In our culture we emphasize doing over being, we emphasize focusing on the future over the present and the past. We tend to emphasize focusing on our outward life, our goals, our appearance and how other people think of us more then we focus on our inner world. Our inner world far surpasses our thoughts. Magic will happen there.
Some other cultures we can learn from, such as the cultures that practice Buddhism or more indigenous cultures, balance focus on the outside world with reflection and sensing an inner world. Our inner worlds can connect us to ourselves ; that is, how can we grow, what do we intuit, our imagination as well as deepening the perception of the gifts of the world and an enlarged consciousness. We have been gifted with sensations to savor –all of the elements – fire, water, earth and air as well as with realms of consciousness and self reflection. Often we are so focused on what we have to do and what others think of us that we miss the miracle of these gifts.
I read a book ( The girl who danced with the buffalo) that talked about an old medicine man. The person who met him said he was inscrutable, his face giving away nothing. Later, another elder told him that the old ones, the wise ones, are like that. They can go deeply into their own inner world and are unreadable to others until or unless they come to know you and find you worthy of trust and sharing. Although we don’t necessarily need to become more inscrutable, perhaps we’d do well to feel when our energy is too outward focused and pull back to our center. Fulfillment can increase when we attend to our core and focus on our own values, our senses, the quality of our inner life and the inner doorways; such as, dreams expand our being. Rather than over attending to what other people think of us or to all of the goals we have to attain much of the time, let us aim for balance. For a more harmonious way of being in the world, we need to
Walking on water at sunset
befriend ourselves, befriend the living world of existence.
