Have you ever noticed this?
Have you ever noticed that you might suddenly have an ‘ah ha’ moment months or years after you have been searching for an answer to something and it often comes in a flash?
I am pretty sure we have all felt the fog of the mind intensely at times and then the clouds clear and it feels like the truth has unveiled itself?
In the Tantric philosophy it is said that the DIVINE (we can also call it GODDESS or GOD, if you are able to use that word without associating it with a religious G.O.D.) partly conceals its true nature when it becomes manifest in the world.
It has to.
Because the true nature of the DIVINE is beyond form… so in order for us mortals to understand it - it has to show itself as ‘a thing’ an ‘object’.
It has to cover itself in a CLOAK (you might have heard of that term before) - like a veil?
In order for the DIVINE to be seen by us or understood by us it has to conceal its limitlessness within a physical object or boundary. Does that make sense?
One of my teachers calls it the DIVINE JOKE … it delights in seeing the world through a different lens and every now and again it reveals itself to you… like ‘hi there… I am a tree… can you see me? Here I am’ (then it drops its cloak, gives you a little wave… cheeky) and you realize the absolute LIMITLESSNESS nature of the DIVINE - then it puts its cloak back on again and goes back to being a tree. (Or a flower, or a blade of grass, or an apple)
It is when the DIVINE drops its cloak that you feel entirely CONNECTED, at ONE, full of BLISS… however you want to describe it. You sense the limitlessness of the DIVINE, it’s lack of boundaries…
When the DIVINE begins to reveal itself to us (and for some this can literally take years) we can use what is right in front of us, tree, flower, grass, relationship, experience, to skillfully recognise the DIVINE and transform.
This is where the YOGA comes in… every time you take an asana (yoga pose), everytime you practice a different breath technique, or chant a mantra you are trying on a different cloak of the DIVINE. You are using these different outfits to help you to reveal to yourself over and over again your LIMITLESSNESS. How often do you walk out of yoga class feeling different? Lighter? Taller? More energized?
So when the DIVINE shows itself as an obstacle how can you use the limited boundaries of the obstacle to reveal to yourself growth and freedom? How can you draw back the veil so that you can become free of what limits you? How can you recognise in every moment how the DIVINE is expressing itself true nature to you through the boundaries of our human existence?