For many years now, I have been teaching and practicing the tantric Path of the Householder.
In need of a graceful framework, where spiritual practices are embodied and applicable, this path (based in a Vedic Tantric cosmology) has given me a field to play in.
I wasn’t going to ‘settle for’ a spiritual path of solitude, stillness and personal contemplation only. I also needed an embodied, human, useful, applicable, daily path that would embrace big emotions, volatile transformations, miracles, magic, multiple realities, intense joy and grief, ecstatic rapture and all other human experiences.
Not only embracing human feelings, but finding clear guidance in the wisdom of emotions and desires.
All this in combination with a well-meditated one-pointed mind, an awareness of the wise inner voice, an acceptance of death, and an experimental and playful approach to life’s challenges, has brought Classical Tantra into being for me.
The Householder Path is a term for those folks who wish to live life to its fullest and simultaneously commit to a spiritual path.
This is not the path of cave-sitting.
This is the path where emotions around wars, famines and what to cook for dinner, are invited to be experienced and examined in ways that transform the inner landscape.
Nothing is too big or too small.
When I was going through my own dark-night of the soul, a decade ago, after loosing my bestie to cancer, my therapist diagnosed me with burn-out. This diagnosis was so helpful for me. I felt acknowledged in my pain and anger at life. My rage and despair were noticed. She gave me back my agency and I remember being able to cry a whole lot better after that.
What I have learned from this experience and others, where our emotions are at play, is that acknowledgement is really key. We don't need (or can't afford!) a therapist to help with that process every single time, so we learn to support ourselves through these moments. And there seems to be a certain pattern to this acknowledgement of self. For me, it goes something like this;
-something feels off
-I check in with myself to find out what is wrong
-I get an answer I often don't like, or an emotion that is too big
-I stop and try to continue on with life...
-OR I take a deep breathe, find a quiet place and talk to myself like I'm my own best friend, courageously allowing the acknowledgement of the feeling to happen.
-I allow the sensations of the emotion to slowly pass through my body
-Yes, most times I cry
-And Yes, most often I walk away with a deeper understanding of myself
In our spiritual practices, these moments are crucial. Being our own best friend (an everyday relationship to our inner wisdom) and moving the emotions through our physical body are key elements of Tantra.
This doesn't mean we stay in the emotion for ever, actually, research shows that emotions only take 90 seconds to be 'fully sensed'! The 90-second rule is a neurological process that describes the chemical response to a stimulus like an emotion. And if you're still feeling an emotion after 90 seconds, its actually being re-activated by your thinking (the story of the grief versus the feeling of the grief).
Acknowledging an emotion that lasts a sweet and short 90 seconds feels juicy when we combine it with the Tantric notion of emotions as deities.
Envision for a moment, that for 90 seconds a Tantric Goddess (Great Cosmic Power) such as Kali, Tara or Chinnamasta, comes to visit you.
She enters your body bringing forth sensations that induce anger, joy, or grief. You allow her to gift you all her glorious information. And when her visit is done you are left with a sense of gratitude, clarity and a deeper understanding of what is important to your heart.
Sacred Question; When an emotion feels 'too big' can you envision that, for a brief moment, you are actually being visited by a Goddess? And acknowledging her like a best friend, can create a lasting relationship with many gifts to offer?
Much Love,
Mana
Hozzászólások