I Love This River
It is a beautiful day, and the start to a very busy weekend for me, so I am drawn to go down to the river for a visit mid morning...
I love this river - it has taught me so much in the last year and half since I have been visiting it. There are so many lessons and insights that have come from deeply communing with it, or from the ruminations of the heart and soul that have poured out of my depths by its banks.
It is quiet, sunny, breezy - and the river is still swollen. I sit down on a clump of grass by the well worn path leading down to the shore by the riverbank that is now under water...
I watch two beautiful geese - gliding down the river in tandem, without a care in the world. I observe how every rivulet and wave dissolves and merges with all those surrounding it - a constant reminder of both the impermanence and the fundamental unity of all things - realities I know and accept on a cognitive level, but have difficulty internalizing on an emotional level...
I consider discussions I had yesterday - one with a friend - where we both noted the difficulty of letting go of grasping behavior. I told her that I have always felt that the greatest lesson I have to learn in this life is how to let go - and I am certainly far from mastering it...
I shared with her, how I was always moved by the visitation of Sri Yukteswar, to his disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda, in Autobiography of a Yogi. He appears to Yogananda after his death and tells him about the wonders of the afterlife. I have read that chapter over and over again - marveling at the beauty that he describes of more subtle realms. The thing that always struck me about his descriptions is how the soul needs to embody perfect non-attachment to journey into the higher realms of heaven in order to become one with the Divine.
Ah! Why is this such a hard lesson to learn? As I said to my friend - that is the greatest challenge - to love and enjoy everything - without being attached to it...
As I watched the river currents and the occasional piece of debris float downstream, I also reflected on the wisdom dispensed last night by the gifted therapist who leads the meditation group I attend.
He noted, that to change situations in our lives, we have to marry action with thought. In other words, we must think, but then act upon our thoughts. Yogananda specifically taught that we need to exercise the use of our will to make necessary changes in our lives and he recommended that we work on something to make the desired change before we move on to something else. True change cannot happen without flexing the muscles of our will.
This wonderful leader and therapist also noted that we can use affirmations effectively to exercise our wills and cause the desired change by planting these affirmations deep within our subconscious - and hopefully our superconscious minds through deep meditation. We were then then led through a powerful hypnotic induction and we went deep into meditation.
I know I have all the tools I need to make the changes I need to make in my own life so that someday, my spirit may inhabit these subtle realms in the afterlife. I feel a deep yearning and longing for that place - but I know there is much work to be done here first...
As I took in the greening and broad expanse of the swollen river and both sides of the riverbanks, I gave thanks for all the insights that came to me yesterday...
And I gave thanks for this river...Before leaving, I recalled words of wisdom imparted by another wise soul in my life who said to me, that when I am troubled, especially before going to sleep, that I should think of this river and the heron...
As for what geese signify:
"Symbolic of a questing call, travels, imagination is stirred, communication, they teach how to move along one's spiritual path with the power and strength of community, and they aid in finding happiness and joy."
I love this river - it has taught me so much in the last year and half since I have been visiting it. There are so many lessons and insights that have come from deeply communing with it, or from the ruminations of the heart and soul that have poured out of my depths by its banks.
It is quiet, sunny, breezy - and the river is still swollen. I sit down on a clump of grass by the well worn path leading down to the shore by the riverbank that is now under water...
I watch two beautiful geese - gliding down the river in tandem, without a care in the world. I observe how every rivulet and wave dissolves and merges with all those surrounding it - a constant reminder of both the impermanence and the fundamental unity of all things - realities I know and accept on a cognitive level, but have difficulty internalizing on an emotional level...
I consider discussions I had yesterday - one with a friend - where we both noted the difficulty of letting go of grasping behavior. I told her that I have always felt that the greatest lesson I have to learn in this life is how to let go - and I am certainly far from mastering it...
I shared with her, how I was always moved by the visitation of Sri Yukteswar, to his disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda, in Autobiography of a Yogi. He appears to Yogananda after his death and tells him about the wonders of the afterlife. I have read that chapter over and over again - marveling at the beauty that he describes of more subtle realms. The thing that always struck me about his descriptions is how the soul needs to embody perfect non-attachment to journey into the higher realms of heaven in order to become one with the Divine.
Ah! Why is this such a hard lesson to learn? As I said to my friend - that is the greatest challenge - to love and enjoy everything - without being attached to it...
As I watched the river currents and the occasional piece of debris float downstream, I also reflected on the wisdom dispensed last night by the gifted therapist who leads the meditation group I attend.
He noted, that to change situations in our lives, we have to marry action with thought. In other words, we must think, but then act upon our thoughts. Yogananda specifically taught that we need to exercise the use of our will to make necessary changes in our lives and he recommended that we work on something to make the desired change before we move on to something else. True change cannot happen without flexing the muscles of our will.
This wonderful leader and therapist also noted that we can use affirmations effectively to exercise our wills and cause the desired change by planting these affirmations deep within our subconscious - and hopefully our superconscious minds through deep meditation. We were then then led through a powerful hypnotic induction and we went deep into meditation.
I know I have all the tools I need to make the changes I need to make in my own life so that someday, my spirit may inhabit these subtle realms in the afterlife. I feel a deep yearning and longing for that place - but I know there is much work to be done here first...
As I took in the greening and broad expanse of the swollen river and both sides of the riverbanks, I gave thanks for all the insights that came to me yesterday...
And I gave thanks for this river...Before leaving, I recalled words of wisdom imparted by another wise soul in my life who said to me, that when I am troubled, especially before going to sleep, that I should think of this river and the heron...
As for what geese signify:
"Symbolic of a questing call, travels, imagination is stirred, communication, they teach how to move along one's spiritual path with the power and strength of community, and they aid in finding happiness and joy."
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