Yesterday I watched a remarkable interview of Robert Young by Alan Steinfeld. Robert Young is an Australian engineer, I think, who had a serious car accident and came out of the experience quite changed. His manner is so honest and real and his message unbelievably simple: we can play in the play world or we can live in the truth of the heart, it is our choice. Robert explains with great clarity the difference between living in a conventional way and being in the moment of truth at all times. Listening to Robert tweeks a mysterious memory in me of vast openness, freedom, absolute perfection and delight in the simpleness of just being. He says we can have this in an instant that it is ours to live and right there in our center available right now.
I keep thinking that an attitude change is what we need to come to that place of pure being and certainly holding a “cup half full” rather than a “cup half empty” attitude points us in the right direction but there is so much more to it than that. The pointers to that state of pure being which is a state where all is perfection are all around us and that’s only because we have a habit of looking outside for answers. Robert Young says that when we begin to quiet ourselves we begin to see. At first we are moving too fast and we are too absorbed to hear the birds, then once we have noticed their song we begin to see them. They are right there around us as they always were. What more is right around us all the time that we never notice? Subtle energies of support, love, caring, sharing wash over us everyday. The ground itself supports us, trees cool us and provide fresh, clean air. Gratitude for simple delights is another pointer toward the ocean of pure being.
The critical element though is choice, we must choose to shift our consciousness from looking out in the world to looking inside to our Source. “Let the Force be with you”. Be in the world but not of the world. It is a way of being that we must choose again and again. To add to a metaphore that Robert referred to a couple of times, to keep the bicycle going we must peddle the wheels. Robert was speaking of how children learn to ride a bike with an adult holding them on the bike, then releasing when the child has the confidence and skill to keep going alone. He was using this as an example of how great teachers coach us into a pure way of being in ourselves and with our world. In my experience I have had that push from the Guru, I have been released to ride by myself but if I forget to peddle I fall off the bike. Peddling is merely holding onto the state of grace, making space for eternity to wash into my sphere and inform my daily moments. It is far less work than peddling a bike but somehow far more difficult. At first it’s easy to forget that we have a choice to live in grace, gratitude and joy and we get embroiled in the drama of life, there’s plenty there to distract us. With peddling practice we begin to relish the feeling of freedom and stillness within movement, wind in our hair, delightful views rushing by it gets easier.
On any spiritual path practice is key, like any sport or art or skill, practice leads to perfection.
You can see Alan’s interview with Robert here: http://www.newrealities.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=423&Itemid=1109.