“I want my life
Every day
To be inundated
With the fulness of newness.”
- Sri Chinmoy
I love to be busy, but sometimes I find I am carrying out tasks
automatically without being really conscious of what I am doing,
especially if I am trying to do several things at a time. Do you know
what I mean? I know from Sri Chinmoy’s teachings
that in our consciousness lies the key to making any task fresh and
energising. Each day we may do the same thing outwardly, but we can
still have a different experience inwardly if we can be more
consciously aware.
I once saw a Vietnamese film called “The Scent of Green Papaya” that has an underlying chord I liked. It follows the life of a poor
servant girl who has nothing to
call her own. Despite this, she is very contented and peaceful. Far
from being absorbed by self-pity at her situation, she seems quite
detached from it. She finds a constant source of joyful fascination in
the simple beauty of nature.
This morning I heard the rain falling and automatically got
up to close the back door, but decided to spend two minutes consciously
looking outside. In those few moments gems of rain scattered on the
honeysuckle leaves. A spider danced to the edge of safety as water
pelted through his lacy home. There are huge green fruits on the quince
growing in abundance without me even realising. Then a mouse! Never
before have I seen one in my garden, and there he was, bold as brass,
climbing up to harvest berries. He spotted me with his shiny black
beads and was gone. In those few moments, life was bigger than the
details in my mind, the weight of past blunders and lists of future
duties.
All this reminds me to really try to make my actions and creations
unconditional: to think of the current step in my journey and to trust
that the destination will be there when the time comes. I am still
grateful to have learnt a lot about that in our last Self-Transcendence
Marathon. Sometimes I think of all the incredible beauty the Supreme is
creating constantly, and most of the time I am unaware of it. He works
without relying on our gratitude, our appreciation, or even our
knowledge of the creation. Who is there in the heart of the rainforest
to see that rare and majestic butterfly? Only Him. Who is at the depths
of the ocean to enjoy those strange comical creatures? He is. Such is
His Sincerity at work that He creates with absolute abundance whether
we catch Him working or not. Nothing is contrived it seems, but only
spontaneous.
I remember hearing that when Sri Chinmoy
lived at the ashram in Pondicherry in his youth, he enjoyed washing
dishes, as he found the simplicity of it most conducive to meditation
while working. Something I love about the spiritual life is that this
consciousness can be present not just during spiritual practice per se,
but that it can potentially be woven into any activity. There is always
the opportunity for newness as there is always a new “now”.
Sumangali Morhall
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