jugglingMost aspire to a state where everything in their life is tucked away nicely in place. No dangling ends.  No unresolved situations.  No problems.  No worries.  No fears. Everything settled and solid and safe.

Of course life is not like that.  There are always many ‘balls in the air” and plates at the end of poles that you need to keep spinning lest they fall to the ground and shatter.  So many spend their lives trying to catch all the balls and stash them away and grab all the plates and pack them up snuggly.

In other words there is a longing for stable ground.  The longing is actually good, but it is misdirected.  The stability you long for is not on the surface of life.  It is in the depth of your being.  Trying to attain it on the surface is a fool’s play, like a cat pawing at its own reflection in pursuit of contact.  Or like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

The juggler finds stability within.  This is what allows him to enjoy and excel at his craft.  The art of juggling maps on to, i.e. parallels, the art of accomplishment in life. The fulfillment it brings is the stability one feels when established in the transcendent even in the midst of great activity.  At first that solid stability is felt only for a moment here and there during meditation.  Imagine it being there all the time… during the greatest hardships and greatest joys.  Imagine tossing more and more balls in the air and spinning more and more plates, without fear of losing the stability of the inner Self.  That is the art of juggling.

You cannot just meditate your way to enlightenment.  Enlightenment is the integration of silence with dynamism… of activity and rest… of the absolute with the relative… of inner oneness and outer multiplicity.  The Guru can help you with that. It is what a Guru does.  Yet along the way, many decide they have it figured out and know better and aspire to catch one moonbeam or dangling carrot or another as per their own choosing.

But listening to the Guru does not mean attending an isolated lecture here and there, or being inspired by a lovely quote and then going about your business.  It means listening and living life accordingly.  Very few are willing to do that.  After all, you did not come here to learn to juggle… or did you?

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.