This year is showing itself to be a big juicy exciting one in my world. Projects and ideas that for years have been slowly forming in my mind and heart are now becoming firm realities on the material plane.
I started this blog nearly four years ago, as a way to start sharing my passions, and finding expression for how I see the world. I wrote in my Welcome post:
Eventually, I envisage PoP becoming involved in the realisation of actual projects, by bringing together sources of funding, expertise and creative ideas. So this blog is also a work in progress and journey of discovery towards that.
These past four years I have continued to be guided by the thread of intuitive living. Often there have been times of confusion and not knowing what or where things seem to be heading. If frustration and impatience tell me things are moving too slowly, I come back to the present moment and remember that there is no destination, and that my dreams and goals are there to bring me a state of being in the present, to expand me in unknowable ways.
From this perspective, the idea of time having a fixed linear trajectory starts to become very loose, as ‘now’ expands to include past and future and multiple possibilities. This for sure makes life more enjoyable and relaxing. No more pressure put on myself to achieve anything. For what?
So good to let go of those deeply engrained beliefs about the need to become, behave, beget… and their associated struggle to be different, to be more.
So the coming-in-to-being of these projects has come out of a process of un-trying to make them happen. Recognising when I am ‘trying’, to push, to control, become rigid in wanting something to happen, and unraveling the underlying beliefs, fears, and insecurities that create that efforting.
It is my practise to only ‘work’ on these projects when I am excited to do so, or when there is a sense of easy flow to do so. I don’t want to do them if it starts to feel like one big struggle, I would rather do something else. This is a great practise for uncovering lots of hidden ego-agendas and fears. One question to ask yourself if you find yourself ‘efforting’ is “what am I doing this FOR?”.
And now in 2013 the seeds for these projects have been sprouting into life (almost) effortlessly. You can read about them here:
Earthlife – funding and supporting community-based regenerative land projects.
Monte da Vida – some land in southern Portugal for regenerating the landscape, and creating a community of abundance, honesty and intimacy.
I am feeling excited and curious about how these projects will develop, and how they can become hubs for joyful effortlessness. This does not mean there will not be challenges, or that everyone lies around doing nothing. More that people can find their natural flow, and stop trying to be something that they are not. It is also about trusting the right timing of things. Knowing when it is time to rest and when it is time for action.
Imagine if the whole world operated like this – a vast amount of energy would be released that is bound up in trying to suppress or block this natural flow.
It is a deep conditioning for many of us that we have to struggle or strive to achieve things. For hundreds of years religions and those in power have promoted this idea for their own ends. It is reflective of male patriarchal culture which gives rise to a form of creativity based on striving to be the best, subjugating and controlling nature, and “making things happen”.
The feminine, or yin way of creating is more about relaxing, opening and allowing things to be born, and is focused on letting go of what is in the way of things naturally manifesting out of the womb of emptiness.
In writing about the ‘way of effortlessness’, I am reminded of my blog post a few years ago on Taoist breathing, The Joy of Breath. For me this breathing practise is one of the best ways for discovering the micro-levels of holding and trying within me, and feeling the difference between between effort and relaxed, focused intent.
The topic of Wu Wei, or non-doing is big in Taoist philosophy and practise. So I will leave you with a couple of verses from the Tao Te Ching (Feng translation);
37
Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.If kings and lords observed this,
The ten thousand things would develop naturally.If they still desired to act,
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance.Without for there is no desire.
Without desire there is.And in this way all things would be at peace.
48
In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering.