Get out of your way
Did you ever get out of your own way and then, something incredible happened?
If you’re an artist, this experience is familiar to you… completely absorbed in the process, you forget yourself and lose touch with time and space.
Something takes over— the artist has become nobody.
Speechless, gazing at the finished work, the artist wonders how they were able to create such beauty… What just happened?
They got out of the way.
1. You have a right to action— but not to it's fruits.
Being active without being attached to the outcomes of action will free us immensely. Aspiring good results is different from expecting outcomes to happen exactly your way! You may have had this experience before when things did not turn out the way you expected, and now, looking back, it was one of the best things that could have happened. If results don't come as expected, it could mean they were not important for our evolution— Life may have better plans. Perhaps we were not yet ready for the desired results and need to keep working without taking the perceived "setback" personal.
2. When you block the road... life won't flow.
The moment we hit a road-block, the traffic doesn't flow, we get stuck in a huge jam. We have our own agenda that we are following rigidly. We get in the way— not giving Life the chance to give us what we truly need. Think of the mind as a shoebox… When we act from such a confined place, our perspective is limited, not allowing us to see the best possible outcome for a greater good, of which we are a part.
3. It's not what you do - It's how you do it.
Our intention and attitude are often more important than the action itself. How do we act when we have everything? How deeply are we shaken when we lose it all? Action is about knowing how to play the game of life without letting your participation disturb the silence of your heart.
Being a nobody in front of the wisdom of life will ensure the best possible outcome for all.
This doesn’t make us into fools or victims, but allows us to move like the shadow that passes through water and doesn't get wet, and through fire, yet doesn't get burned.
4. Surrender is not as easy as it sounds.
Initially it is hard to drop our ideas of who we think we are, what we think we know and where we think we are going. The mind will resist. A bucket full of mud is no use to one who wants to collect water from the river. Empty your bucket, and everything else will happen. The benefits will encourage the nature of surrender.
5. Do your best and let life do the rest.
Imagine a man travelling on a train. He gets on-board with his suitcase on his shoulder and chooses to carry it— there is space for his luggage, but instead of putting it down and allowing the train to carry it for him, he bears the weight the entire journey... This is exactly what we do. Anxious about the results of our actions; we feel we have to do it all. But it doesn't need to be as hard as we make it. Do your best— book your ticket, be on time and get on that train. But then, let the universe do the rest— put down that heavy load and allow life to take you.
Life has no other purpose than to bring us from confinement to expansion.
6. Beware of the pride of ‘being-a-nobody’.
Ego can take on very subtle shapes: "People will recognize me because I have emptied myself.” / “I am a medium through which the Divine is working." Mr. Ego is talking here. You may have dropped your 'old' identity… now, be careful not to create a new one in the name of being 'a nobody'. Initially we need to express our individuality— it is a stepping stone… but not the end of the road.
7. Die before you die.
Clinging to that which we are not is exhausting. Don't be afraid to die before you die. Nothingness is simultaneously Everything, in the same way zero equals infinity. Through sincere self-reflection and gradual dis-identification we gain a wider perception of who we Are. At the same time, the attributes that have glued us together as a person naturally dissolve.
So when it comes time for our final stop to come— we will be ready to hop off the train.
