The unknown was the domain of mystics for millennia. Though now the time has come when we as individuals and as a human collective are invited to make friends with it. Maybe even we have been or will be pushed to our knees to humble ourselves in front of this big mystery. Nothing works as it used to. We do not have the answers to these new times and more questions have been appearing. Challenges are bigger than we can presently handle in areas of environment, health, relationships, intimacy, parenting, careers and others. New generations do not buy easy answers from us. High suicide rate among youngsters in rich countries is something that we need to attend and contemplate upon.
Do we have any other choice than to investigate the unknown? Or to be at least curious towards it? Rather than trying to fix old mechanisms, a way that has been failing us so far, is there another way of resolving problems?
We are on the edge of natural catastrophe, animal and plant distinction, hundreds of wars perpetuating our planet. In this moment when you are reading this article, people and animals suffer immensely. Yes, it is overwhelming. Thus, it could seem that the only choice left is to detach from the collective pain and focus on our personal life narrative. And yet, even there we stand in front of personal choices that are difficult to neglect.
How to navigate this new territory that we are unexpectedly thrown into?
My intention for this article is to share personal experiences and gathered wisdom in order that we could open with curiosity to the unknown, seeing immense opportunity in what has been happening, instead of threat. My heart wish is to light a spark of hope and love in the dark night of the soul in a collective journey. You are not alone. We all together need to learn how to create and live from the unknown. And yes, it may feel scary in the beginning.
Let’s start with some background.
Patriarchy
My invitation is to change perspective and see patriarchy broader as a system of control, oppression and ownership, raised from the fear of the unknown, rather than a gender war. Following this thought line, it is an expression of unhealthy, immature masculine energy and frozen, wounded, disempowered feminine in each one of us. Our masculine tries to control and desperately manage reality as it has no clue about deeper forces that are in play. It is terrified of everything that is wild, undomesticated and free – the feminine essence. Our ego tries and fails to tame or stop life forces that are much bigger than itself. Ego is understood here as a system of identity based on past experiences and beliefs, future hopes and desires. Immature ego structure is past related and future oriented. The problem is not ego itself but our attachment to it. We are losing freedom while trying to prove our separate existence and stand up to our imaginary image. This holding creates suffering. We can move on from this point by finding a way to the unknown, by taking refuge in it.
Is it safe though?
Trust
The first step is to confront our ability to trust. Unfortunately, through our human history we have developed profound distrust in each other, governments, authorities, religions, body and the invisible world. We went so far that we have limited our capacity of feeling and empathy. The body started to be an enemy, slave or in the best case scenario, a useful tool for carrying our concepts into life and allowing the intellectual mind to take over. It is reflected in how we treat the body of the Earth. Instead of gratitude and carrying of it as a living being like our mother, we exploit its resources for our own satisfaction out of hunger and disability to receive its infinite love to us.
Our birth procedures are inhuman. This is a first moment of anchoring distrust in us. We cannot trust the world and people that treat us with such lack of sensitivity due to their own sensual detachment. Our journey of survival starts with our birth. How can we learn to celebrate life when being measured and vaccinated is more important than a mother’s touch?
It is hard to believe that we let it come this far.
The most tragic is that we feel this kind of body detachment and desensitization as normal and acceptable. Though nature is giving us a wake-up call with wild fires, floods, hurricanes and volcano eruptions. It is a loving and yet strong voice to us humans. Can we read it? Can we hear it as such? How can we respond to it instead of reacting with fear?
Heal your past
We need to heal our past first, to be really able to cope with the unknown. Each one of us stores collective and personal traumas. Our body stores the memories of all that happened. Some energies are stuck, creating contractions and finally, if not attended accordingly, illnesses. The body is our home. It is our temple. It is scary to be embodied if we developed coping strategies keeping us away from our homes. It is a big, highly rewarding journey to be embarked in this delightful, wise, living organism. It is up to us, by our choices, if it is a source of pain and terror or immense pleasure and safety. We are fortunate to live in times when we have access to unbelievable methods to clear our past from our bodies and open up to the potential stored there, which is beyond our present imagination. When we healed the fundament, it is much easier to do the next step.
Surrender
Are we willing to accept that it is as it is, without wanting to fix it? It seems paradoxical. Then why should we do anything, taking care of the planet, taking conscious actions, heal our body? We do it in order to see that reality is already perfect. All what we need is to remove the veils from our perception. It takes some conscious work with body and mind to come to the place of dropping into perfectness of existence itself. We are on the way. Before we reach this place, in the mystic tradition called the Great Perfection, how can we make our life journey easier? When we still struggle with afflicting emotions, stress, anxiety, confusion and fears, how do we approach acceptance? We need to find our own door to it. Some people have a more devotional nature and spirituality holds the keys. Some of us need to understand to trust and surrender, then developing consciousness and quantum physics can be of use. For some of us human connection and bond is crucial, then community around while moving through challenging moments offer this comfort holding. We need to find our own way and also learn to take small steps, one at a time. It brings us to the next threshold.
Patience
This is such a big component in developing our relationship with the unknown. Patience and practice. It is ok to have doubts. It is ok to give up. Everything is constantly moving and changing. The only certain thing is change. Can we see it? If everything is constantly changing, we can relax. Even if we feel stuck, it will change one day. Let’s think about a baby in a womb who can feel stuck not knowing that the birth will ever come, right? And it will come. Always. In the right moment. Patience gives us spaciousness. That is the essence of the unknown itself. But then should we just do nothing?
Action
How to take and when to take the right action? If everything is changing, maybe we should just lean back and observe? I would like to propose a different perspective to sit with for a while. What if it is the change itself that moves us and we are the expression of evolution of consciousness? What was first, the chicken or the egg? Maybe it all coexists and is interdependent, impossible to be separated. Yes, we do need to take actions. And we need to learn how to be the expression of bigger forces, how to surrender to them. In the East it is called wu wei. The principle of universe, the understanding of impulses coming to life and manifesting into the space effortlessly without the will of ego.
How do we know when it is the right time to take action or to just be?
Receptiveness
Deep listening allows us to uncover the already existing but hidden structures in a matrix of the universe. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Though it demands to drop a need of self-importance and attachment to form and the final effect. What will be revealed is pure magic beyond our capacity of inventing new. It diminishes any tension as there is no gap between a creator and creation itself. It invites joy and celebration as there is nothing to worry about. It makes everyone around happy, including us. It opens a space of beauty, grace and magic. How do we step into it?
Presence
We need to learn to be present to be able to listen deeply. It is a state of being, there is no doer anymore. And it can be a big challenge as we are the society of doers. We are defined by what we have achieved. Though, befriending wisdom of just to be, coming from the ancient East, can be a new discovery for us as a human collective.
As a practitioner and lover of the unknown, I would like to encourage us to go for this adventure. It will leave us in awe and with a deeply cracked open heart.
Let we all be healthy and happy
Estera Saraswati
30 September 2018,
written in the sky over Poland and Sweden on the way back from the Leadership Festival
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