Sunday, April 29, 2018

Michael Meade: Stopping In Time

A powerful piece and, I believe, deeply needed wisdom from one of my longtime teachers, Michael Meade. Michael skillfully brings forth the wisdom that we all carry within ourselves. May each of us deepen in relationship with this soulful wisdom within and which is woven through the world and all of life together. Molly



"Only if we can manage to stop in time and 'slow downwards' can the old soul within us catch up and help find a way through the growing darkness." 

An old idea suggests that the world inside us is greater than the world we see around us, that each person is a cosmos with all the stars hidden inside. The individual soul can be seen and held as a microcosm, a little world and realm unto itself. If penetrated deeply enough, it might turn inside out and become the living thread to the soul of the world. Amidst the current speed of life and rush towards the future, the presence and value of the individual soul is easily lost. The soul’s natural horizon is the cosmos yet the modern world tends to become smaller and more horizontal as it loses the vertical dimension and the grounding depths that the soul brings to life.

In losing the soulful ways of connection, we risk losing what relates us to great nature on one hand and the eternal realm and touch of the divine on the other.  Amidst the modern fascination with newness and things that move faster and faster, there is something older and wiser trying to catch up with us.

There is an old story of a young spiritual seeker who set out in the world determined to find a sacred way of life that could lead to inner meaning and spiritual fulfillment. It was a noble quest, one that can awaken at any time in life as each life longs for a true awakening. After a period of searching and encountering some of the sorrows and troubles of the world, the young seeker felt more exiled than when he first began his search for meaning. It was as if he had to lose parts of himself along the way and become truly lost before finding his true sense of self.

Eventually, he found himself in the vicinity of an old temple and managed to be accepted amongst the others there who also sought more than the common world could offer. He began to study the ways of that place, which included the practice of deep meditation. Having searched far and wide and wandered throughout the world, he now had to sit still in order to learn how to search deep within. Soon enough he learned to turn inwards and was meditating day and night. He gave himself to the work and barely stopped his inner practice long enough to eat or sleep. As time went on, he grew quite thin and often seemed on the verge of complete exhaustion.

One day he was granted an audience with the old teacher who had long been the master of that temple. After observing the avid student and inquiring about his interests and aims, the old teacher advised him to slow down, to rest more often, and to learn to take better care of himself. Of course, the young seeker ignored the advice; he even intensified his practice and doubled his efforts.

When next they met, the teacher asked: “Why are you rushing so much? What is the great hurry?” The devotee answered quickly: “I am after enlightenment and spiritual fulfillment and there is no time to waste.” 

The teacher considered that idea for a while and then responded, “How do you know that what you seek is running somewhere before you, so that you must spend all your energy rushing after it? What if what you most need is actually behind you, trying to catch up to you? What if the knowledge and wisdom you seek is waiting for you to descend to it? What if all your haste and feverish determination turn out to be your own habitual pattern of running away from what has been trying to catch up to you all along?”

Looking inside for knowledge and grounding is an old idea that by now can seem counterintuitive and contrary to contemporary attitudes about life. Yet what we often need most, whether we are on a spiritual quest or simply trying to make our way in the world, is the soul connection that allows us to deepen and grow inwardly, to “slow downwards” enough to find who we already are at our core.

― Michael Meade
Excerpted from Why the World Doesn't End

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