"And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have the power, together with all the Lords holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ..." Eph 3:17
It is intuitive that we are surrounded by something bigger. You may call the something bigger God or Universe or even perhaps you think the something bigger is not sentient and you simply connect to the shared breath of humanity or the earths atmosphere. Ironically though one of the first steps to the internal act of practicing yoga is acknowledging that something bigger. In this connection to Something Bigger I notice there are two major categories of people. There are the people who imagine the force they are surrounded with to be benevolent and helpful and there are the ones who imagine either a harshly judgmental force or an uninterested neutral force. Since really no one has the definitive answer to what is the Bigger that surrounds us no one can say with 100% assurance that the Bigger is good, bad or neutral. So we make a choice about how to interact and envision this Bigger and this choice is shaped by so many factors: parenting, society, past experiences but it is a choice none the less and a crucial one. Perhaps no other choice affects us more that the belief that we are surrounded by love or by something else.
I have noticed that the people who believe in a benevolent force are more relaxed in their muscles and their mind than the ones who believe in something else. Even just believing the larger force is uninterested and neutral seems to keep peoples nervous systems a little bit more one edge. But we just believe what we believe, right, so what is even the point of this observation? Well, I learned a valuable lesson almost 30 years ago from a cute drivers ed instructor. Since I had a little crush on him I listened to what he said. And one thing he said is "look where you want to go". This obviously serves us well driving, but just as well in spiritual seeking. Once we set our minds on looking for the good things we can attribute to the Bigger we see more good. When we intentionally look away from the garbage pile and seek out the small spring flowers we begin to see more beauty.
You can say the Something Bigger allowed you to be in a fender bender and feel agitated or you can feel gratitude at not being injured. Everyday we make a thousand little subconscious choices about what we believe and all of our choices in turn reinforce that Something Bigger belief. it may take decades to slowly shift your belief from thinking you reside in an uncaring world to the belief that you are surrounded by love. But, hey, what else are you doing today that's so important? look around you, see the beauty. Make this an intentional practice. Look for the good. We are like fish swimming in a sea of Love. There is no where you need to go to experience this, nothing you need to do, except choose to believe. When your mind offers you bad memories and your eyes turn to the ugliness of the world shift your view. then shift it again and again and again. And one day you will wake up and realize that you are loved. Like the little fish in Finding Nemo, we just gotta keep swimming.
