Our coming together was all about a sense of wonderment and heartfelt gratitude for the incredible magic and the pure miracle of being alive. There was a sense of closeness and beauty for being together on this non rainy day, for once in quite a long time! And a treat, Ragi had joined us from Tiruvanamalai for the occasion.
We opened our session with two short extracts of "American beauty”, a film by Sam Mendes:
“...Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in...” says young actor Ricky as he videotapes a plastic bag and some dry leaves twirling in the wind for 15 minutes in front of his dazzled eyes, as if dancing with him...
“... It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst...” repeats Lester as he is bound to die.
May the magic inherent to us, very young children, at every now and place, be rediscovered at some point in our adult life? The answer is YES! A vibrant and joyful YES... Living with a sense of wonder that pertains to Life as it is, is actually a birth right, whatever the circumstances are for each and everyone of us.
Actually “We have a responsibility to awe” by scrambling the self temporarily, proclaims Jason Silva enthusiastically. And he goes on highly recommending that we “Ignite our childlike state of wonder”, an invitation hard to resist!
It was suggested here the possibility to live life more fully and completely using a technique close to “Actualism” or “Sensuousness attentiveness” or again “Pure Consciousness experiences”. It does not imply all is “sunset and puppies”, but consciously living in raw aliveness, as a matter of fact AS raw aliveness, when and where the world is recognized as one seamless timeless infinite, so vast and grandiose, yet so immediate and intimate. In other words, how we experience this moment of being alive...
Our sense of wonder led our group to consider how as humans, we tend to surrender more easily when we are faced with natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding than when it comes to interpersonal relationships when feelings of fear, anger, hatred, guilt, may poison our daily living and we resist surrendering with all our might. The sooner we allow that we do live in a world of opposites where good and bad, lightness and darkness, and so forth and so on, are part of one unique and same source, the better we live.
We then followed a guided meditation by Stephen Wolinski, whereby he invites us, first eyes closed, then eyes opened, to silently answer a whole series of questions all starting with the same words: “Without using your thoughts, your memory, your emotions, your associations, your perceptions, are you this, that or neither... ?
This extract from a documentary on Nisargadatta Maharaj was followed by a profound sense of awe for most of us... bringing us Home.
Ragi then continued by leading a demonstration on Presence of absence, Absence of presence and Absence of absence, dismantling layer after layer what may block the view by proposing to take one step back, and then one more step back and then one more... and one more again, until it becomes clearer that the indescribable is what we are, Source itself.
To keep up the light and warm spirit, we closed the meeting by watching several minutes of Papaji “Spiritual awakening in four minutes” an experience of true relief that may happen when the realization of our true nature comes in a glimpse loaded with ecstasy