We take on anything we do. We do yoga but we do many other ‘good’ things too. With some contemplation we discover the value in all of our more daily activities and begin to experience more joy. To play off Einstein’s quote, either everything is a miracle or nothing is, either every duty is worthy of a willing spirit or none of them are. To release the burden of resistance is what catapults the work itself to a higher quality which in turn rewards one even more. Upward spiral activated! With a clean cliche for the antagonist, what goes up must come down, but the idea is that we begin to not fall so far back down. We are propped on the plateaus of our teachings and toils, our relationships and rituals. We reflect our practices and become more than the total sum of their cohesion. We have tapped into the collective, by which I mean the energy of other people’s experience feeds into our own and leaps can be made without the fear of falling. It is interconnectedness or oneness – that which every conversation will arrive back at. It’s all one… and it’s all good.
When it comes to what we label ‘bad’ things, in particular, people dying, we basically arrive at the conclusion that it is good for them to be back to oneness. Death in the form of murder stands indignantly at the top of what we deem ‘bad’, but it is really the circumstances with which we have trouble; the heinous act, the intent to harm, or the sickness that causes suffering. Nobody can endorse abuse, torture, or disease but even these things exist as part of a whole. What would be the point of living if life was exactly the same for all and guaranteed for a certain time period and nothing ever bad happened? We’d all be asking God, “Why the hell did I have to go and do that?” Life would be pointless. The point of life is to live it!
But don’t forget about the plateaus because we CAN grow and get past all this murderous behavior. The new world would inevitably have it’s own different problems. And that’s the point – they would be DIFFERENT! We wouldn’t be doing the same selfish shallow soulless shit! …like fighting over toys (gold, land, resources) and calling each other names (labeling, prejudice, even naming God). We’d be exploring the universe, refining and developing the methods of maximizing our planet, and nurturing our more benevolent natures, all of which would bring us closer to a heavenly existence. What we have idealized as God is a great role model for aspiration. So in the spirit of the word, let’s breathe and keep up the good work of paying attention to respond.
Peace