cont.

“I’m here to remind you”  This infers that we once knew but have subsequently forgotten – a well document characteristic of humanity!

“That which you truly seek”  What is it that we truly seek? With some deep consideration and reflection we find that what we are all really seeking and what drives the majority of our thought, speech and action is….the desire to be free. Freedom.

This is what everybody is searching for. You know [our existing thought patterns are often], ‘When I earn enough money, have that many followers on Instagram or TikTok,  that ideal relationship, or when my real estate portfolio looks like this, work looks like that, the body looks like this, then I’m going to have a moment – sometime in the future – when I will feel…free.  I’ll have all my ducks lined up, my life will be in order, everything will be honkey-dory and I can relax and enjoy. Life will be wonderful and I will be free of these incessant thoughts!.’ 

I’m going to tell you right here, right now:  that moment is never going to come using that methodology. It’s not that we’re not smart enough, it’s not that we’re not trying hard enough or are not focused enough. It’s because it cannot be done. It”s like walking towards the horizon…as we walk towards it, it continues to fall away. This is the basis of all anxiety, depression, and anger – I am working hard, doing my best day after day, and getting no closer to fulfilling my desires. This is very debilitating and frustrating.

There’s a movie I highly recommend that you watch, or re-watch, called ……Groundhog Day. It’s an oldie but a goodie! The character played by Bill Murray gets caught in a repetitive experience, the same day over and over and over again. It’s hell on earth for him. He’s cranky, cantankerous, wound up, and horrible to everybody. The experience becomes so abhorrent to him that he ends up jumping off the local bell tower. Lo and behold he wakes up in the same day again, and again and again – there is no escape. One day he wakes up and decides he’s going to take a different approach, and he starts embracing the experience.

Day by day his experience of the ever repeating day starts to change – the days events don’t change, but his approach does and the whole experience moves from being a hellish, horrible experience for him, to being an absolute playground. It is so much fun. He puts himself in the right place at the right time to be of service and learn, he learns new skills and he ends up having a ball!  From being the fire breathing villain of the story he becomes the life of the party! 

I won’t ruin the story, but it is love that changes him – the actress Andie MacDowell is his inspiration!. He masters his scenario through being devoted and enthusiastic in a situation that is ever repeating with no apparent end. One of the great morals of this story- and there are many great lessons to be had from this is rom-com noir –  that it’s got nothing to do with what’s going on outside of you; it’s got everything to do with what’s going on inside of you. This is something that we have absolute sovereignty over – our conscious state. Our conscious experience is something that we all have the ability to influence.  We can either be a willing participant in our current situation and learn how to enjoy ourselves and find purpose in it or we can resist and resent it and get all wound up and become part of the problem, and nothing changes.

The pinnacle of human realisation is that we have an inner freedom that cannot be governed or be influenced or affected by anything outside of us. This liberates us to be able to really embrace life with all it has to offer – both it’s dark and its light and all the experiences in between, without being overwhelmed, consumed, or overidentified by it.

Over the years I’ve taught people to meditate in high security gaols, and helped them develop a conscious state that allowed them to feel free and liberated while fully incarcerated. We all know the story of Nelson Mandela developing a state of freedom within while held captive for 27 years. It’s inspiring and in fact, it is a state of consciousness we can all have. The boundaries of the mind, the boundaries of the body, the boundaries of social expectation, the boundaries of financial requirements… these are all boundaries. We need to find freedom. It lies inside of us, not outside of us. And this is the next big realisation and step for humanity.

We can choose to see this current situation as a wonderful opportunity – we are being rendered choiceless about learning this necessary lesson, and it is timely. What I want to encourage you all to do is to consider embracing it willingly. Put this time to very good use. We may not get an opportunity like this again in our lifetimes.

There’s a process, when a caterpillar goes into a cocoon, referred to as “the chrysalis”. That caterpillar wraps itself tightly in the cocoon, instigates this incredible transformation, and comes out a butterfly. We’re all been given this opportunity right now to go into our cocoons and spend some time adjusting and shifting our conscious state so that when the opportunity comes when our liberties return, we will be ready for the dynamic activity and period to come. It is a chance to reset, refine, elevate and evolve. We can embrace it willingly with devotion and enthusiasm, or we can resist and resent it, and be dragged kicking and screaming into learning the lesson anyway!

Just like an archer draws their bowstring back before it can dynamically go forward, or the golfer draws the club back before they release it, this is the time to go within. What for? To prepare for the dynamic period that follows. There will be a great creative burst that will come off the back of this time. And if we spend this time well and use it to our advantage, it will prepare us to come out of this as butterflies, not grubs!

So meditate, read, learn, get fit, connect with friends and loved ones appropriately, eat well and we will all look back at this time as incredibly challenging but necessary and fruitful and we will be proud of how we used this time to improve ourselves so we could bring more of ourselves to the world and make a bigger contribution.

If we think of it this way, it’s game changing. 

Tim Brown is Australia’s leading Vedic Meditation teacher and has taught more than 6000 people to meditate, including everyone from captains of industry, elite athletes, and gaol inmates, to teachers and children. 
Learn to meditate with Tim by contacting [email protected] or visit his website https://timbrownmeditation.com/
Jai Guru Deva

Tim