The Living Story
March 11, 2009Had an interesting insight this evening I thought worth sharing.
In the past, I’ve talked about the Story, the shadow story of illusion that ego uses to explain the world. But it also keeps us trapped in illusion.
I’ve also spoken about the way Maya evolves. Maya is a Sanskrit term often thought to mean illusion but it actually comes in 3 forms. When inertia is dominant, Maya is the concealer of reality. When the energy is active and intense, it is the illusion. But when the energy flows clearly, the dream becomes the field of knowledge, the play of God, a ladder home. Same reality, different ways of being experienced. As our Story is but a local Maya, it works the same way.
This evening I heard a presentation by Karen Rae Wilson. It was a blend of songs, spoken stories and performances. In it, she spoke of the dreamtime and of our storyline. Hearing of the story being told in such a light made the above connection.
The story we hold about the world, our beliefs about it, remain through our journey. We cannot function in the world without a relationship with it. And that relationship is structured by what our heart and mind have taken from our experiences, both in our present incarnation and from the history we’ve brought forward. What we have remembered becomes our story.
What is your story? Look around you. Listen to your thoughts. Your life IS your story. Hidden in your story is your purpose. You’ve been telling it since you were born.
In the awakening process, much of the shadow story falls away. But the story does not end. How we carry that story and what it brings to our journey are qualified by the energy we bring to it. Are we lost in the pain of the past? Living in dreams of the future? Complaining about what is? Speaking only to what is wrong? Or are we telling the story of light? Flowing the inner presence openly through us.
As I touched on back in A Time for Vigilance, it becomes increasingly important to be conscious or mindful of how we’re telling our story. As things get increasingly clear, intention becomes more manifest. We get what we want, so it’s time to pay attention to what we’re asking for.
Another way we can say this – we all bring a song with us into this life. What key are we playing it in? Are we making it a song of joy or of heartache? The song remains the same but as the singer changes, we may seem to step into a new performance. A new stage. But what has really changed is our perception of what continues. And that can change everything.
Sing your heart out. Thats why you’re here.
Davidya
Very well said.
“In the awakening process, much of the shadow story falls away.” The falling away of the shadow story can itself be another story. For some, it’s a big-bang awakening experience, perhaps because it’s part of their story. For others, as in my experience, the falling away can be quite bumpy. With expanding Awareness, we learn how to manage the story of the falling away of the story.
-Kaushik
This is what I experienced in a meditation just before I opened my eyes and turned to this web page and post.
I was remembering an incident when I was about 3 years old. Our family, mom,dad,an older brother and sister, and I had gone to see our first house being built. I was fascinated by the construction site and when it came time to leave I stubbornly refused. My father packed every one else into the car and started to drive away. Suddenly I was filled with the terror of abandonment, an issue that has plagued me all my life. I ran after the car and eventually my dad stopped and my brother opened the back door and let me in. I don’t recall if anything was said but I know my dad was angry with me and my fear did not leave me.Ever.
Suddenly my mind replayed the scene but this time, when the car stopped, my father got out, I ran into his arms and he just held me, rocked me,and held me some more and told me he loved me.
My heart tells me this is who he really was/is, and how he really felt/feels (for my memory is now,present) and that this will be how I remember the event from now on.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that our stories are not set in stone. They are just writings on the blackboard of awareness that can be erased and rewritten to show us, if not what really happened, then at least who we really are. For we are not our behavior and learned responses. As Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said, “Just because it didn’t happen,that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
You speak of our relationship with the world, Davidya. I have come to think that the only true relationship is the one we have with ourselves. All other relationships proceed from that. How we see and judge ourselves is what we project and perceive in the “world”,and in others. Find out who you truly are, without the story, and the world you experience will change forever.
Thank you,Davidya, for a wonderful post.
Hi Kaushik
It’s true – we can develop a story about our story. And some do simply step out but most of us work through it.
If we understand we are not an individual and that there are no individuals, then the question comes – who’s story is it? It is simply a play within Itself. When we stop identifying with the story, it holds us less and soon we come to see it as a divine play.
However, the answer to the question continues to change. I refer to God’s dream. But then, if I am That, it is my dream again, only the cosmic I. Further, it is not a dream at all but the form i choose to express with.
Thanks for sharing that Eric. It’s beautiful. Note that the reason you responded that way (and your father) was the preexisting story. It’s not about what happens, it’s about how we respond to it. In this case, you changed your fathers response to allow yourself to change yours.
You also touch on a key point. Our experience of the world is not causal, except within itself. So yes, our stories can change. You noticed how profoundly it changed your memory and relationship. When we release holdings in the present or in our memories of the past, we as if break a thread that supports the mesh of illusion. It can change your whole history and in consequence, the history of those with which you interacted. We can rewrite the play from any point and change the entire thing.
Of course, we’re talking about change in the fabric of our life, not simple fantasies. This is much deeper than that. One can see by the consequences of it.
It demonstrates how it all arises in consciousness.
On the point about our relationship with the world. Yes, at first, it is about our relationship with ourselves. Our relationship with the world is a mirror of that. But as we become that which we truly are, it gradually expands. What is within moves out into the world. We discover we are the world. Our relationship with the world is our relationship with ourselves. But start with who you are. The rest builds on that.
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