EMBRACE All that Comes
(E.nvision M.astering B.oldness: R.ealize, A.ccept & C.o-create with E.xistence)
“See the line where the sky meets the sea?
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
It really felt as if April started on March 20 when Aries, the God of War, leapt onto the main stage. He brought with him a messy growing pain period that can be hard to navigate. Since that week, the world experienced an onslaught of some nasty natural disasters: earthquakes around Southeast Asia, more than 250 earthquakes in Iceland, a tsunami in Iran, devastating floods in Peru, 15 volcanoes erupting around the world, a frigid blizzard causing power loss in the eastern US to name a few and a massive cyclone tearing up Australia. In global politics, we turn on the news for not even a minute and we are inundated with the intensity of oppositional forces in a never-ending war.
Spring this year is definitely anything but subtle. It is easy to lose our focus and concentration when so many obstacles are thrown our way. But just like last month’s focus – Commit with a sense of wagering everything – we will continue to ride on the coattails of that theme, and with the emphasis on embracing of all that is thrown at us. This month, we seek to meet bold events with boldness itself, and seek to welcome all the guests that enter our house during this wild fiesta because essentially, amidst the good, bad and the ugly, a lesson is to be learned.
In Patanjali’s yoga sutra 1.33 it says, “In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil.” (maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha duhka punya apunya vishayanam bhavanatah chitta prasadanam). So if you find yourself continuously annoyed at work with colleagues and bosses or like you’re drowning in a pile of emotional gunk you can’t seem to shake off. Embrace it. This April, things will get inevitably more and more charged like a never ending hurricane. Instead of trying to escape to the outskirts of this mighty tempest, the boldest thing we can do is to fly into the eye of the storm. When we connect to the source of the storm, we will realize that this storm was created by the same energy that created us and this universe we live in. The more we can trust in our emergence through the Unknown, the more we are able to co-create a reality with the Truer aspects of our Selves.
