“In the external reality, an action is required for the manifestation, but in the internal reality, all you need is your presence. Just with the inner presence, things begin to unfold.” Roshan Sharma
What is living the unfolding? It’s a way of being with what is. It’s not a static state, but rather, as in a balancing pose in yoga, or in the creating of a painting or anything else, there are elements of movement, at times flowing and at times chaotic, and yet again, times of deep stillness, when you live the unfolding. There are emotions and other senses to accompany all this. It is far too vast to be contained in one word, and the closest I can come to is living the unfolding.
In the times of stillness, it’s a pause to reconsider, take stock, go within and reflect on what you really want. In times of chaos and suffering, it’s a time to let go of resistance and come quickly into acceptance and respond to who or what is being asked of you. You listen to that voice of your Soul, and you are devoted to it’s wisdom, and you act with grace.
In times of flowing and energized movement, you are digging and planting and building. You realize that there are rhythms and seasons that influence all of it, and there are people you let into your heart, often people of your tribe and often not. You greet everyone with respect and honor. You prosper everyone you meet, and they do the same back. There is sacred reciprocity, and all part of living the unfolding.
World renown chef, Jose Andres, had just flown in from Puerto Rico last week, and made a guest appearance to speak at the Mid-Atlantic TedX Talks in Washington, DC, last week, where I was fortunate to hear his impassioned talk. He and other chefs in Puerto Rico, rallied food suppliers and restaurants to become serving kitchens for the millions who could not wait for the Red Cross and governmental agencies to have their meetings and planning sessions and come up with a strategy. “The people were hungry, and they needed us to do something, not plan to do something,” said Andres. We saw the problem, and we had the solution. We had the food, and now we needed to adjust the oven settings and symbols for cooking meat and just cook. We needed to COOK!
That is living the unfolding, as we respond immediately to what is being asked in the moment. As the pace of our world picks up, which is really the increasing rate of change that we are all experiencing, we cannot rely on time-management strategies to help us stay the course. Rather, we must become response-able—-able to respond to the moment, free of conditioning (the past) and free of fear of the unknown(the future). As one NOW after the other unfolds, and we remain present, we are living the unfolding.
We replace planning with intention, and with our consciousness we carve a path into the future that includes images, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings we want. We live the future dream now, and follow the feeling into the future we envision.
Law of attraction experts have been saying it all along—that what is required to become an intentional creator are 3 things:
- Vision of the future
- Letting go of all obstacles
- Felt state of the desired future
We are in a time when the vision and the desired state are collapsing into one, and we find the only obstacles are those inside us. This has been true all along, and now, in this time of instant everything—I could take a video of me writing this now and you could potentially see it on FB as I do it—our consciousness is adjusting to the quickened pace. Being able to live the unfolding is essential, as the obstacles being of our own creation, we can let them go immediately, and respond directly to the moment, free of our stories.
As simple as it is, spiritual teachers have been attempting to convey this concept in countless ways over eons, meeting resistance in even the most devoted disciples. Human habits die hard, particularly our hard-wired habit to attempt to control outcomes. This ill-informed belief that we can control our lives separates us from the moment, and the people we interact with each day.
The next time something arises that causes you to clench, stop and “be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop,” as poet Rumi says. You could respond, rather than react. The pause required to let the dead leaves drop could save you a lot of trouble. Take a breath. Be with what is unfolding right in front of you. The moment is a drop in the ocean of experience, and totally sacred.
That is living the unfolding.
