People come to the Work (by whatever name it may be called or not called) mostly thinking they're going to "get" something. And really what's happening is that they're coming to the Work to "lose" something.
The most valuable thing (really a non-thing) of all can't be "gotten". It's just covered up by personality, conditioning, experiences, etc.
You come to the Work to Lose what's covering up what You Are.
You already are the Peace, Love, and Security you seek through people, things, and experiences.
What the Work does is to create a space in your experience for RECOGNITION of what You Are. Once what You Are is seen (even for a fraction of a moment), the whole path starts to change. What you
see in that fraction of a moment has a gravitational pull, pulling everything towards Love. How long it takes for the process to complete itself and for the proverbial fat-lady in life's opera to sing? Well, it seems to be different for everyone.
What you Are isn't an experience, and it can be seen through experiences. But chasing after experiences may not satisfy you. Have you noticed yet? Have you noticed that experiences come and then they go? Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that everything you can perceive with your senses has a beginning, a middle, and most definitely an End?
Working with something as simple as an active breathing process sets the stage for this recognition to occur...it "un-clutches" your attention.
Imagine making a fist....and imagine that the fist is closing in around something like needing your partner to acknowledge you in some way.
First, in that example, there's the experience that something is missing (approval), then the impulse to go and get it somehow. Then the determination around it is the even tighter clutching of the fist. Only your whole experience of yourself becomes contracted and clutched (even if it's subtle, clutching is still clutching....giving it a sweeter name is like putting lipstick on a pig)....and so even if approval and acknowledgment came your way, it can't make it through the contracted state of being for you to even experience it in the present moment.
In order to "receive", you have to become open, unclutched.
And the irony of this is that when you're unclutched, you're in contact with the Real You...where nothing is missing at all. In that moment, the "seeker" that has led you on a wild goose chase (from teacher to healer to CD to class to book to whatever is next on the wildly marketed spiritual buffet line)....in that moment, the "seeker" is temporarily paralyzed. And in that moment, you experience peace.
Very quickly thereafter, the ego wakes back up and believing that the peace came through an "experience" begins plotting away to create similar "experiences".....getting you back on the wild goose chase of experience-hunting.
It really believes that if it can string enough of these experiences together like some sort of necklace, you might get to live in a permanent "experience".
It doesn't work that way.
Peace comes through Recognition of what you Are, and resting in it. What you really are. Not what your mind tells you, or your mother-in-law tells you, or your pre-school teacher from 30 years ago tells you. It comes from surrendering into and ultimately as what you and I already are.
If you've been to a workshop with me, you may have noticed that I work with paradox quite a bit. I'll say one thing to one person, and something nearly opposite to another. The words are not the thing. They're being used to take consciousness to a deeper place. The workshops aren't a place to just gather information. You could spend (and may already have spent) countless lifetimes amassing information. So what. As a recovering information-junkie, I can tell you that information doesn't do squat for awakening, for recognizing Love. It just piles up and gathers dust.
Information is fine for fixing cars, doing open-heart surgery, cooking, passing exams....and there's nothing at all wrong with information. If your goal is Love, if your goal is Peace, if your goal is Security, if your goal is recognition and embodiment of Truth....information probably won't get you very far.
Letting go of concepts, beliefs, illusions about yourself, people, and life makes space for this Recognition, this remembering of who and what you are.
It really is a lot like surfing or body-surfing in my experience. All the "work" is to align with the wave, and surrender to it, let it carry you all the way in to Shore. It's building awareness of and utilizing this subtle musculature for True Balance.
Half an hour ago, I was cleaning and refilling my hummingbird feeder. As I was putting it back up outside, the hummingbirds came and sat on the feeder and starting drinking the nectar. I nearly pee'd myself (not really, but it makes it sound more dramatic!). If you know me, you know I get really excited about hummingbirds (among many other things), so having them not even an inch from my fingers was a great "surfing" opportunity.
I know how sensitive hummingbirds are to energy. I knew that if I started wanting them to be or do anything other than what they wanted, they'd feel it immediately and fly away. I also knew that I wanted to fully experience being with them. So it was this subtle balancing of being radically open to them without grasping for an experience (becoming clutched) and then being left unsatisfied.
What really excites me about hummingbirds is that they mirror something so deep and alive
within me. The hummingbirds aren't the answer, they're another mirror.
With this extremely potent Full-Moon approaching, it's a great time to practice your surfing. And if you're in LA, I'd heavily encourage you to come to The Hub tomorrow afternoon from 2-6pm for the BreathWorks Immersion,
The Alchemy of Transformation. We'll be working deeply with all of this and more.
Come to let go. Come to release, and become unclutched. In this release, you will recognize your Original Face, the face you had before your parents were born. In this release, you will taste the flavor of your own Heart, and in that tasting, you will experience the nectar of All Hearts.
Love,
Scott
