OtherThanThat

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Day two. Empowered me.

As yesterday focused on the the self – more specifically the root question of “who am I?” – today’s meditation began to bend that viewpoint outward, looking at that which we put into the world.

Ah yes, karma. That whole perspective of getting back that which you put forward. As I settled in with the day’s sanskrit mantra – Om Kriyam Namah (My actions are aligned with cosmic law.) – I found my mind wandering through my belief that all things in this world do happen for a reason. Granted there’s small print to that statement – meaning sometimes really horrible things happen and you may not see any reason why it should happen to you, and in those cases, I’ve found at least in my life that often that’s because the reason isn’t for me. In those cases what may happen to me allows me to be a catalyst for someone else’s learning, someone else’s growth. That sometimes stinks of course, in the short term, but looking at the long view, things always do come back around and inevitably there will be a time again when some good comes my way.

But I digress.

At first today’s meditation as guided by Deepak Chopra seemed to be indicating that we are the masters of our destiny (his words) and I began to ponder on the contradiction between that control and the aforementioned concept of a universal plan.

I breathed into the meditation, focusing on the mantra, focusing on my breathing, and then the thought gently bubbled to the surface. The “mastery”, was not in controlling, manipulating or otherwise forcing something into being, but rather in being responsible and focused on my own actions, thoughts and deed. In other words, while I have no control over any other person (nor their behavior/actions) I do have control over how I react, how I think and how I then put forward my own energy.

From there I nudged a step further into the thought … all those times when I perceived a relationship or a connection to be of a certain type or for a certain purpose and charged (ever-so-Taurean) intentionally forward along a path, only to later realize that my initial perception had been incorrect. Then there were those cases where that initial perception may actually have been spot on, but the horns-down-damn-the-torpedoes-full-steam-ahead charge left no space for the other party to step forward in their own truth … essentially forcing someone out before they even had a chance to enter.

With that, a gentle reminder of the importance of giving space … both to myself and to others … so that all may lay their roots as they should be and reach their branches to the sun.