Trust Yourself Before You Speak

Imagine for a moment you are in a situation where one more next step could mean your life.  Looking out at a mind quieting valley from behind a fence that keeps you from plummeting to your death, you can see and feel the peace of beauty.   You might even lean against the fence to let yourself go a little more in to the silent harmony laid out before you.  Trusting the fence, you let go into revelry and deep inclusion in life.

Being alive is actually a succession of these kinds of moments.  Everywhere and everywhen we stop to look, we are observing nature’s unfolding joy in being.  Every single object is part of a life that keeps reproducing itself out of itself.  Here is the mind stopping secret, this interbeing which is visible only when we stop and relax, letting go of our incessant descriptions, definitions and demands.  Each moment is potentially a stopping of the vehicle, pulling in to the overlook, leaving the vehicle to approach the fence which keeps us at a place of beauty appreciating safety.

Let’s look at the fence for a moment.  Call it a boundary.  What keeps us from simply falling and crashing into/onto the objects which will damage our bodies, end our relationships?   At the overlook on the mountain it might be a wire fence or stone wall.  These were put there by other humans to help keep us safe as we observe and devour nature’s beauty.  Why?  Because we are capable of becoming so drawn into what we see, hear, smell that we forget where we are and take steps that are not good for us.  They might also not be good for those around us whom we grab as we try to keep ourselves from falling to our deaths.

Right now you are breathing.  You’ve been breathing for as long as you have been alive.    As you turn your awareness to your breath, looking ‘inside’ your body at this mysterious process of taking in and letting out air, you lean against the fence,  As you let go of the rest of the world and observe the in-flow and out-flow of air, you rest on something which is stronger and more protective of you than even your breath.   Observing the breath we are in touch with the secret itself.  There is nowhere else, no other time.  We again understand our presence as a loving process we did not choose as individuals.  We are being breathed.  We’re not in charge here.

Watching our breath offers us a resting place from which to observe the emergent beauty of this moment, with all its ups and downs, ins and outs, it remains from a place of simple acceptance, beautiful.

Looking out over the valley or down into our bodies we are the same being.   The peace in this understanding keeps life alive when we forget the beauty, forget to lean on the fence of our breath, and accept our thoughts as more important than the beautiful overlook of our life.

Being breathed is a consideration which leads us to recognize all humans, all biology, is having this experience.  We are part of something much larger which takes care of the in an out of oxygen no matter what we are doing or pretending.   This self from which we emerged carries us along with it like joeys in the mama  kangaroos pouch.  We may look out at the world, imagine any reality we choose, and the self from which we’ve come still carries us moment to moment to moment.

If you would see more beauty, accept more peace, love more life, watch how you speak.  Watching how you speak will in turn become how you feel.  You can watch your words as you watch your breath.

Describe the world from the understanding that you have about your breath.  You didn’t start it, you don’t stop it.  You are being breathed.  You are also about to be spoken.   When you trust beauty to come from your words, when you trust your self, you resume being beauty.  When you trust your self you again are watching the mystery.

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This post was previously published on The Father Connection and is republished with permission.

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