The Concept of Flow
Today I want to talk about the concept of flow or being so open to the universe that you always seem to be in the right place at the right time. In my book The 33rd Sage and the Initiate the lead character Conway begins to understand the meaning of being in the flow and it leads him further and deeper on his quest.
The concept of flow is fascinating; right throughout the universe there is a conscious energy that is to connected to all things. It is this concept that allows faster speeds than the speed of light or the ability to remote view through time and over amazing distances. Some have called this non local. I would prefer to see it as a local effect because everything we do and are is connected to the great flow that occurs within this and other universes. Even the concept of an expanding universe which occurred after a big bang is a scientific understanding of something far greater. The difficulty for scientists is that they try and reduce things and it is only the genius of an Einstein who has the ability to step back and see what is really there. Have you ever thought of the idea that the universe is not so much expanding but is in the breathing out process. Having breathed in over fourteen billion years ago and then then started to breath out. From our limited perspective we would see an expanding universe. Do this, stop for a moment and take a deep breath and then breathe all that air into a ballon and what you will see is what is happening to the universe. The universe is a living thing and it expresses itself in the breathing in and out of its own energy. This cycle continues over and over and from our limited ego selves we cannot see the truth that lies before us. If human beings are so smart then what of the energy of the universe; surely it's consciousness would have a depth and knowledge far beyond our own.
When one of us mere mortals has a religious moment or that beautiful moment of being connected to the all that is, what we are doing is tapping into the flow that is the universe. The experience and the beauty does not last because we try to rationalize it with our ego mind, rather than accept the experience for what it is, a moment of being in the flow, of being one. It is something that cannot be explained; it can only be experienced and once having experienced it you cannot put words to what you have felt, but you know in that moment you have been changed forever. Even though your ego will again take control, there is a bit of you that will stay forever connect to the all that there is and it is this little part that makes it easier for you to connect with the all that is in the future.
The more we live in the flow the more the universe reveals its secrets. To others you will appear that you are drifting through the day without a care or a purpose but you will have never have been so connected. You will see the magic in the mundane. You will pick up a flower, a child, an animal and see the greatness of what some of us call god flowing through it. Everything has this beauty and life force in it, it is just that not all of us have the eyes to see it or are not connected enough with our hearts to feel it. I wrote in another blog how I believed that creativity was the way to God and that is because when we are creative we open up ourselves to the experience of creation and is those moments we can experience momentary glimpses of the One, the all that there is.
The key is to be open to the experience. For me writing or travel has been the touchstones which allowed me to connect with the One. As a male I was a little slow and it took many years of meditation before I began to experience the connection. These days the connection can happen at anytime. Today I am writing this as I sit in the beautiful sunshine in the garden and it is as if my heart has simply opened and these words and thoughts have flowed onto the page. At my feet is my gorgeous little dog Beatrice whose name means bringer of Joy and she has certainly been that in the five years she has been with us. She is not the sharpest tool in the shed, unlike our other dog Horatio, but these is a sensitivity and a beauty that I have never seen in all my previous dogs. When we first got her she should have been put down because she was incredibly unwell, but even then there was a beauty that I still can't describe. I find if I look into her eyes I am still brought to tears by this one of the most sensitive of God's creatures. Over the years of good food, exercise and countless homoeopathic remedies she now has almost perfect health and there is not a day goes by where she does not repay us a thousand times for our kindness.
Having never been blessed with children of our own I wonder what an amazing thing it is for parents who can see the act of creation at work in their own children. For the rest of us to feel and connect with the one, a creative outlet is another way to go.
There are other ways to begin touch with the flow and one of the best is meditation. There are many forms and practice of meditation; for me the easiest is more relaxation rather than meditation. There are some meditation practices where they have you practice by focusing on a candle or a single object or thought or chant; these are all helpful but I find for most people when they stop saying the chant or focusing on the candle that there mind is once again full of the mind chatter that they had before the meditation. For me the object of meditation or a relaxation technique is to still the mind to allow the higher self to come through and enlighten your day.
