Positive Possibilities and Impossibilities

Through my spiritual practice, I have come to understand that consciousness - is. Yet in each moment, we have the possibility, through deepening our awareness of what is, to co-create with the consciousness that arises in each moment. In this process, there are two primary directives or energy tendencies. One is a movement towards the Positive Possibilities, the other towards the impossibilities.

In this blog, I would like to share briefly what I understand it means to live in the Positive Possibilities and what it means to live in the impossibilities. I hope you find the information useful. I welcome your questions and comments.

May all beings everywhere be happy.
Lokah samastha sukhino bavanthu
Parvati

Living in the Positive Possibilities:

Living in the Positive Possibilities is not about "being positive", an attitude that willfully conjures up a state of mind to overcome, with effort, a sense of adversity. "I am feeling lousy but I will try to feel positive." A world based on the Positive Possibilities is a world where each one of us knows that we are a loved, welcomed and an integral part of a much greater intelligent whole. Our very essence is experienced as love, which is the essential energy of life itself.

What is meant by “love” is neither the common notion of sentimental romance nor the feeling of being attached to things, but the expansive, ever present reality of wisdom-compassion. A person who is fully resonant in the Positive Possibilities knows within each cell that he or she is wisely interconnected to all things in a way that the limited mind, or ego, cannot grasp or comprehend. A person resonant in the Positive Possibilities understands that to love oneself unconditionally is to love all things equally.

I wrote about this in my song “Precious” after an awakening experience I had when I lived for a year in India. (You can take a listen, if you feel so moved, through the audio player on my website: http://www.parvatimusic.com/media/audio/). I realized “As I love myself, I love all things equally”. The only reality is love and love is all things. There is no separation. There is only a continuum of love that expands through all time and space. That is reality. A person resonant in the Positive Possibilities lives these truths moment to moment and understands that to do that which is respectful and loving to oneself is good for all. The Positive Possibilities is a connected and interconnected state of being.

The Illusion of the Impossibilities: 

Living in the impossibilities is like living life in a box, with walls built out of fear and disconnect. The ruler of that domain is a distorted sense of self, based on struggle, suffering and the belief in separation. This distorted self is determined to control and manipulate reality to suit its belief that there is no love, that one is not welcome on the planet.

The notion that the impossibilities are real is based on an erroneous perceptions of reality. How could this perception be real when all of Nature, all of existence is pure consciousness arising? Like an eddy stuck on the side of a beautiful, strong, flowing river, the impossibilities swirl around within itself, in an effort to self-perpetuate. One perceives daily events as against oneself. Life is experienced as a continual struggle, which perpetuates the sense of disconnect, loneliness and fear.

Consciousness stuck in the impossibilities is at the root of human suffering. In this state, one feels disconnected from love and therefore from life itself. The perception of this disconnect takes on a life of its own. One consciously or unconsciously attempts to prove that the disconnect is real and further the notion of disconnect. There is no evolution in that state, as the impossibilities keep one stuck, out of flow and out of the experience of eternal love. In the impossibilities, painful emotions such as judgment, loneliness, loss, guilt and shame, are born.

The Path of Possibility:

The way out of impossibilities is to fully realize that it is an illusion, perpetuated by our own attachment to an erroneous perception of reality. When we notice we are feeling mired and stuck, we can challenge the impossibilities by asking our self: “Is it true that I am not loved?” When we are open, ready and willing to release attachments to the impossibilities, the answer becomes: “No! The very essence of life itself is love. And I am of life. I am of Nature. I too am the stuff that is Nature. I am connected to everything, everywhere, always. I am love!”

The way out of the impossibilities is to fully under-stand -- to stand under, to be rooted in the Knowing that the impossibilities are not real. It is to see what a trip we are putting on our self! Life in the impossibilities is like staying stuck in a box, wondering where all the love has gone, when the love is in fact everywhere, all around and within. When we begin to understand that the impossibilities are not real, that they are an illusion, we no longer cling to them. They have no power, because the only power they had was the power we gave them. So we begin to let go of our attachment to them.

