Guesthouse

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness....
Welcome and entertain them all for
Each has been sent as a guide from beyond. " Rumi

This is a quote that my yoga teachers have been using quite a lot. It started back in December sometime, when my own teacher led a class using this opening, and continued on with comments about the sacredness of the body, and how it is the vessel for the soul. The body does so much work, and we are so hard on it, sometimes not feeding it properly, sometimes overworking it, sometimes underworking it….and so often we see “ourselves” as being separate from the body. We refer to our minds as though they are separated beings from their own living vessels, as though the blood flow and the breath are lesser processes than the consideration of one’s existence, or the application of the quadratic formula.

The truth is, obviously, that we are not separate bits, and that if the blood doesn’t flow and the autonomic nervous system doesn’t regulate your temperature, and if you can’t breathe, nothing else is going to work. If you don’t take care of your soul-holder, it will break down.

I had a chat with my priest along these same lines, and while he didn’t quote Rumi, he said the same things that the yoga teachers had been saying. Many people think that there is nothing of substance to be learned from Christianity, that the eastern teachers said it first and did it better. Certainly, many eastern teachers were there before Christ, but Christ also did a really good job at explaining a path to enlightenment/everlasting life/whatever your term. People get far too caught up in worrying about literal belief in The Bible, and whether or not they have to be born again into the arms of Christ Jesus (or something like that, honestly I don’t know too much about radical Christians. Catholics don’t concern themselves with being “saved” or “born again” because Christ is part of the trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.) and don’t read The Bible for its allegorical value. Even St. Augustine determined that all of Genesis was a metaphor for an inner journey, and he did that a long time ago. (I’ve got his book, Confessions, but I don’t know when he lived. I could wiki that but it’s late and I have to go to bed.)

I am wandering around in this topic, not sure if I’m making a point or not. Many things are weighing in right now, not least of which the whole getting to bed thing, because tomorrow I’m going to work. It’s not permanent work, and I don’t want it to be, but it’s work nonetheless, and I’m struggling with it. I’ve spent so much time the last few months giving to other people, and now I won’t be able to do that so much. I’m only working four days a week, but it still feels like an imposition on the path I thought I’d chosen. Apparently the path is not something I get to choose, it is instead laid out for me.

In reference to the quote at the top of this entry, the visitors at the door over the past few days have been rather nasty little trolls, and I’ve been fighting with them. I wonder if it actually makes a difference to just let them in, have a chat with them over a cup of tea…even if they are objectionable.