Walking the tight rope
Walking the tight rope
Do you remember the circus weekend trips? Have you witnessed the high tension wire performers? They have to be absolutely focussed on what they do. Holding the bar completely steady just as steady as their mind to keep themselves in balance. Slightly correcting their footing from moment to moment. Breathing in and out with such infinite patience, with continued commitment till the very end. They cannot lose even a seconds concentration till they are safely at the other end. These talented individuals are fully aware of their surroundings yet remain singularly focussed on their task at hand.
This is very much how our minds should be on a regular basis. Fully focussed, yet aware of everything around us. Allowing the breathing patterns being regulated and the concentration to enable successful completion of our tasks at hand. We are always surrounded by distractions, like the clapping fans at the circus, yet despite that we have to make the effort to focus. Just like the performers it takes practice, patience and conscientious diligence in achieving the goal of harnessing the power of the mind.
In the end, controlling the mind is the answer for us to be able to do very complex tasks and achieve complex endeavors and goals in our lives. We are always surrounded by the 2 distinct aspects of life, good and evil. Relative descriptions that distinguish our lives, or at least what we think distinguishes them. We would like to always believe that we are on the side of good, but in fact we are actually walking the tight rope of good and evil. Keeping the balance through our thoughts and minds, as they dictate our emotions and so in turn modulate our conscious behavior, we end up walking in balance. The high tension rope is our life, the each side of the bar represents the aspects of life, good and evil, the performer is us.
Breathing through the process of meditation aides in this process. In fact it is vital. It generates calm and focus into the moment enabling the Self to enact out its great play in life.
How tight is your rope?
Interesting you mention the contrast of good and evil, always surrounding one. I am reading a book about the holocaust, and it seems that the people of the German military fell off their tightrope into a spiraling abyss of the most incomprehensible evil. I imagine they could not possibly have been focusing on their actions at the time, for that would have been impossibly painful. Rather, they were operating from a fiction in their minds, without allowing reason or empathy to enter. Do we also do this in our daily lives? Are we living our own individual fantasies rather than clearly taking in the reality of each moment? No wonder the world is in such turmoil, everyone living in their own personal illusion.