When we fully realize that the impossibilities are illusion, we let go and begin to be open, ready and willing. In that release, there is space, an ability to witness that which is. In that space of witnessing, possibility arises. In that moment, the Positive Possibilities are born. In that moment one can see that all along the sun was shinning. It was I who was standing under the rain cloud, wondering why life was so dark.

The Universal Mother

Though some may feel that holidays such as Mother’s Day only support the card giving business, I welcome them as an opportunity to practice gratitude for that which they celebrate. On Mother’s Day we have an opportunity to remember our mother and all the mothers around the world who selflessly give. In this blog entry, I would like to remember our mothers and explore the notion of the universal mother within us all, weather we are male or female. In this, I celebrate our human capacity to selflessly give, nurture, love and create.

We all know the capacity mothers have to give. Since we are human, we all have a biological mother through whom we were born on Earth. Whatever our relationship may be with her, there is no denying that each one of us has, at the very least, experienced her gift of birth through the creative portal of her body. That alone to me is a miracle. Think of it: after a moment of passion, nine months of incubation, hours of pain, determination and focus that transcends reason in the delivery process, a fresh, raw, exposed child appears vulnerable in the world. Then that child is completely dependant on her willingness again to give, at the very least of her body, to which we cling literally for dear life for the first years of our life. Not only is a child born, but a sacred contract begins. The mother will be, for the duration of her life, a mother to a child.

Birthing happens every second, every day, generation after generation, all over the world. What a mother gives of herself in that process alone deserves celebration. She surrenders her body to the growth of a new life. For nine months her entire biological process revolves around supporting that new life. Her body has become a creative factory hard at work with one end product in mind: healthy, new life. Imagine living for nine months with the single focus of bringing new life to the Earth. Then imagine that being your responsibility for the rest of your life, 24/7. That is mother.

We also call the Earth our Mother.  That which the Earth grows feeds, nourishes, supports and sustains us.  Our bodies are the very stuff of matter or mother (matter: material, substance, derived of māter/mother). She gifts us, so that as spiritual beings, we may have human experiences. The Earth, as matter, is our mother from whom we come into body, which we temporarily inhabit while in this plane. Like our life long relationship with our biological mother, this broader relationship with Mother Earth takes place for the entire duration of our stay on this planet. We are related to her 24/7, every moment of every day we are alive. We also have a sacred contract with her to love and support her the way she loves and supports us.

The Hindu Yogic tradition describes the beginning of the universe as pure consciousness co-creating with primordial cosmic energy to manifest form. Shiva (pure consciousness) and Shakti (the divine feminine creative power) together co-create what we experience as life. This co-creative process is ongoing, expanding and evolving in each moment of life.

Shakti as the Divine Mother is the dynamic force that moves through the universe. We can see representations of Her through various fertility figures in many religious traditions all over the world.  The Primordial Mother is responsible for creation and is the agent of change. She is within and of the universe itself, interdependent on all of creation. She is the force to which we return, from which we come and that supports our evolution. She nurtures us in all ways, at all times.

As an artist and spiritual practitioner, I feel closely linked to the energy of the Goddess. Not because I have come this time in the body of a woman, but because She is the creative force that moves through creation. She reminds me that I come from Her. She reminds me that I am not of this flesh, which she created, but I am of Her in Her form through Her cosmic play. If I were a man, this would be the same. The opportunity to see myself as part of a great unfolding creative process, of which I am an integral part, perfectly supported, nurtured and loved, is a reflection of this universe as an expression of the Universal Mother. I am a reflection of the universal in my personal experience. I am a part of the Universal Mother. In this, I allow myself to express Her qualities. I find in this that I have the capacity for love, as my guru Amma says, by filling my heart with love and expressing it in all I do. That is the expression of the Universal Mother calling me, and anyone who is willing, to activate the attributes of Universal Mother within ourselves. She is there. She is waiting. All we have to do is give thanks to our Mother, and receive the love She endlessly gives, of which we are an unbroken part.

This Mother’s Day I am grateful for the life I have thanks to my biological mother. I give thanks to my guru Amma, the embodiment of the Divine Mother, who Graces my life, each moment I breathe. May all beings everywhere realize the love of the Divine Mother within.