Chop Wood, Carry Water or Heed the Emotions

Sunday, 9/6/2009, 11 Edznab/Flint (Composition info, including Mayan calendar day)

Those at all familiar with Buddhism will recognize the title of today’s blog:  chop wood, carry water.  It is said that a very large part of life is spent in one’s daily chores, such as (once upon a time) chopping wood for the fire, and carrying water for cooking and cleaning.  Today it is more often go to work, go home, make the meals, go shopping, etc.  Same diff.

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Many yet believe that, with 'enlightenment' (whatever that is,) one's whole world is instantly changed.  The tie to Buddhism in the title quote is the master's teaching regarding enlightenment:
    Before enlightenment one chops wood, and carries water.  After enlightenment, one chops wood and carries water.
Kind of unavoidable, the daily chores.  And, even after massive internal changes, what changes on the outside?  In this sense, not so much; the trash still has to go out, the pets still have to be fed...

In other senses much does happen, of course...yet opposites can both be true.  Perhaps you've found, as I have, that wisdom often takes the form of paradox?  Either that, or Source just has an odd sense of humor...or both.

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Anyway, since we are the actual and literal creator of our world, we have far more power over it than most realize.  Not, perhaps, to produce enlightenment on demand — we're not quite God, yet, ho ho — but certainly to make major changes.  That is another story, however, so back to chopping wood...

There is something very wise about this saying.  It points to a certain flow and rhythm of life.  It can be seen in nature with just a cursory glance.  The bees don’t first eat the pollen, then go out and collect it.  One must first chop the wood before lighting the fire.

I know, d'uh... Very basic; but often still missed by the spiritual seeker.  There is a fundamental and cyclic order and rhythm to life that also applies to awakening — which is more often a process than a moment.

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How is this basic life rhythm often missed by the seeker?  Maybe how not to miss it is more to the point.  Balance is not rightly honored in the West, today.   Nature's rhythms won’t be missed if one first elevates balance to its rightful place.  Though true balance is present in the fundamental process, cycles, and orderliness of life, we don't usually see it. 

Instead, we tend to focus on one thing, one aspect, to the exclusion of all else, thinking enlightenment is somehow hidden within this practice, that book, this teacher, that workshop... We all know the drill, because we've all been there at one point or another along our path.  (Let s/he who is immune self-question whether s/he is truly vital and alive.)

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Actually, this is admirable.  Yeah, notice how quick we are to self-condemn.  One can be admired for devotion and dedication to awakening.  This is what Sri Nisargadatta might call earnestness, which he considers the principle ingredient in a successful spiritual search.  Some call it sincerity.  Under any name, it is good; perhaps just a little exaggerated, or misguided, but that's fine.  Perfectionists don't make it far along a true spiritual path. 

Regardless, let us see it is wise to never condemn the self for anything at all.  I don’t care if you have murdered, robbed, or whatever; nothing merits self-condemnation, so lighten up on yourself, okay?  I will, too.

We get what we focus on, so let's not go there.  Self-condemnation is a dead end, with no usefulness at all.  Life will take care of those things, anyway, without you minding the store (since consequences just naturally flow). 

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Balance points to a higher wisdom.  Balance teaches us.  If we watch and imitate nature (be reasonable, here - no literalists, please ✗), we experience the beauty of flowing in alternating cycles of work, then stillness.  One chops wood, carries water, starts the fire, cooks the meal, eats, pauses—cleans-up the mess, then rests and does nothing for a while...hopefully.  This is, at least, a natural progression.

A certain underlying wisdom can be found this way — if one has the patience for it.  The body knows what it needs, too, if one will just listen to it.  We often reject this idea, either because it seems too simple, or for lack of the patience to prove it out.  Everything rests on the attention; to 'listen to the body' is simply to center one's attention there.  Subtle, but powerful.

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The mind can be a useful servant, too, if kept in proper perspective.  What happens, however, is that one gets out of balance, usually through either persistent activity or through too much rest.  Balance can be maintained if one meanders and flows, like nature.

The self simply flows in the dance if the inner wisdom allowed to rule.  Well, one has to know this inner wisdom is there, of course...but now you do, so no more excuses.

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What does being out of balance look like?  Try anxiety.  Maybe depression; even anger.  The emotions are the key that something is amiss.  Quite often it simply takes the form of necessary chores (note, ‘necessary,' not nit-picky), gone undone.  Even the least disturbance (in the feelings) has a message.

Subtle, perhaps, but this is not for the 'type A' personalities among us, deeply involved in the world and its dramas.  Perhaps all of us, when first starting out on the spiritual path, were very much in the world.  'Properly' trained by society, we had both the non-stop brain chatter and the internal tension that combined to make us insensitive to subtle emotional cues.  We can remember that.

Sure, I make the assumption that you are on the spiritual path, and headed Homeward, to Source.  That’s not such a great stretch; if you’re following this blog, you must be.  Don’t see how you could stand it, otherwise!

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We need to have come a long way, though, and have attained at least some element of sporadic peace in order to carry out this prescription.  Otherwise, how will we be able to even hear the body's inner wisdom when it speaks, amidst the cacophony of the inner soap opera, the outer chaos?