The easiest way to do it is to listen to relaxing classical music or sounds of water or even better than that if you can listen to the sounds of an alpha or theta meditation. Rather than try to focus your mind I would prefer you trust listen to the sounds and allow the mind to relax itself. Initially your mind will be full of a thousand thoughts, but then just imagine that these thoughts are actually sitting on a river and rather than focusing on them allow them to float on by. Your ego will want to deal with them and every now and again they will come up again for your attention, but just allow it to be and let it float down the river. Now I don't want you to spend time concentrating on the river; it is just an avenue for your thoughts to float away. You will find over time that there will be spots in the river where there is no thoughts and then eventually feelings, impressions or pictures will come from your higher self to inspire you or lead you on the next part of your journey.
You will know when you get input from the higher self as there will be a change in your feelings; for some it will be a few moments of complete calm, for others a smile might break out across their face and occasionally that moment when you know you are One. They won't last because your ego will try to hold onto them because it wants to feel special. Don't fight the ego, just allow it to be and in time it will not feel threatened by these moments of connection with the One or the higher self. In turn these moments will come more often and for longer periods of time; although the concept of time will definitely feel irrelevant.
Play with it and don't expect to see God in your first meditation; like all new skills it takes practice. The practice here is to let go. In time you will be able to quickly go deep in your meditation and then you can begin to ask questions which will often be answered in the meditation itself in the form of symbols, pictures and feelings or the answer may come in the hours after the meditation in the form of a chance thought or a moment of synchronicity when the actual question you asked is answered by a comment on the radio or a sign on a bus going by. The more you accept that we are all connected the more you will see these connections and begin to be a part of the flow. It is a courageous to give your life over to the concept of flow. Never knowing what is around the next corner but being truly open to the beauty of life and truly living your life as it was meant to be lived.
My old teacher taught me that it was like being a warrior sage or silent warrior, because it is in the silence, in the stillness that the universe reveals itself to you. I won't say the journey is easy, that is unless you can simply let go of any preconceived thoughts and ideas; yes then it will be simple and easy. For most of us it will take discipline as we release the thoughts that don't allow us to see the beauty of the world and every creature in it.
Blessings and Peace and may your connection with the higher self bring a smile to every cell in your body and reflect it in the world around you.
Here below for your enjoyment is the chapter on Flow from my upcoming book The Way of the Initiate.
The boy woke after sleeping for eighteen hours with little to no memory of what had happened the day before. After waking, he stretched both arms above his head as if to welcome in the day, little realizing that his partially paralyzed left arm was no longer paralyzed; there was still some scarring, but during the night it was as if the withered muscle in his shoulder had come back to life. The healing had begun, but there was no need for the old sage to acknowledge the changes - for that would be living in the past, and there was only the now. He would one day teach Huo about the reality of time, but for the moment he would just allow him to exist in this moment in time. The healing had occurred because he had begun to release the pain from the fire, a pain that he had caused himself, but there would be time enough later for revelations.
The old sage greeted his young apprentice. "From this time forward, Huo, we will rise at 4 a.m. and walk in the dark and allow our energy to go forth in the day before the animals in the forest or the people in the villages wake and fill the day with their energy. Each day, we will let our feelings lead the way. We will rise in silence and stay silent for the first hour of our walk. As part of this exercise, I would like you to silently ask the Tao a question you want answered in that day. If you are open to it, the answer will come to you in any one of a hundred different ways. It could be a word or vision that comes around your subconscious mind, an answer from nature, or someone we meet along the path; be open, and the answer will come. Having the courage to give yourself over to the beauty of the higher self allows your life to enter into the dynamic spontaneity of the flow of the universe. It is about taking life as you find it, rather than forcing it into your preconceived notions of the world. By giving the infinity within you credence, you empower that same infinity to come into and be a part of your life. Let's now be silent for the next hour while we let our spirit be our guide."
