If you guys are yet to gather this from the show so far, I’m completely obsessed with esoteric teachings, spiritual practices, and certain concepts like Penney Peirce and I talked about in the last episode… a holographic reality.
I also love science, research, and data driven findings that reveal the “scientific proof” of what these ancient esoteric teachings knew in a different way.
Where all this comes together, literally… is integration. Bringing together all these different aspects of utilizing the power of the mind, understanding the subconscious, spiritual practices, daily rituals, and the use of our will through direct action.
I see it as a buffet where we can look at our little bag of tricks and select the best tool for the job.
In the second half of 2017 I had a strong sense to move into story and to hit the pause button on the left brain linear data driven side of things and dive deeper into spirituality, story, and creativity.
In 2016 I decided to dive into A Course In Miracles and apply the teachings daily for the whole year. Contemplating, focusing on and acting from some of the concepts in there produced some amazing shift and what I can obviously refer to here as miracles.
Late last year (2017) I was in a similar place emotionally, mentally, and spiritually where I was yearning for answers… but not in the usual research and record way that I have became accustomed to.
I ended up stumbling upon The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo and decided that this year I would go through the book each day and do the practice.
Today I want to share with you a passage from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. In here he talks about an aging Hindu master who grew tired of his apprentice complaining.
“, … the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.
“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” spit the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man.
At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things… Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”1
In times when I’ve been taken over by strong emotions like envy, jealousy, rage and even bitterness, sadness and despair, this simple practice of becoming the lake has been as is proving to be really useful for snapping out of it and putting life into perspective.
Do you have a favorite tool for getting out of stuck emotional states and gaining perspective? Let me know in the comments below.
Resources
- Pick up The Book of Awakening on Amazon
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“Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”
You may also like these episodes
- Trusting Your Intuition and The Power of Compassion with Lissa Rankin
- Navigating The Space Between Stories with Charles Eisenstein
- 2017 Year in Review
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Footnotes
1. Nepo, Mark (2000). The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have. Conari Press, 17-18.