Don't just DO something, SIT there

Today is officially the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the Equinox - equal day and night.  It's also the anniversary of Osho's enlightenment as a young man in 1953.   But why 'a love supreme'?  For lovers of jazz and soulful music,  A Love Supreme is John Coltrane's masterpiece.  I chose this title after last week's live gig by the 'Coltrane Dedication Quintet' in Narberth, Pembrokeshire.  Hearing the four notes by the bass player repeated again and again - 'a love su-preme, a love su-preme'   ("Acknowledgement", Part I) I was transported back to hearing this amazing LP decades ago.  It  is a spiritual work -  Coltrane admitted that he didn’t own his talent but was channelling a higher power. He had the discipline, the tools and the technique, but the actual music seemed to happen by itself.  This is an example of skill combined with 'allowing love to happen' leading to sublime results.  Archie Shepp w...

Since my last blog, we watch as horror descends on the Ukrainian people.  Military aggression and massive displacement of people has been happening around the world for decades, but this time it's on Europe's borders.  How can we presume to talk about it, safe in our homes when others are fleeing or waiting for the next bomb blast? Now, 'don't just do something, just sit there' sounds very hollow.  It is, because the opposite is always true too.   Action is needed -action that is a response or necessity arising from a situation.  Action is different from random and unfocused activities that serve as distractions.  But in this situation, what can we 'do' apart from donating money or signing up as volunteers in a war zone? There's two things we can do - and they bring together the both/and, the paradox of doing and not-doing.  We look within at the same time as looking outwards at our world.  I quote from Marianne Williamson's book 'The Gift of...

Standing under a blue sky yesterday, watching two buzzards circle and dance above the woods, I couldn't believe the wind had stopped.  I don't remember being so battered by continuous winds, speeds up to 80 mph - storm Dudley, Eunice and now Franklin.  Where do they get these names from?   Yes, one day's respite from the wind with a river much faster and fuller, but luckily no trees down here.   In the 1980's we sang a song about wind in our Osho music celebrations.  One of the many devotional songs with dancing.  This one went: Let the wind blow / take it all easy /  Let the wind blow  /  we're still alive......... Now was a chance to really experience this in our exposed house on the edge of the Preseli hills.  I hate strong wind. It's the nights I can't stand, the howling sounds, wooden house creaking, body feeling bombarded.  I get edgy and this time sleepless and jangled.  Still, I haven't got kids to educate at ...

The first of February is special - a herald of something new around the corner, even if I don't know what it is.  Back in 1989 I did a three-week therapy group in Pune, India called 'Fresh Beginnings'.  Ever since I've had hints that February is bringing fresh shoots, new opportunities.  That group - a week each of Primal, Tantra and meditation practice certainly catapulted me onto new paths. Brigit is the Celtic Irish goddess of fire, fertility, cattle and poetry.  Aspects of her personality passed to the Christian saint Brigit (St. Bride) who lived in fifth-century Ireland.  She was so generous she drove her father to despair, freely giving away the family property to the poor.  Brigit - Goddess and human - embodies new growth, celebrating spring, planting seeds.  Spring is a generous season, giving away her fresh goodies.   I spent a few months on the West Coast of Ireland in 2001 and visited St. Brigit's Well on the coast of County Clare....

Is it self-indulgent to follow your bliss?   I complete necessary chores and tasks before I allow myself time to follow what I love.  Bit of a Protestant ethic there, and maybe just my character too. And there's that general conditioning to 'do something'.  But to do what I love often involves more than I bargained for.    Moving towards what I love does n't guarantee a smooth ride, in fact it can be the opposite as old ways are stripped away. Following my heart's desire involves letting go of the comf ortable and familiar.  It can also involve resisting the urge to 'do' and instead to wait receptively with the unknown.' I love playing music and singing, but for me that can end up being stressfully goal-oriented.  I have heard that to become excellent at something, goals and persistence are needed. But if I let go of goals and ambition I find a different focus.  Music-making in the here-and-now - bringing all my energies together - ...

 ...... sit there.   This is one of Osho's brilliant phrases that's grown with me.  It turns our western addiction to activity on its head.  We've internalised the command to keep busy so well, we don't need someone else to tell us.  But it's not simple, I know.  I lived - or maybe I didn't really live - trying to squeeze in more and more activity to less and less time.  With a background anxiety that if I didn't, time would run out and my dreams would stay unfulfilled.   Then I was drawn to meet Osho, one of the greatest commentators and teachers of meditation, when I was 23 and I knew the wisdom he was offering was food for my soul.  He said that all his discourses were different ways of saying 'meditate', 'know yourself'.   But outside the structure of an ashram or meditation retreat, it's much harder to just sit.  Apart from the necessities of life - and who decides what they are -  the desire for distraction...