When you seek what others ignore
I once visited a guru who lived in a village. People from all over the world visited him. Often they made a lot of effort to meet him. Some of them even had to cross the world for that. What I observed was that the people from his own town took no interest in him. They knew he was some kind of guru, but most of them just took him for granted. This initially shocked me, but it isn't new. Jesus was also taken for granted by the people from his own town. Muhammad was even ridiculed and thrown stones at by the people from his town. Only in Yathrib (current Medina) a Jewish city, was he taken seriously.
We often strive for the things we don't have, not for the ones we already have.
I decided to go against this currency.
Firstly I did this in an art project where I made new clothes every two days with materials that I already had. I had to see them in a new light, look at them more deeply, to make something new out of them. In three months time I created hundreds of outfits. I would never have realised this if I didn't take interest in the stuff I usually ignored.
After this project I started to take interest into other things that I normally ignored: my feelings. Doing this opened a whole new world to me. It was empowering to feel. Anger, sadness, lust, happiness, fear; I embraced all. It resulted in a complete change in my life. Embracing my feelings made me more aware, more empathic, more present.
Speaking about the present, what most of us ignore all the time, is the present moment. You rarely will find anyone embracing the present moment. <Indulging in it, finding pleasure in the here and now.>
Even during meditation people are often rushed. I see Muslims using the prayer as a chore to finish from a to do list. A sigh of relief is uttered after the prayer is 'done'.
And yet, whatever we do without presence in the moment is not really 'done'. Nobody is really present, except for an occasional Eckhart Tolle. That's because usually we run away from it and at best we just take it for granted. The present is the guru that all of us ignore while he sits right in front of us, day after day, minute after minute, second after second.
Often he comes in disguise as loneliness. The silence of the empty space can feel unbearable for the ones who are used to distractions. It can trigger existential questions, emotions, pain. Inside the emptiness everything becomes apparent. It is a light that is switched on. All the garbage you had hidden becomes apparent. But when you embrace all of this. The hidden guru will eventually take off his mask and embrace all of you back.
We often strive for the things we don't have, not for the ones we already have.
I decided to go against this currency.
Firstly I did this in an art project where I made new clothes every two days with materials that I already had. I had to see them in a new light, look at them more deeply, to make something new out of them. In three months time I created hundreds of outfits. I would never have realised this if I didn't take interest in the stuff I usually ignored.
After this project I started to take interest into other things that I normally ignored: my feelings. Doing this opened a whole new world to me. It was empowering to feel. Anger, sadness, lust, happiness, fear; I embraced all. It resulted in a complete change in my life. Embracing my feelings made me more aware, more empathic, more present.
Speaking about the present, what most of us ignore all the time, is the present moment. You rarely will find anyone embracing the present moment. <Indulging in it, finding pleasure in the here and now.>
Even during meditation people are often rushed. I see Muslims using the prayer as a chore to finish from a to do list. A sigh of relief is uttered after the prayer is 'done'.
And yet, whatever we do without presence in the moment is not really 'done'. Nobody is really present, except for an occasional Eckhart Tolle. That's because usually we run away from it and at best we just take it for granted. The present is the guru that all of us ignore while he sits right in front of us, day after day, minute after minute, second after second.
Often he comes in disguise as loneliness. The silence of the empty space can feel unbearable for the ones who are used to distractions. It can trigger existential questions, emotions, pain. Inside the emptiness everything becomes apparent. It is a light that is switched on. All the garbage you had hidden becomes apparent. But when you embrace all of this. The hidden guru will eventually take off his mask and embrace all of you back.
salimatova@gmail.com
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