Nowhere to go.
Nowhere to go. Nothing to achieve.
“The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all," Ram Dass once said. He died on December 22 last year, but in 1997 suffered a stroke that, from then on, would make this statement very real. Let go. Receive.
It's tricky. This isn't about letting go in order to receive. This is about letting go period. Ordinary mind can barely grasp this.
Thoughts then for 2020. For our newly minted intentions, resolutions, dreams. Will I create what I yearn for? (What is that, anyways?) Will I stretch daily? Will you write your book? Will we be better human beings? Will we finally get it, profit and purpose, being present yet planning, cakes with or without eating them too, impossible paradox?
In Underland, Robert Mcfarlane writes: "For deep time is measured in units that humble the human instant: millennia, epochs and aeons, instead of minutes, months and years. Deep time is kept by rock, ice, stalactites, seabed sediments and the drift of tectonic plates. Seen in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert. New responsibilities declare themselves. Ice breathes. Rock has tides. Mountains rise and fall. We live on a restless Earth."
Seeing deep time: Ah, freedom. A 2020 approach when I dare to. Relief in knowing: I can aspire, intend. With clarity, skill, love. But then, and only, and each time, one step at a time, beyond attachment. (This is also a good way to create healthy habits.) Vision yet surrender to what is asked for now. Compass north yet doing my best in showing up in the moment. No judgment.
In deep time, we're negligible bunches of atoms. Only restlessness. Resting in restlessness. Nowhere to go, somewhere to go, nothing to achieve. Living the gap of paradox: if I want anything, I risk undermining it through wanting. And yet my actions matter - aliveness, consequences.
The beauty of letting go? Nothing can harm me anymore. Just humanity and potential. “The stroke,” Ram Dass said, “was unbearable to the ego, and so it pushed me into the soul level. Although I’m more in the spirit now, I’m also more human.”
How do you relate to this paradox in your 2020 intentions? How can the paradox support you? Share with me if you want. Love to hear!
