Common Ground: The Kinship of Metaphysicians

A syncretic approach to esoteric teachings - the golden threads that connect Pagans, Yogis, Rosicrucians and Masons.

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Life Isn't Either-Or; It Encompasses Everything

Most of us are familiar with the lovely quote by Graham Greene's wife, Vivien: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain."  That's a wonderful aphorism, but as I'm sure she herself would have admitted, there are times in life when a person has to do both.  Sometimes you have to stay in your cellar until the tornado has passed overhead; then you can come out and dance in gratitude for still being alive, in the gentle drizzle that follows.  Life encompasses every situation; the two statements are not mutually exclusive.  Over an entire human lifetime, they are equally true. 

Here's another similar saying, attributed to choreographer Vicki Corona: "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."  Again, a great pithy aphorism.  But of course she was referencing a particular situation under certain specific conditions.  In reality - ask any Yogi - our life is measured, quite literally, by the number of breaths we take!  And yet, at the same time, how boring would life be without those miraculous moments that take our breath away?  Again, the two statements are not mutually exclusive.  

As this argument develops, there may be an occasional use of adult language that may not be suitable for PG audiences.  As a congenital optimist, I don't like giving equal time to the darker side of things.  But life encompasses both. 

Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "There is nothing good nor bad but thinking makes it so."  This is a philosophy found all over the world.  it reminds us that attitude is everything; one man's meat may be another man's poison.  Life contains both good and bad; it's up to us to decide how we're going to take it.  But what of those times when our preference for optimism seems just plain stupid, in the face of all evidence to the contrary? 

Looking at the world situation in general - which is horribly easy now, thanks to the Web, Twitter and YouTube - it is obvious that the vast majority of human beings have few choices.  My smug New Age generation, and a couple of smug generations after us, have been fond of repeating that we make our own luck, and that our personal beliefs and choices either keep us in penury or lift us to heights of success; but I think it worthy to note that none of the people who contributed their stories to self-help books were interviewed while living in refugee camps with insufficient food, shelter, medical care or drinking water. 

I'm beginning to suspect that we all say hippy stuff like that when we're in our 20's and 30's - because we want it to be true!  But it gets progressively harder to maintain that faith as we get older (unless you're one of those authors who's still making money from the pie-in-the-sky books you sold on the NY Times Best Seller List two decades ago.  Saint P.T. Barnum knew what he was talking about.  Coney Island Promises draw people in from every generation.) 

There has always been a small percentage of people born into lucky circumstances.  The Buddha called this "a fortunate human birth," in clear acknowledgment that such beginnings are rare and very much to be desired.  And yet, even people like that can end their lives bitter, disappointed and frustrated.  Life has a way of forcing us into situations that we would never have chosen for ourselves...as those of us who are getting older are having to face more and more.  And no matter how intricately we may construct our intellectual explanations of karma, kismet, destiny, astrology, exercise, health foods, divine Grace or reincarnation, we have all seen that even the nicest, loveliest, most talented and deserving people on this planet (the sweetest animals, too) can fall into pits of shit so deep, with pain so unbearable, that the only relief they can find is in death.  

How's that for a reality check? 

I was not always comfortable with the methods of Yoga Guru B.K.S. Iyengar, whose style was more abrasive than that of the gentler masters whom I preferred to emulate, but I was shaken to my soul by the profundity of the answer he gave Rama Jyoti Vernon in the 1960's when she asked him why he practiced Yoga: "So that I may die magnificently."  Those words, uttered a half-century before he actually left this world, reveal a man with no illusions who was very clear about his priorities.  He knew what he was preparing himself for.  

We're all going to die.  But I think that the people who have studied the situation with eyes wide open, and disciplined their minds to be grateful for received benefits while content with (or, better yet, indifferent to) everything else, stand the best chance of dying in peace. 

I derive this last lesson from the Buddha's example, as he was being tempted and threatened by Mara, the deceiver.  Siddhartha had a blessed human birth.  He must have been grateful for the benefits he received early in life as a well-educated and well-fed royal prince.  But he later spent many years in self-deprivation, to which experience he later felt no attachment apart from the important lesson that it was a futile path.  And when Mara set naked dancing girls before him, followed by an army of monsters attacking him with arrows and all manner of deadly weapons, he neither craved one nor feared the other; he was simply indifferent.  "Don't bother me, I'm meditating," his attitude said as he sat quietly, imperturbably focused on dimensions higher than those of this world. 

So life is about waiting for the storm to pass, and it's also about learning how to dance in the rain.  It is measured both by the number of breaths we take, and by the moments that take our breath away.  There are times when our hard work and concentration can move mountains to line up in our favor, and there are times when overwhelming events threaten to crush us and wash us away.  But as long as we retain our mental faculties, we can consciously choose whether or not to give in.  We can surrender to circumstances with bowed head and tail between our legs, or we can steel ourselves to remain ourselves right up to the end - unimpressed by the forces that think themselves so powerful, for we know that they have nothing to do with who we really are.  

And if the pain gets the better of us, and we forget for a short while, that's okay too.  There is no one who would blame us for that, and we will come back to ourselves again when our spiritual eyes open on the other side.

 

 

 

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A student of esoteric traditions since the age of 16, Ted Czukor (Theo the Green) taught Yoga for 37 years until retiring in 2013. For 26 years he was adjunct faculty for the Maricopa, AZ Community Colleges, teaching Gentle Yoga and Meditation & Wellness. Raised in the Methodist Church but drawn to Rosicrucianism, Hinduism and Buddhist philosophy, he is a devotee of the Goddess in all Her forms. Ted has been a Shakespearean actor, a Masonic ritualist and an Interfaith wedding officiant. He is the author of several books, none of which made any money and two of which are available as .pdf files. He lives with his wife Ravyn-Morgayne in Sun City, Arizona. Their shared dream is to someday relocate to Glastonbury, England. theoczukor@cox.net.

Comments

  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham Monday, 24 August 2015

    I always appreciate your wise words.

  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor Tuesday, 25 August 2015

    Thank you, Lizann. And I appreciated learning what Poison Oak teaches.

  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis Thursday, 27 August 2015

    Ted, lovely, deep, sincere, as always. Thank you. As someone who's always talking about bringing together polar opposites and living in paradox, I find this post resonating with the way I live. In fact, I bet you won't be surprised to know that you're saying things I say to my students and the readers of my books. Give my best to Ravyn.

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