Life is the Dancer

Over the past few weeks I'd been pondering about how I get myself into knots over things that happened years ago. I was also thinking a lot about power, personal power. How we build it; how we lose it; and, what exactly is it? I've been aware of a power inside me but either felt a little fearful about it or struggled to understand what kind of power I actually had. Really, when I thought about it, if Life is the dancer, what is power for? More things? More prestige? More love? More spirituality?

 It seems to me there are two types of power that work in opposing ways. One builds others up, giving and receiving power and the other depletes, taking power from others. We've all experienced interactions with others that left us feeling lighter and happier or deflated and less than. I tended to avoid those people that left me feeling deflated. I know now that I was the other half in those types of interactions as I chose to diminish myself in favour of their forceful opinion and power over another never results in anything good.

Winning or power to prove yourself the best to others seems like it's an endless struggle to keep being the best and to what end? Power to sway others seems like it's a tool used to manipulate. There's a lot of different kinds of power. It wasn't until I discovered the power of the present, Eckhart Tolle's 'Now', that I started to understand.

Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realize that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth (p. 131). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

World power is ego driven and energetic power is still a mystery despite having many experiences with it. I remember when I was sick in 2017 and went through different antibiotics and hospital stays before I started to get better. To diagnose what was causing my illness, I needed to have biopsies done on my lungs and esophagus. Did I have lung cancer or sarcoidosis? Far from feeling a lot of fear, I was surrounded inside and out by a freedom from fear, a pervasive peace and deep acceptance for about four months. My attitude was whatever I had was what I had and I would deal with it when I knew which one it was. It was sarcoidosis so another round of medication was ordered and that was that.

This freedom is the arising of inner space. It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you, even in the face of something seemingly bad. This, too, will pass. Suddenly, there is space around the event. There is also space around the emotional highs and lows, even around pain. And above all, there is space between your thoughts. And from that space emanates a peace that is not “of this world,” because this world is form, and the peace is space.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth (p. 242)

I'd experienced the power of the Now waiting for a diagnosis. I thought that power to be more of a 'charge' like my intuitive and psychic batteries would be boosted to another level. My physical energy got highly charged from the steroids I took for sarcoidosis. There may have been a bathroom that got painted twice, blinds and walls cleaned and much more! I've experienced boosts of energetic power, too. A vivid dream in my twenties was so real that it boosted my 'batteries' to euphoria for days after. I still feel my inside energy rise when I recall it. A sudden realization or inspiration does the same thing when they come from that soul space inside and you feel like your life and you are dancing with joy. Hearing music or viewing exquisite art that gives your heart a lift is another example of energetic power. Walking in nature raises our energy inside, too, if we're looking for it, like the way the light hits a leaf or flower, the way the sun makes the ocean shimmer, or the way the wings of a bird unfold as it lifts above its perch.

The concept of power in its world and energetic forms are polar opposites in us. There's another powerful force in stillness that transcends those opposing forces. Eckhart Tolle says it best,

Being aware of stillness means to be still. To be still is to be conscious without thought. You are never more essentially, more deeply, yourself than when you are still. When you are still, you are who you were before you temporarily assumed this physical and mental form called a person. You are also who you will be when the form dissolves. When you are still, you are who you are beyond your temporal existence: consciousness—unconditioned, formless, eternal.

Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth (p. 272).

How do we get still when the world is raging? I started with noticing the beauty around me focussing on a single thing that seemed to shine with a different light. I also knew that breathwork allows space for me to be still and helps me clear my mind, too. When we are in the stillness, or "Now", we are beyond our bodies or "form", but we still have to live our life of human challenges, imbalances, cruelty, lack of fairness...

Ketanji Jackson Brown is the newly appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice and the first black woman to be in that position. Her memoir is a lesson in history and contains gems of wisdom from her family. The advice below was given to Ketanji by her mother when she would walk into stores with her high school friends and was followed closely by store clerks. None of her white friends were. She asked her Mother if they thought she'd steal something. Her response was,

Guard your spirit, Ketanji,... to dwell on the unfairness of life is to be devoured by it.

Jackson, Ketanji Brown. Lovely One: A Memoir (p. 83) Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition

That statement could also apply to life's challenges, imbalances and cruelty. In that response is profound wisdom for anything given to us to deal with by Life, the Dancer. Ketanji learns the truth of her mother's wisdom and later reflects,

Now, I sank into the freedom of walking into rooms as simply myself, Ketanji Onyika, Lovely One, with nothing to prove and only myself to make proud. 

Jackson, Ketanji Brown. Lovely One: A Memoir. (p. 121)

You are the dance with nothing to prove and only your inside self to answer Life, the Dancer.