By Christopher Greenwood
Day 213 – Care for those who care for us
This morning is the final day of the retreat in Bosnia, at the Bosnian pyramids, and it’s been a really great event so far. Yesterday, we travelled to park Ravne, which is a park created around a tunnel, which is the entrance to one of the perimeters. Later in the day, we’ll go there, and Mohanji will deliver Shaktipat inside the tunnel.
There’s a hall where we have our Satsang, and yesterday, there were many questions, as always, and the one that caught my attention was about disappointments related to people and relationships.
Mohanji shared that many of those disappointments regarding relationships come from taking responsibility for those people who don’t really care about us when we give all our effort, bend in all sorts of shapes, and in the end, they simply either don’t care, or there’s no appreciation for what’s been done. This can drain energy; we keep giving, but nothing comes back in return.
So, he was simply saying the focus can be moved to caring for those who also care for us rather than chasing something that isn’t going to come.
Now I’ve spoken about this in slightly different ways before, but I wanted to share it again because later in the afternoon, I got to witness another example of how Mohanji really takes responsibility for all those who care for him and all those who’ve come to the retreat actually, especially as there are many new people who are here, and he wants them to have the best possible experience they can because it’s a very short time. So, he and the team here have been working very hard for that.
Yesterday, as Devi conducted the process at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, Mohanji was walking around the group, and he was checking on everyone individually to see how they were doing and what more he could do, what he could help remove and clear for people. It was another heart-warming example for me, wherein he’s consistent in one of his regular phrases, which is: “I do my job”.
Day 214 – No rehearsals and no reversals
The time that I’ve spent with Mohanji so far has been an ever-evolving experience. One of the many things that I’m grateful for is that it’s really pushed me or brought me back onto a track of activity, where life is happening now, in the present, and the pace is such that you have to be focused, alert and aware in the present. With this, one real appreciation of a lesson comes, which is to let life flow, to just be with life.
One of the main things that I can sum up is something that Mohanji has shared before as well, that there are no rehearsals in life, and there are also no reversals. So, no rehearsals in life and no reversals, and these are simple words which he shares. But when I now contemplate on that, it can really open into a depth and dimension of understanding.
When I think about there being no rehearsals, this really is living life as it is now. If I think back many times in my life, I’d wait for the right time, the right opportunity to come and to develop the right skills before doing something. I would prepare, plan, think, and intellectualise because that’s my orientation. But often, in the end, no action would happen, or little action would happen, or I would keep moving it until I had another time that might be a better time, maybe tomorrow.
At the same time, I would feel quite good about that. Because with the mental activity, it feels like something’s happening. There’s a satisfaction in this when in reality, not much was happening. Now, when I think about that more, there are no rehearsals. What does it mean if we’re not actually moving into life? For me, that was understanding that experience is denied.
It’s not happening, and because of that, not taking those steps, not moving or being with life, there isn’t the opportunity to experience something, and then the corresponding growth, which comes from that, doesn’t happen, which then leads onto something else as well. That’s been a really great lesson to try and bring into life more, to live life, to be with it, and not to worry about failures or fears. Because we can’t prepare, it’s happening now.
Then, no reversals; we can’t change anything, we can’t reverse what’s already happened. I think accepting that, in my own personal life, I can’t change the past has been one single most practice that’s lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders, a massive weight, actually, that we can’t go back. There’s only movement; life is happening.
Mohanji has described this before, that if we’re watching life just go past as a witness, a river flowing in front of us, and events and moments are maybe logs passing on that water on that river. If we just let them come and let them go, then it’s much easier. But if we hang on to the log and are dragged into the water and go through whatever process, the course the river would take, then it can be a bit more difficult.
This was, I realised, causing difficulties for me, thinking about what had been before and colouring what was happening now. Events that happened years ago would still be held fresh, and I’d keep the pains and confusion. But knowing and accepting that we can’t change has been a real relief, actually. What that has done, if I think about it more deeply as well, is it’s now sharpened my awareness of what I’m doing in life now.
I can’t say I’m fully aware of everything all the time, but I’m practising as much as I can to be more focused on my actions so that I don’t actually create more regrets in the future. It’s like refining. So, when I know that the past can’t be changed, it’s a boost or an extra incentive to make sure that I’m in the present, watching what my thoughts are, taking care of what I speak and act, especially now during the times of high conflict, tension, and confusions.
I find this really important, knowing that there are no reversals and making sure what’s happening today and now is something that I’m happy with and content with. No rehearsals in life; no reversals in life. This, for me, is a really simple statement, but one that has an incredible depth, and it’s an ongoing practice of sharpening life, making it more powerful in the present.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 30th April 2023
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