Saturday, July 22, 2006 Life as an Enchantment.

I do believe that there are many cultures that understand the concept of enchantment. Whether in folklore or in awareness, human beings have the ability to recognize states of mind. I am deeply affected by both these venues for seeing enchantment. It is apparent that all cultures have fairy tales which support the notion of journey or enchantment. I cannot think of my life’s journey without reference to the fairytales that I grew up with. They are a reflection of western culture’s sub-consciousness. And ignorant that I am of eastern culture, I still have absorbed its recognition of states of mind. I believe that the many stages of life that we go through are but the entering and leaving of different enchantments.

So what is an enchantment but being spellbound, and spells do indeed abound. Spells reflect a reality that we believe exists. Awareness comes in understanding our unquestioning acceptance of the comfort we derive from a specific state of mind. Even if it is painful, at some level there is an acceptance of its purpose, which is usually self-definition.

For don't we define ourselves by our feelings? It would appear that spells enable feelings we then use to create self-image. Feelings we would rather tolerate than replace because we believe that there are only two kinds of states of mind. In a world that believes in only darkness or light, there is this belief in limited choice. That is truly a spell if I ever heard of one. It serves us equally to be victim or oppressor as long as it gives us definition, and our life’s definition appears to revolve around validating or discrediting our state of mind.

In conclusion, I would return to the concept of deity. With a certainty of heart, I would assert that our definition of God or the Universe will always reflect our definition of self as victim or oppressor, rarely occupying that place of intuition and trust which speaks of openness, the awareness that there could be a mind behind our mind.

The flow of the water

Funny thing. When someone I know observed that water seeks its own natural course, I found it to be true. Working in my yard, I could create little canals to channel runoff from these constant rain storms we are having, and the water would flow through them yet they would soon peter out. But once I found the water's natural inclination, it was obvious, the flow was continuous. It was as if the water was happy.
I think that energy is like water. We are the most content and fulfilled when our energy flows to its inclination. I have always found a bolder being in my path as a valid picture of moments of frustration. As when a landslide blocks my flow, my energy path becomes diverted. This is not to say that I don't try to flow around or under the obstacle I see, but it is to say that my frustration reflects the need in me to flow according to my personal inclination.
We tend to say, 'when I finish this project or deal with this moment, I can get back to my self again', even as we are aware that 'tomorrow' never seems to come. How many times have I wondered why those moments of being in sync never seemed to last more that twenty four hours before I was back dealing with obstacles. It would seem to me that obstacle could be another word for obligation. My obligations appear to obstruct my natural flow and I become consumed with discharging them in order to be released to be myself as I would see myself.
Now that is something to think about, for it exposes the relevance of defining obligation and invites a picture of whether obligations float into our lives out of the blue, or do we attract them or even better do we create circumstances that promote them. So in that vein, we could ask how does obligation specifically serve us. I could even imagine creating obligation in order to ignore it, reject it, prevaricate with it, perhaps even defying it. A perverse sense of power lays in how we handle obligation but that's another story. Because what appears to me to be at the core of this essay is more to the point how we honor and promote our own natural flow.