The young boy packed up his pack, put his long staff through it, and tossed it over his shoulder. There was much he did not understand about the old sage, but if there was one thing he was sure about, it was that his life would never be the same again. Until this journey with the old sage, much of his time had been spent talking to the elders of the village because they were the only ones that did not seem to be scared of his looks. He would sit and talk with them for hours. Most of them were uneducated and simple people, but if you delved deep enough, you would find that they had a deep understanding of the cycles within nature and a knowledge of human nature that could not be found in the few books the village possessed. Each of the elders was like their own little library of information, and Huo had consumed whatever they taught him. Even as a young boy, he was well versed in the art of fishing and carpentry, and his understanding of farming was not too shabby either. Not too shabby. He laughed at that last thought because if he had a mirror, he would have looked pretty shabby in his worn out clothes.
What question would he ask the Tao to answer? He mulled over that for about an hour, although for the most part it was at the back of his mind while he enjoyed the bounties of nature. It was cold when they first started out, but he loved the cold; in many ways, it allowed him to bring forth his own nature. Even as a very young child, he had a way of bringing up the fire from within his own being. He was never cold, even on the coldest winter night; all he had to do was imagine a fire, then he could draw the heat of the fire to himself. It was as if he could heat himself from within at will. Of course, the ability was a two-edge sword, and this ability had been at the heart of the fire that had killed his parents. He had learnt early on that the element of Fire was either a boon or a curse, depending on how you used it. He wondered momentarily about the other elements, but that soon passed and the element of fire, his element, returned. For the first two years after the fire, he stopped using the techniques until he realized that it was not the Fire that was the problem and that he would need to be careful when he used the element because he never wanted anybody to suffer at his hands again.
While walking silently and looking back on his life to date, he felt a gentle wind come around him; she caressed him with her icy fingers, not yet touched by the morning sun. He stopped for a moment to fully experience the wind when he realized that the wind was coming from within him. He reached out his hand and watched as the feeling of the wind, from within, wrapped itself around his fingers, then progressed up his arm until it came all the way up to his head and gently caressed his face. He looked deeply into the energy that surrounded him and knew at that moment that he was the wind. He was not sure yet whether he had created the wind or if he had become one with the wind; it did not matter, though, for in that moment he realized that the illusion of separation no longer held him in her grasp. He had only been with a the sage a few days, but in many ways he seemed years older than the young boy who left the village. He had seen the energy behind the form, and no longer would he feel separate from anyone.
He took a moment to sit by himself and experience the connection with all things. First it was the Elements dancing around and through him, then it was the forest and the animals who were becoming active; not only could he see them all, he could feel them all and had become them. It was then that it struck him, and tears began to escape from his eyes as he realized: if he were connected to everything, then he was still connected to his parents. He began to understand what the old man had meant when he said, "Nothing ever dies."
With tears streaming down his face, he realized that the Tao had not only given him the answer to his question, it had done more than that and allowed him to see a deeper connection, a connection he had with everyone and everything that had ever existed or will ever exist. The concept was too much for his young mind, which was being stretched in a thousand different directions.
He looked across at the old sage, who was watching the young man with an enigmatic smile on his face. "Welcome to the flow. It is something you will never be able to describe, for to describe it puts barriers around something that is infinite. It is like trying to hold an ocean in a tea cup. The beauty of the flow is to experience it and to know that you are always connected. Now, let's take 24 minutes to meditate and reflect on the lessons we have both received this morning."
The young man and the old sage put aside their packs and sat with their backs touching an old tree as they reflected quietly on what they had experienced that morning. Each of them was in their own world, but they were both connected in ways that they were yet to understand.
Blessings and peace and may you begin to see how you can connect with the flow in every moment of your life.
Geof
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The 33rd Sage and the 33rd Sage and the Initiate are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.
The Way of the Initiate will be published mid 2013
Twitter @GeofSpalding
Official Author Blog - the33rdsage.authorsxpress.com/
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Book Websites 'The 33rd Sage,' at www.33rdsage.com
'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' at www.the33rdsage.com
