“He who knows others is wise, but he who knows himself is
enlightened” Lao Tzu
As mentioned in the last post, our society and culture seems
to be based on the concept that someone or something outside of ourselves knows
what is best for us. We rely on
our society to tell us how to behave, on our government to tell us what rules
we should follow, on our religion to tell us how to be moral, on corporations
to tell us what to buy, on our doctors to tell us what medical treatment we
should follow, on our friends and family to tell us what path we should take in
life, etc. I’m not proposing that
we chuck everything and allow a free for all. What I’m trying to illustrate is how maybe the decisions we
think we are making for ourselves are actually decisions that are based on how
we are told we “should” be living.
Have we really taken the time to get to know ourselves, to know who we
are and what is best for us? Or,
is it easier to let those things and people outside of us tell us who we are
and answer these questions for us?
The basic right for the crown chakra is The Right to Know.
It’s about knowing the truth, acquiring knowledge, and gaining access to
accurate information. But
ultimately, it’s about connecting with the divine in our own way to truly know
on a level that resonates throughout our whole being that we are perfect and we
are connected to all things. It is
so simple, yet so difficult to understand from our western perspective. Really, there is nothing we need to do
to get here. We already know
it. We are already there. Ask a young child how amazing they are,
and they will let you know that they are more amazing then you even know. Ask them if they are perfect, and they
will let you know there is nothing they need to change, as they are more than
perfect. We came into this world
knowing that we are amazing, and we are perfect because we are a part of the
divine. The problem is, as we grew
there was no shortage of people, groups and things with their own agendas
(whether conscious or not) that constantly told us we were not perfect. Unfortunately, we believed them. We also grew up in a time and into a
society that tells us that we need to understand everything from a mental
perspective. If we can’t
physically prove it, then it has no validity. Again, we just believed it.
This brings us to the demon of Sahasrara which is attachment. Attachment prevents us from reaching
this knowing of who we really are.
Attachment and letting go can be a difficult concept to understand and
practice. When I was involved in a
Vipassana retreat, a few of the other participants and myself were discussing
attachment and how to let go. For
most of us, the idea of letting go of our attachment to things didn’t seem too
hard, but the idea of letting go of our attachment to family relationships was
another issue. I may have it
wrong, but maybe we were mistakenly associating the idea of letting go of our
attachment to family as letting go of our love for our families. My husband and I have very different
interests. We have created a
relationship where in some aspects I have my own life, he has his own life, but
then we also have this life that we’ve created together. At various points, one or both of us go
off in our separate directions to do “our thing,” but we always come back to
this shared life. We each give the
other person the freedom to do what they need to do, knowing that this
relationship we’ve created together is always there. Maybe this is the key to overcoming some of our attachments. Knowing that we can do what we need to
do, and when we come back we will still have exactly what we need.
“Attachment fixates our energy outside the Self. Rather than focus on the object of
attachment . . . . we should redirect the psychic energy to the Self” Anodea Judith. Working with the crown chakra involves
an individual as opposed to a group type of energy. Spiritual or soul work, while it can sometimes be beneficial
to have the support of a group is in the end an individual endeavor. A key to working with this center is meditation and
awareness. We can have moment-by-moment
awareness and possibly bring ourselves into a constant state of meditation when
we concentrate on living in the present moment. It is in the present moment that we let go of our fears, concerns,
worries, anxiety and just notice what is happening now. We allow ourselves to marvel at the
wonder of what is before us now, noticing the smallest details that we may have
passed by before. In this space we
can start to recognize the magic in the small things around us, and maybe . . .
. just maybe we will begin to notice that this spark that begins to appear in
all of those things around us is the exact same spark as the one that is
residing within us. So, my
challenge for you over the next week is to be in this present moment. Find the wonder and awe that is before
you right now.
Be the light and shine out,
Roxanne
I’m going to end this post, and this series with a beautiful video by
Nahko Bear . . . remember, “you are a miracle made up of particles”
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