Don't Deny the Dance
Okay, the Fractal Foundation describes the butterfly effect in chaos theory a little better than me: “This effect grants the power to cause a hurricane in China to a butterfly flapping its wings in New Mexico. It may take a very long time, but the connection is real. If the butterfly had not flapped its wings at just the right point in space/time, the hurricane would not have happened.” [1]
Whilst many of us understand that our entire experience of life is created within, and not from any outside circumstances, I also embrace that I am part of a greater whole and connected in ways that are beyond the comprehension of my own, somewhat limited personal mind.
I am a being of energy constantly dancing and interacting with all other energy.
For every trigger of my five (at least) senses, if I am awake and conscious to it I will have some thinking, often habitual, that then generates a feeling. I am always, in every single moment, feeling my thinking.
Yet, despite what some teachers might claim, it’s very clear to me that thinking can be influenced. The content, maybe not directly, but the patterns of thought we have developed, the neuro-paths we have started to develop the moment we were born from our natural desire to understand our circumstances, are triggered when we observe what we perceive to be relevant or related circumstances.
Here’s a little test for the most ‘spiritually enlightened’ beings amongst you:
Don’t think of a black dog. Just DON’T! Not a black dog! One wagging its tail…. Don’t think of that!
It seems somewhat naive to suggest that the energy of someone else may not influence the energy that flows through me. And further naive to suggest that, whilst thinking is spiritual energy, it is not affected in anyway by anything outside of 'us.'
Of course, there is nothing outside of us, we are a part of everything. And therefore everything can influence us. Even that butterfly.
I’ve heard teachers suggesting that “Your experience of life has NOTHING to do with external circumstances.” Or that nothing outside of you can influence you or your thinking. (Do you see the irony here of teachers looking to influence your understanding of life by suggesting nothing can influence you?)
That’s kind of like suggesting your ride in a car is only dependent upon the seat, and not influenced by the road or suspension. Okay so let’s put all our focus on the seat and how that can be developed to be seen to be more detached from the rest of the car and the rest of the ride of life.
Whilst we are all experiencing our own version of our own reality, created entirely from the infinitely variable and unpredictable spiritual energy of thought, we are all also part of a system, the extent and nature of which is likely way beyond the capacity of our human mind to understand.
My experience of my separate reality does not mean I am a completely separate being of energy to you.
I and my clients have witnessed what look like miracles between people and events that seem to be physically unconnected, yet clearly related beyond the physical realm. People making contact ‘out of the blue’ in response to a shift in energy. Relationship dynamics changing.
We are all dancing with this energy at all times in this universe. There’s plenty of evidence around to support this, such as crime rates falling where there has been persistent group meditations.
We can call this influence an illusion, sure, in which case it’s a real illusion, one that is at play for everyone one of us. Even those who follow a quest for a deeper understanding and spiritual enlightenment, through uber-intellectual absolutisms about the human experience, still find themselves occasionally allowing themselves to be influenced by the universe of which they are a part. Then they ‘remember’ and are able to use thinking to ‘disconnect’ from the influence.
Oh what a merry dance…
You are always feeling your thinking, and the importance you assign to that thinking. And you are dancing in the spiritual energy of the universe. The very same spiritual energy from which you experience life.
Let’s stop denying the dance and embrace that each and everyone one of us is ‘not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
I’ll bet Rumi danced too…
[1] Fractal Foundation - http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/