Dancing with MA
Saturday, October 7th, 2006This morning I danced with MA. I was doing prostrations without the support of mantra and visualization. Just relaxing in the natural state while moving.
In one moment arose the effervescent game, the lila of the One dancing as two.
All-at-onceness danced with time. Openness danced with form. The ordinary and the extraordinary played peek-a-boo. All bodies moved to the rhythm of MA’s delight.
Many of us tend to take our spirituality very seriously. So how come every truly accomplished spiritual teacher is a ham, and if not an out-and-out ham, at least a frequent laugher?Humor and playfulness are among the most important signs of spiritual accomplishment.
While those only play-acting at spiritual realization tend to assume a mask of ultra-seriousness, the truly realized really play.
Compassion is an embodied expression of the realization of the appearing of the world as “not two.”
Playfulness is an expansive embodiment of duality.
The American Tantrik, Rudi, wrote that “intensity equals density.” Density is the opposite of en-lighten-ment. Rudi was saying, “Lighten up!”
We experience real pain in the course of our spiritual practice. Awakening has different stages, and despite the nice sound of the word, many awakenings are quite rude.
We must open to encounter our real situation, free of fantasy and avoidance. This often hurts.
The best attitude (bhava) to adopt toward the natural pain of awakening is to let it flow without much interference. As we relax, some things feel good, others feel terrible. But it is really all the same: karma is burning.
If we stop to craft a compelling, dramatic story about our pain, our realizations, our awakening, or just about how lousy we feel, we stop the process of relaxation and letting go of karmic tensions.
This is why humor, and especially self-irony, is an essential tool for the Tantrik practitioner. Laughing at our own seriousness can quickly get us unstuck.
When we lose the ability to laugh at ourselves, this is a symptom of fantasy perceptions having taken over Reality perceptions to a large degree. This should be a big warning to us that the world created by our fixations is becoming a closed system. Time to ask for help busting out!
OM Shanti, hee hee,
Shambhavi
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