Juggling
by Michael Mamas
Most aspire to a state where everything in their life is tucked away nicely in place. No dangling ends. No unresolved situations. No problems. No worries. No fears. Everything settled and solid and safe.
Of course, life is not like that. There are always many “balls in the air” and plates at the end of poles that you need to keep spinning, lest they fall to the ground and shatter. So many spend their lives trying to catch all the balls and stash them away and grab all the plates and pack them up snuggly.
In other words, there is a longing for stable ground. The longing is actually good, but it is misdirected. The stability you long for is not on the surface of life. It is in the depth of your being. Trying to attain it on the surface is a fool’s play, like a cat pawing at its own reflection in pursuit of contact. Or, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
The juggler finds stability within. This is what allows him to enjoy and excel at his craft. The art of juggling maps onto, parallels, the art of accomplishment in life. The fulfillment it brings is the stability one feels when established in the Transcendent, even in the midst of great activity. At first, that solid stability is felt only for a moment here and there during meditation. Imagine it being there all the time… during the greatest hardships and greatest joys. Imagine tossing more and more balls in the air and spinning more and more plates, without fear of losing the stability of the inner Self. That is the art of juggling.
You cannot just meditate your way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the integration of silence with dynamism… of activity and rest… of the Absolute with the relative… of inner Oneness and outer multiplicity. The Guru can help you with that. It is what a Guru does. Yet, along the way, many decide they have it figured out and know better. Then, they aspire to catch one moonbeam or dangling carrot or another, as per their own choosing.
But, listening to the Guru does not mean attending an isolated lecture here and there, or being inspired by a lovely quote and then going about your business. It means listening, really taking it in, and living life accordingly. Very few are willing to do that. After all, you did not come here to learn to juggle… Or, did you?
Just keep in mind that juggling does not mean figuring it all out. Nor, does it mean having no cynicism, anger, fear, etc. It means awakening to the place deep within that holds all of these things… holds everything… and is beyond the touch of any of it.
Oneness does not mean one with all the things you like and elimination of all the things you do not. Oneness means Oneness.
The course of action is eternally unfathomable. You never figure everything out. You juggle… everything remains up in the air. That is why they call it “relativity.” There is no bottom line. No figuring it all out.
To juggle means to have a healthy relationship with… which means to under-stand, not over-stand. Humility, innocence, not knowingness, are all built right into it. Concurrently, at the depth, you are awake to all knowingness, infinite stability, infinite flexibility, infinite peace, etc.
The nature of the depth and the nature of the surface are two very different things. The error of cross-realm projection is people try to transfer qualities of one upon the other.
In enlightenment, they exist concurrently… the surface along with its nature, and the depth along with its nature. Yet, the surface, from the perspective of your depth, is then experienced as virtual… just lightly etched on the face of the Absolute.
The root is stable; the leaves juggle in the wind.
© Michael Mamas, 6/12
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