It is true that every person we meet is an opportunity to see ourselves.

Last night while sitting quietly outside in the dark, my guidance came through. Our exact mental exchange is lost to me now but the final understanding was/is not. I was reminded that everything I’ve felt via the Kundalini is me. Every blissful explosion of the heart, every passionate rising, every automatic asana my body has morphed into of its own accord – all of it is me. Similarly, everything I’ve felt in this experiment we call Life has also been me. 

It can be hard to grok just how powerful we are even to the point that when we are face-to-face with ourselves we cannot accept the truth of our power. The only way we are truly able, then, to see ourselves is through others. They offer us a glimpse only; a spark of memory. 

My guidance reminded me that I know how to Surrender and urged me to return to it, fully opening to what is before me without resistance, without expectation. My questioning led me back to a Knowing that my forgetfulness is a gift, allowing me to remember myself over and over again, brand new in the moment. With each encounter with another I receive memory. It is up to me alone to decide what to do with that memory. 

Perhaps the most profound part of what I was realizing was that I need others to experience myself fully. Without others to reflect to me myself, I am blind. Rather than withdrawing from those who I do not like or feel repelled by, I should pay attention because that reaction in me is a reaction to me. Will I show myself kindness and compassion when I see myself? Or will I flee, avoidant of that which I do not wish to acknowledge?

For a long while I have had this insight that I toss for foolishness. Surely it is not truth, I think to myself. This insight is that I should aspire to love, admire and accept those very aspects about others that repel or disagree with me. In fact, it feels like part of my purpose here; a lesson I am here to learn. And, if I look at the most challenging times in my life, I can always find an instance of rejection on my part of another. I reject that they could be right, I reject their point of view….or I reject their very existence! I struggle most with feeling objection when others seem to seek to impose their expectations upon me but had I looked at my own expectations, I may not have walked away with such resentment but instead would have been left with a calm acceptance of what is regardless of the outcome.

And you know what is the most ironic part of this whole revelation of mine? I believe that being alone in my hermitage is protecting me from the pain and disillusionment of this world. Ha! The fact is, withdrawing from interacting with others, avoiding inviting others into my space and my aura, is in fact limiting my ability to truly Know myself. Pain and disillusionment is just a small portion of the vast emotions and feelings to be felt here. And all those feelings can be linked to me, linked to my acceptance or rejection of myself. 

Ultimately, knowing all of the above doesn’t mean I have to change how I live so much as it means that awareness should at all times be held ahead of experience. Remaining aware of the moment, of myself and others in the moment, and accepting that moment is all that needs be done. The rest will fall into place after that. 

The challenge is to train the human mind to be silent so that incidents from the past or considerations about the future do not impose upon the present. We think we remember so much but the reality is we remember nothing. 

The mind is a trickster. 

Maybe the easiest way to approach each interaction with others is to think of every interaction as a daydream of our own creation that has come to life before us. We are the players of all the roles including director. Where we put our focus becomes our reality, our focus narrowing as we step into a specific role. The idea is not to step into all the shoes of every player but instead to step back and take in the whole set as an observer, unaffected by any one role, standing in admiration of the perfection of the scene before us. But I must not forget how powerful I am. I can play all the roles, or none. I can be observer or not. And I can be all of the above while also being none.

But am I aware of what I am creating? Am I Aware?