Walking on a nature trail Monday, March 19, I started wondering:
What are options for successfully surviving Not Knowing?
Cheerful yellow daffodils, lacy green trees, and brilliant yellow forsythia spread out before me, none of them appearing to fret about Not Knowing. Beauty was everywhere. A glorious sense of spaciousness permeated the air.
Could this sense of spaciousness be transferred to my inner landscape?
A question was developing in my head: If I had a spacious interior landscape, would being in the Not Knowing Place be easier?
When I pictured openheartedness, a mind nearly void of judgment, blaming, or prejudice, and appropriate anxiety being residents of my interior space, it seemed these qualities would ease the stress of unanswered questions.
Qualities of this nature would take up a lot of space. Maybe this is why we say that a person who exhibits them is the bigger person.
To successfully stay in the Not Knowing place, develop a huge interior landscape. Something the size of a dance hall - not the size of a department store elevator.
One hindrance to spaciousness in our interior landscape is to narrow our focus. When the most important thing to us is to be right or find someone to blame, our narrow focus blocks out the space of loving kindness.
To enlarge your internal space, stay in the moment. When we concentrate on being in the moment, we begin to notice our breathing and subsequently it begins to slow down.
While inhaling, we can remember that billions of people are breathing the same air. While exhaling we can increase the length of the exhale, release tension, and enter a space of openness and creativity.
When we sense a web of connection to beings and creatures, our little piece of the web seems more manageable.
What gets in the way of you staying in the moment?
Note: In last week's post, I mentioned that a high school classmate was dying of cancer. I raised several questions, one of which was how much longer would he would live. That question has been answered: Mike died on March 19, 2012. Other questions remain unanswered.
Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall
