Living The Adventure
Posted on Sep 8th, 2006
by 
Zennie
Zennie
I read the quote below today, and it resonated with me and the new ways I am learning to experience life these days.
Living the Adventure
"I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience."
-- Martin Buber
The typical mode of livng I experience is to place all my attention on my thoughts, and as those thoughts arise I would receive my direction for speaking and acting from those that are most clear and powerful. As I have grown older and hopefully matured, I have noticed that some thoughts are just not truthful, but are based on belief systems acquired from long ago that no longer serve me, or new ones that I am trying on to see if they fit.
I received the book "The Essential Ken Wilbur" lately as a gift. It has been an interesting read. Also, I have received little pointers in emails, had discussions with friends, and attended a Satsang. I was handed a book by a friend on the Kabbalah, and I have been enjoying the reading of it.
The common theme of all these events is the same. There is a level of awareness and consciousness that does not automatically reference the mind and thought as the only means for engagement with life. It is a somatic level of consciousness where the breathing is slowed and awareness to feeling, body sensations, thoughts, intuitions, and everything around me is experienced openly. It does not rely on the reactive mind or the most powerful emotions to intiate action and pound through life.
It takes in all of life and tends to let these old ways of being pass through waiting for an inner knowingness and wisdom to arise and respond more proactively and simply based on that inner guidance. It is a deeper quality of life from what I can tell.
Practically, it was very interesting to watch what was happening inside of me during a meeting yesterday at work where the senior management was animated, concerned, and frustrated about progress in a certain aspect of this project I am managing. To sit back and not react or defend, but to allow them their space was very interesting. The desire to react and educate was there. Tenseness was in the body. The urge to explain was present. Instead, I did nothing and answered direct questions with simple and direct answers allowing myself to say "I don't know" when that was the truth.
The whole thing resulted in action on their part to get things lined up they way they wanted and call people in who they felt had work to do. What I noticed later on top of my experience of those moments was that I received exactly the help I had been asking for to move the project along. It did not take the form I would have choosen, but sure enough it was delivered and the energy was there to make things happen that had not been happening.
I thought to myself how effortless and simple all that truly was, and how little energy I had needed to expend, and how great the help I received even if it was a bit abrasive at times.
So, a new way of living, referencing and interpreting life does exist. It does not follow a formula. That is the good news. It is an opening to the great perfecton of all that is. What an adventure!
Living the Adventure
"I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience."
-- Martin Buber
The typical mode of livng I experience is to place all my attention on my thoughts, and as those thoughts arise I would receive my direction for speaking and acting from those that are most clear and powerful. As I have grown older and hopefully matured, I have noticed that some thoughts are just not truthful, but are based on belief systems acquired from long ago that no longer serve me, or new ones that I am trying on to see if they fit.
I received the book "The Essential Ken Wilbur" lately as a gift. It has been an interesting read. Also, I have received little pointers in emails, had discussions with friends, and attended a Satsang. I was handed a book by a friend on the Kabbalah, and I have been enjoying the reading of it.
The common theme of all these events is the same. There is a level of awareness and consciousness that does not automatically reference the mind and thought as the only means for engagement with life. It is a somatic level of consciousness where the breathing is slowed and awareness to feeling, body sensations, thoughts, intuitions, and everything around me is experienced openly. It does not rely on the reactive mind or the most powerful emotions to intiate action and pound through life.
It takes in all of life and tends to let these old ways of being pass through waiting for an inner knowingness and wisdom to arise and respond more proactively and simply based on that inner guidance. It is a deeper quality of life from what I can tell.
Practically, it was very interesting to watch what was happening inside of me during a meeting yesterday at work where the senior management was animated, concerned, and frustrated about progress in a certain aspect of this project I am managing. To sit back and not react or defend, but to allow them their space was very interesting. The desire to react and educate was there. Tenseness was in the body. The urge to explain was present. Instead, I did nothing and answered direct questions with simple and direct answers allowing myself to say "I don't know" when that was the truth.
The whole thing resulted in action on their part to get things lined up they way they wanted and call people in who they felt had work to do. What I noticed later on top of my experience of those moments was that I received exactly the help I had been asking for to move the project along. It did not take the form I would have choosen, but sure enough it was delivered and the energy was there to make things happen that had not been happening.
I thought to myself how effortless and simple all that truly was, and how little energy I had needed to expend, and how great the help I received even if it was a bit abrasive at times.
So, a new way of living, referencing and interpreting life does exist. It does not follow a formula. That is the good news. It is an opening to the great perfecton of all that is. What an adventure!
Access: Public
adventure
August 2008 
we all want this- even if we dont know it :)
do you still believe in the ‘art of allowing’?
Yes, I do. The art of allowing is just this that I describe in this entry. In the art of allowing is the opening to awareness of all. To do this I allow all to come to the surface including body sensations, emotions, feelings, thoughts, and so on. Then they burn in the light of awareness, but are not reacted to. If there is judgment fine that is seen. But I don't act on the judgment automatically just because I have it or it is in the mind. Everything is seen, and in the seeing\feeling all is experienced. The learning for me is that allowing means that I allow a response to surface from all aspects and a beingness (not a reaction to a thought (fight or flight). Sometimes the response is to do nothing but to become conscious and aware as I relate in my example. Other times, it could be an intuitive leading as the next step. It is not something that can be planned or operates according to set rules which is what Martin Burber refers in my view. It is a dynamic expression of the divine in that moment. In a way, it is a living from beingness and a spontaneous expression of the divine who I have let occupy my body, mind, and soul. To be a sensing instrument for the divine from a place other than just the mind is a way to describe it.
So does that mean that I cannot get angry, frustrated, or have thoughts of revenge etc. No, not at all. It means that I let them in see them, and allow these shadowy refections or mirrors of what is inside me to re-wire me and my consciousness from within. No set rules or mistakes. It all serves and instructive. No separation between life lived in the every day sense and spirit. So practically speaking I am not resisting life, but living it as is. This doesn't mean that I don't learn or make changes. In fact, because I am more conscious, I learn and receive guidance and insight rather than reacting, fighting, and struggling the deeper I go is what I am learning.
thanks for that clarification, ben. i see there are no rules for this, i had thought it meant some form of 'enduring' one 's pain. It s a fine line isnt it between observing what arises and overly controlling it? I dont know…
Yes, it is for me because my tendency is to try to control it and say I am being spirtual by watching it. :o)
When I read this and especially look at the image I see the Universal law of Vibration… All is constantly in motion… and so to try and control this would only be a fools' errand…
It's good to know you are seeking to let the flow BE…