The Roots of Our Being: The Rich Fertile Soil of Our Soul
I just had to perform some emergency surgery on three of my plants, and also repot them, given that they had not fared too well in my four month absence.
As I gently and patiently removed the old clogged and waterlogged soil in order to free their roots before replanting, I began to think about this process as a metaphor for life. My thoughts turned to what Buddhism refers to as the ‘Middle Way’; a teaching that The Buddha is said to have given when instructing a young monk on how to play the lute: If the strings were too loose, he explained, then they would not play, and, if too taut, they would break.
As I operated on my plants, I began to contemplate our own energetic roots and how these need space to breathe. If they become clogged with all the ‘doing’ and busyness of our lives or with unexpressed and unhealed emotions and/or too much mental activity, then our expansion and growth, healing and integration, and evolution and awakening can be significantly compromised.
Just as the roots of a plant need oxygen and water in order to survive, so it is that the roots of our being need space (oxygen) to breathe, and inspiration (water) to thrive.
We need to give ourselves time for reflection and for clearing the extraneous from our minds, for in doing so we come to experience ourselves as spacious, whole, and creatively fertile.
Consider the contrast between a room full of clutter and a zen temple – in which of these is your body more likely to deeply breathe and relax? Which of the two is more likely to promote a a greater sense of wellbeing, harmony and equilibrium, and which do you imagine most lends itself to visionary contemplation and divine inspiration?
Let us be careful to not clog the roots of our being, for the breath of life needs to flow like a river into the sea, naturally, graciously and effortlessly.
If our roots are clogged and over saturated (over-watered) with physical and energetic debris and clutter, then our potential to live a dynamic, serene and fulfilling life is at best restricted, and at worst suffocated. Conversely, if we fail to tend to and nurture our roots, then that to which we most aspire will wither and fail.
Similarly to the “not too taut and not too slack” example of the story of Buddha’s lute, if we wish to make harmonious music, (a harmonious life), then becoming increasingly mindful of our energetic roots and the positive balance of activity and rest, stimulation and silence, endeavour and stillness, and enlightened ‘doing’ and ‘BEing’, will greatly influence and determine the degree to which we can attain this.
An over saturation (over-watering) of emotions and thoughts depletes the rich fertile soil of the psyche; yet, too little (under-watering) inspired stimulation is also prohibitive. Mindfully tending the roots of our being and the rich fertile soil of our soul will cultivate a garden of eden within us that is bursting with the exquisite blooms of abundance, peace, equanimity and radiance.
Copyright © 2018 Nicolya Christi. All rights reserved.
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Nicolya Christi is a Visionary, Futurist and Author. Her first book 2012: A Clarion Call: Your Soul’s Purpose in Conscious Evolution was placed in the top ten book reviews by Publishers Weekly in Spring 2011. Professor Ervin Laszlo, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, endorsed this book as the most remarkable spiritual book on this or any other subject he have ever read. She is also the author of Contemporary Spirituality for an Evolving World: A Handbook for Conscious Evolution (2013). In the Summer of 2018, Nicolya completed a third book co-authored with Professor Laszlo to be published in 2019. She is currently concluding the writing of her own third mainstream book. Her Work is founded upon the fundamental principles of Psychological Integration, Conscious Evolution, and Spiritual Awakening; Personal Transformation for Global Evolution and Inner Peace for World Peace. Its trajectory is along a psycho-spiritual continuum of Self-Awareness leading to Self-Integration, leading to Self-Realization, leading to Self-Actualization, leading to the ultimate state of Human-Being – Self-Transcendence.