I’m tackling page ONE
I woke up this morning and felt, “You know what? I just don’t have any f***ing idea about a HEART CAVE. This heart cave thing is just spiritual BS. [Right off the bat...I know...eek!] Wait Wait Wait, there’s got to be a hridayam, a spiritual heart. Well, I don’t feel it right now! I want to write about it in my first blog post. Should I make something up and sound super-spiritual? Nah that wouldn’t be authentic! And boy…. you want to be authentic. You’ll step all over yourself and even fake it to be authentic. Wait… you’ve got to feel it Blake. Heart Cave Heart Cave Heart Cave…. h-e-a-r-t-c-a-v-e…” And then I remembered something.
{OK, I’m putting it out there… I have memory problems (ie. more grist for the mill).}
I have felt this heart cave before. I just wasnt feeling it right now. Isn’t it strange how, in any given moment, we shift into almost completely different version of who we think we are? This whole morning I was a 25 year old guy that couldn’t make any sense or connection out of the first page of a book I was supposed to blog about for 108 days. Just two weeks ago, I was not only a 25 year old guy who felt deeply about a heart cave, but I was also leading a heart cave guided visualization during savasana in my hatha yoga classes. It went something like the following:
“The whole ribcage from back to front is soft and more pliable. And the sternum over the heart center is so soft, it’s less like cartilage and maybe more like a waterfall. And this waterfall is one that you can reach your hand through and even step through to reveal the secret and silent cave of your heart. You can see the water gushing and falling outside and see the light dancing through, yet this damp and cool inner chamber is silent and serene.”
Something like that. It amazes me, yes, that I didn’t remember leading this visualization. But then again I have known I have had some memory issues related to PTSD following my plane crash and hospitalization (9 years ago this Sunday). See, it amazes me more that when leading this guided visualization I felt that the thoughts were completely original to me. I have read BHN at least twice and thumbed it many times, but somehow I didn’t remember this HEART CAVE page. That is…. page 1. So naturally, I am up in my head now trying to figure out how I am supposed to digest all of this…. how I integrate it into my understanding of the mind. Here’s my thoughts:
1. Trust that I don’t always consciously remember everything. My subconscious receives tons of information. Stuff gets in. Quit trying so hard to readreadread learnlearnlearn. My subconscious remembered the Heart Cave from reading BHN.
2. The Heart Cave is an archetype of our collective unconscious and I just tapped into that leading the visualization. I didn’t actually remember reading the book.
3. Maybe I shouldn’t concern myself with what comes out of me. It’s all happening by divine grace–memory problems and feeling like a different person from moment to moment, taboot. The Heart Cave idea came to me, in the moment, from God.
4. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if and how I came about remembering it or not remembering it. In this moment I remembered it. In the next I may forget it. Big whup! I am just performing mental flagellation and well-rehearsed cranial circus tricks trying to figure out how my mind works. Be Here Now.Be Here Now. Be Here Now.
I like 3 and 4.
- bt
August 11th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Blake, I love it and I love you. So great how we are all so alike. Walking the dual road of human/spirit. Thinking it’s dual. And then, ahhh.
I loved reading your meditation also. My cage turned to water.
Here’s to the journey!
August 11th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
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August 11th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
I like #1 and 2 too, dear Blake. So many times on our spiritual journeys we try too hard and do too much readreadread and learnlearnlearn and completely miss the point. When we get out of our own way, amazing things happen!
Love your first post! ~ OM Shanti ~
August 12th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Thanks Carin. I love how in the first 2 posts there were references to the Grateful Dead. I almost added one in mine, but it was too long already!
August 13th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
I am also amazed at how quickly we can shift our consciousness. One moment I feel on top of it, connected to you, to God, to the One…the next, everything but that. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful post.
August 16th, 2010 at 2:33 am
“Quit trying so hard to readreadread learnlearnlearn” . . . lots of wisdom in there! I love James Taylor’s take: “Try not to try to hard, it’s just a lovely ride.”
August 16th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, … Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others Reviews…
I found your entry interesting thus I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
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August 17th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Hi Blake! Thank you for your sharing. Because you started out with being completely honest, I was inspired to continue reading your post. In my work as a Pilates Teacher, I also mention to my students to “soften behind the sternum”. Now, as they are rolling out the spine in articulation I can also add “like a waterfall.” I can’t wait to share. What a great way to introduce Ram Dass and your insights to my classes. Thank you, Blake!!
August 18th, 2010 at 12:37 am
[...] I'm tackling page ONE | Ram Dass Now [...]
August 18th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
use it use it! using ideas from nature is wonderful. you don’t have to explain so much. they just get it. thanks stephanie!