Spending time in nature is good for healing, for peace.  It has the potential to bring mind and body to peace faster than most remedies.  Gaia, too, has her own innate wisdom, and can read exactly what is needed by each of us. Earth, herself, through nature, will stealthily supply what is needed if we will just take the body/mind into nature and relax...spend some time.  (This does not mean taking the ipod, the homework, or the briefcase along, either.)

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As an example, let’s say you are writing, like I am, now..and you come upon a block.  Nothing else will come.  You’re stumped.  Now, hopefully you have the wisdom to know that continuing to write, anyway, is not a good choice.  Your readers will not appreciate it - and that's if you get it past your editor.

Instead, I invite you to consider chopping wood...or yes, carrying water, or whatever could use doing that will get you up and about.  Take out the trash, for goodness' sake; do the dishes; take a walk...  Something surely needs doing.  Did I say subtle?  Must have been mistaken ;-)

There is that natural rhythm, present in all of nature, from which humanity has so distanced itself, in separatist arrogance and pride (following the logical pattern of Newtonian physics), that it takes both time and persistence to get back into the flow.  It can be done, though, by one and all; the flow is there and present, always.  The marvel is that it always has been.

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All of life is intelligent.  A stone is intelligent.  A cell is quite intelligent.  Even a dish is intelligent; it has to be, if the photons that compose it are intelligent and aware —and they are.   Today's science is a lot more exciting and mystifying than our grandparents' science.  (Let's have some trust for quantum science, now.  This may sound 'way out,' but it is based on fact...or at least one way of viewing the facts ;-)

Until we dump our reliance on Newton's physics, which look on the Cosmos as a lifeless machine made of inert parts, and people just as more parts, composed of smaller and smaller parts — i.e., the reductionist view — we will not know.  Though those physics were seriously outdated by 1926, most of us weren't looking.  Being so married to the old, we were unable to see the new (quantum physics).

Ah, thank God/Source, that times, they are a’ changin’.  It’s that mental mind thing, at heart, that led us astray.  Actually, it is our reliance on it that was the problem.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the mind.  It just is what it is.  Our problem was making a god of it, of sorts, and then identifying with it.  That was a rather huge detour.

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No worries, though; all is well.  Peace, internal peace is a choice we can always make.  Which is not to say it will arrive all in a bundle, neatly packaged, ready to open up into instant peace...whatever that is.  Not.  It's a bit more subtle than that.

One calls a thing forth, sets the intention, and then lets it go, to begin watching, observing.  My thing will come to me, but I must know it, and then be alert to signs of its coming...and finally, cooperate.

Yeah, this is a community thing; no such thing as 'alone,' anymore.  Rather, in the midst of quantum entanglement, we are all-one.  (Ever notice how your 'thing,' whatever you call forth, always seems to come to you through the activities of other people?)

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On my path it has been the emotions, not the mental mind (for there is a Higher Mind), that were the way to return to Source, to God.  Gosh, don’t listen to the words; they’re terrible.  Of course we are and have always been one with Source.  Source never went anywhere ‘else,’ lol; where else would 'else' be? 

We left, however, in consciousness.  There being free will, our leaving was respected.  On the Creator's out-going breath we went, out and about; by this time reaching perhaps the farthest point ever, in the Kali Yuga.*  Now, it’s hoooooome we gooooooooooooo!!!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!

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Yeah, let’s have some fun with this.  Why not, after all?  And what’s the hurry, anyway?  Has hurry gotten anyone anywhere that s/he wants to go anytime sooner? ( What do we do with all those minutes saved by the microwave, anyway??  Not a very useful device, imho; all it seems to do is disrupt the previously more natural, healthy flow of meal times...and cell biology.)

So, once one has seen through the mental mind, realizing its complete inability to enter the sacred spaces of Higher consciousness, the silence, one is ready for the trek.  The next step for me was heart-centering, which proved most helpful.  There is something both sacred and unique about the heart space, and about the other heart chakra, the Secret Chamber of the Heart, in particular.

This is not the centrally placed heart chakra, with which all are pretty familiar, but the other, even more sacred space.  Within the Secret Chamber of the Heart is anchored the three-fold flame, the literal 'spark' of each one’s identity.  Since this is not an esoteric blog, and I am no one’s teacher, just another walker along the Way, I will leave it at that.

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For those who are curious, The Summit Lighthouse [http://tsl.org search - index] offers teachings on this very special chakra, called a secret-ray chakra.  You have visited this inner space if you ever found yourself in an interior chamber where the ‘air’ itself seems to be both pink and golden, simultaneously, yet each color somehow retains its own identity.  Most unearthly.

Heart centering has become such a special thing for me, in either heart chakra.   It seems we've all been somehow programmed to act like computer chips, safely tucked away in the cranial CPU.  Just learning to re-locate outside of the head is massively helpful, lol.  It's all downhill from there.

Let's all agree to remember — our natural state is bliss!  Blessings be on your day, your night.  Good-bye, for now.


PS  I first encountered this whole concept (the wisdom of the natural flow) in an excellent little book from the Eckhart Tolle Recommended Reading list, The Wisdom Way of Knowing - Reclaiming an Ancient Traditon to Awaken the Heart, by Cynthia Bourgealt.  I highly recommend it.

*An age of humanity or creation sometimes called "the dark age" or the "age of vice" [Wikipedia.entry: Kali Yuga]