Most 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?
Jai Guru Dev.
Yes I came to learn to Juggle, Thank you for sooo much help along the way, Love Todd, Got to go patient walking in..
I’ve been too caught up in how many plates I have spinning and forgot about the inner silence.
Exceptional blog. I look forward to reading them every mourning.
I look forward to greater and greater levels of navigation and integration….. stepping up to the plate while swimming to the depth…… the ocean does not mind the waves on the surface…. with great gratitude, Nancy
I did not come here to juggle..thank goodness.In the literal sense,I am not very good at it anyway.Right now..metaphorically I am having to juggle much more than normal however my brief moments of stability are just strong enough for me to keep moving forward.I cannot even imagine a time when I might feel that I have “figured it all out” I am very good with the journey as it is today and excited about the r.p.m increase tomorrow.
Thank you Brahmarshi
I have been the fool chasing this mirage a million times. I love the satisfaction of tying up a bunch of loose ends. This blog opens my eyes to how that will never really be Satisfying, with a capital “S”. It will always be an echo of true Satisfaction. My greatest love to Brahmarshi.
I find myself with a myriad of feelings and thoughts while lacking the words to express them. Todd’s blog response is so emphatic “Yes I came here to learn to juggle.” It’s “right out of the box.” I found myself admiring and taking comfort in it. and the irony, his blog response is interrupted by the need to “juggle” in the form of a waiting patient. But when I applied that same response to myself, I felt reluctance, sadness and fear, feelings that follow my sense of not being “good” enough. And then I reread Maharshi’s blog from yesterday, “Finding it within yourself” and once again found reassurance. From that blog I am reminded that it takes time, it’s a process influenced or dictated by conditioning, feelings of not being good enough. So yes I came here to LEARN to juggle. I need to remember that learning is a process not the goal. My self-honesty brings up my cynicism, anger, short fuse and impatience, to say nothing of my suspicion and criticism of self and others. So, learning to juggle…I have so much to learn. Thanks Todd. Mark P. I appreciated your response as well.
Just keep in mind that juggling does not mean “figuring it all out”. Nor does it mean having no cynicism, anger, fear, etc. It means awakening to the place deep within that holds all of these things.. holds everything… and is beyond the touch of any of it. Oneness does not mean one with all the things you like and elimination of all the things you do not. Oneness means oneness. The course of action is eternally unfathomable. You never figure everything out. You juggle… everything remains up in the air. That is why they call it ‘relativity.’ No bottom line. No figuring it all out. To juggle means to have a healthy relationship with… which means to under-stand… which does not mean to over-stand… Humility, innocence, not knowingness, are all built right into it… while concurrently at the depth you are awake to all knowingness, infinite stability, infinite flexibility, infinite peace, etc. The nature of the depth and the nature of the surface are two very different things. The error of ‘cross realm projection’ is to try to transfer qualities of one upon the other. In enlightenment, they exist concurrently… the surface along with its nature, and the depth along with its nature. Yet the surface from the perspective of your depth is then experienced as virtual… just lightly etched on the face of the absolute… The root is stable, the leaves juggle in the wind.
Brahmarshi:
I have read your response post several times. There is so much there. Every sentence resonates with wisdom shared with kindness. This is conveyed in both the written word and the deeper sentiment. Thank you Brahmarshi for your presence and guidance.
With profound gratitude,
Bill Gately
Love & Gratitude in the Presence of Grace…
Beautiful!