An image from this day: Taken on this day in 2019 at the party being held to celebrate the 17th birthday of a friend of the family I was staying with in Bali. A love heart made by scattering white petals onto black wooden decking, with a candle in the middle. There is lots of symbolism and significance to this picture. As always, how it is interpreted will be dependent on the interpreter. For me, it represents the heart as the energetic centre of love and compassion, pure and bright. The decking provides the contrast of darkness that we must accept as part of all existence. It is up to us to transmute our uncertainty and the anxiety we could derive from it, instead using the strength and power of the guiding heart to ensure that we offer authentic positive energy as far and as frequently as possible. In this picture, the little tealight candle is no longer lit, but the fire in the heart always burns even when it seems that we cannot feel it.
Monday 9th March 2020
I wrestled demons whilst I was away, but that was nothing new. The difference was that, unlike wrestling them in order to beat them and suppress them, I was wrestling to break free. Not so that I could run away from them, but for the purpose of allowing them the chance to run away from me. Of course, they didn’t run away once I released them, any more than a sparring partner would. Grappling has not historically been my forte. Neither had wrestling demons. Whilst in Bali, I trained at the gym less and practiced yoga more. Highlighting parallels like this helps to illustrate how our psycho-spiritual (I think that’s an accepted term but it’s not of much concern to me anyway) existence reflects, or is reflected in, the physical. These aspects of our existence benefit most from behaving as one synchronistic, homogenous system whilst we exist as our physical manifestation in this lifetime.
Even those who don’t necessarily “identify” as “spiritual” recognise at least the connection between the psychological and the physical. For a long time, this was a neglected area of study. Humans had worked out that the mind is responsible for governing biological functions. Humans had ascertained that the physical body was necessary to keep the brain alive. This symbiosis is understandable for anyone familiar with a fundamental contemporary comprehension of human biology. As understanding has widened and deepened, evidence of more subtle relationships has come to be accepted. We now realise that physiological ailments can contribute to psychological dysfunction and poor mental health can contribute to physical illness. Examples of this are now so numerous, varied and commonly acknowledged, that listing them would be arbitrary.
Please excuse the digression. Back to the demons. I had known I was wrestling them for a long time, lost in an array of whirlwinds that took me up when I was winning the fight and down when I was losing. The fight went on and on, with the justifications for conflict constantly being cited internally to spur on the combatants. Reading The Untethered Soul was a pivotal decision. It helped me to realise that I could live without being dictated to by thoughts or feelings, I didn’t have to fight them or capitulate. As a friend of mine had told me only months before, everything is a decision. The way that particular friend had explained this was that when somebody appears to be unhelpful or unpleasant, they are offering you something. They are offering you negative energy. There are different ways to deal with this energy. You can choose to take it from them and carry it, in which case it is likely that you will pass it on in some form. Or you can choose to reject it, which creates resistance. What happens to the energy you are being offered is affected by the way you respond to it, but you have the choice not to be affected by the energy. What do you tend to do?
A track for this day: Bob Marley – Redemption Songs (single on Tuff Gong / Island, 1980; taken from the album Uprising by Bob Marley and The Wailers, 1980). The line from this song that has been provided as today’s quote (bottom of page) is just about the most concise way to express what I have found to be the true key to freedom and happiness. Apart from that, it’s a beautiful song.
The full Sunny This Position playlist can be found on the Guerrilla Nature YouTube channel, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/@GuerrillaNature
And on Spotify at the following link:
A video for this day: The Tao Te Ching translation by Peter X. This is only one person’s English translation of an extremely old book that was originally written by someone from China, Lao Tzu. Apparently, nobody knows who the author really was. It doesn’t really matter. The way this translation has been written and the way it is read give it the tones of pure truth, even though lots of the statements made might seem abstract to many. This seems like just the right sort of material to listen to whilst looking at the art made by today’s featured creator (below). For this, no moving visuals are needed. Apologies to those who might be disappointed with the inanimate nature of this video. No distraction is necessary when paying full attention to interpreting these words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2UYch2JnO4
This day’s Featured Creator: Agung Putrawan is a friend and colleague of Komang Sukerni, who was the featured creator from yesterday’s entry. Like our first two guests, Agung has contributed to the gene pool. He has two sons and one daughter, all of whom are delightful. They live together at his family home in Bali, where he cultivates bonsai trees and hosts community meetings. Agung is a tremendous being. I think of him a bit like a laughing buddha, as he is rarely serious and chuckles about most things. He’s a joy to be around. The way he has dealt with a difficult life in Bali has built great resilience in him, but he has not turned hard-hearted or rested on his laurels. That is not to blame anyone who does, just a recognition of the magnitude of having transmuted so much suffering and overcome so many obstacles without ending up overwhelmed by the task. Bali is full of people who have had similar struggles, but I doubt many are as inspiring as Agung. He is also a great artist and a highly respected member of his community. His art is often, but not always, abstract. I love the use of colour and the freedom with which it is applied to the page. You can interpret the rest. Agung would approve of that, as he is very open-minded and open-hearted. I have great appreciation and will always remain thankful for my brother Agung, who I often look to as an example of how to be if we want to create positive effects. I look forward to seeing him again in person one day. Perhaps it will be in Bali for a yoga teacher training course. For those who would like to become more familiar with Agung, you can find his social media links underneath the picture of him below.
https://www.facebook.com/agung.putrawan.98
A quote for this day: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds” – Bob Marley (Redemption Songs, lyrics available at link below).
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/redemptionsong.html
Above: Sunny This Position blog entry 2020-03-09
Below: previous and following entries or back to Prose
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