
 
And so it seems that God is willfully amnesic within each and every one of us.

That is why words like remember inspire us so much more than learn.
 
A powerful reconnecting with our ancient selves, with that which we all really are.
 
Sleeping deities.
 
Awaken to the dream. The greatest dream of which you are part writer, part actor, part audience.

A universe experiencing itself in its richest plurality.

No you are not a single, almighty God. And you are constantly reminded of it.

But what moved me to write this piece is a certain sense of humour encoded deeply into the fabric of being. 

In the moments of stillness amidst the vertigo of endless motion, you find a smile radiating through.
 
How often are you laughing at yourself with yourself?
 
A laugh shared with an old friend

An epic dance between your will and Destiny
 
When you lose a beat, she sweeps you of your feet.
And yet when you are in step, you are unstoppable.
There is something unforgiving and decisive in its power.
The power to which you must surrender, wholeheartedly.
 
But no, that’s not where the humour lies.
The joke is far more crude and common.
It lies in the absurdity of the every day. 
In the entangled mop of hair that is plurality of experience.
 
Grasping onto the folded umbrella with your sweaty hand as the proud and indifferent rays of sunshine burn a smile into your cheeks.

You are not in control.

You are again reminded. 

As you miss the third bus to that most important meeting in your life. 
As your lover tells you: “every time I am with you, I think of him”
As your son begins to lecture you on the importance of the very thing you were trying to instill in them all these years.
As generation after generation of cardiologists suffer from heart disease.
As we lift our face masks to eat that complimentary salty snack on the plane.
 
You begin to laugh. Not from indifference, but neither is it from attachment. 

There is something else.

Finding yourself in the depths of the minute, of the insignificant.
In the moments of deep no-where-ness,
Arises a third-person perspective that appreciates the joke that is being played on you.

On your ego. On your illusion of control.
On your illusion of separation.
On your righteousness. On your conviction in knowing what God really is.
 
Those who say they know the Brahman, they know not.
 
But to those who say they get their jokes. I believe you.
 
The universe has a sense of humour.
 
And it is no silly coincidence or a fluke of chance.
 
It is divine.
 
As all that is absurd. 

It is a rare peak behind the curtain. A gentle whisper in your ear.

A smile, that you wear proudly on your face.

Sanya - 7/8/2022