Believing From the Inside Out

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The leaves are red, deep red, burgundy, bright yellow, baby green light, crispy brown, dark green, orange mixed with red and yellow. The leaves stick on the windows of cars on the tires and our shoes. The rain and the wind blow them about. Big rain puddles reflect the standing beauty of the maples, oaks and honey locust trees.

The birds and squirrels rejoice, and so do I.

It is Autumn change, again. According to the Ayurveda tradition, the life knowledge reminds us that it is a time for our bodies and throats to get congested and phlegmy.

Everything changes, from our bodies and their composition to the atoms and cells which, by the lack of lacking oxygen or not, condition the state of their very being.

It should then not surprise us if our way of thinking and seeing, changes.

How could we even be certain that we know what our beliefs are during these times when even paradigms are changing? . The Earth seems to be turning inside out making it easier for us to see clearly what she as well as ourselves are made of.

Our eyes are awaking as if for the first time, and yet, as though from the slumber of eons past.  The religion we thought to have wholeheartedly believed in, is, we realize now, a politico- social weapon. The nutritional pyramid we cherished as our support, appears now as an assault to our common senses. The economic structures that we betted were natural to our human existence, are now remnants of artificial constructs that run against our innate will.  Our educational system is just that, a system that cannot match up to the spark, beauty and wisdom of our human shining light.

It is a wonderful time to ask ourselves whether we are believers or non-believers, and in, or of what.

First it might be best to come to terms with whether we are feelers. Can we feel and recognize what we feel? Is it empathy, disgust, respect, admiration, exaltation, and do we even know for certain how to feel love?

Perhaps we do have these deep feelings, yet the distance between them and living by them is dictated by the thickness of our skin and by imposed prejudices.

How can we protect our Great Grand Mother Earth if we have lost the connection to the feelings that bind us to her? And if we still have and can locate those feelings, do we possess the guts to let those feelings guide us on a path in which we truly believe?

If so, ease would come about for all, for our spirit to be free, without the need for separatist religions. Spirituality would be grander than the temple where it is meant to grow. The Earth would be respected for the food offered to us without the need to  abuse it, change it, nor add additives,  as it would remain whole. Our worth and relationship to each other as family and friends would not be deceived and separated by paper-false glory, shining coins, digital ephimery,  nor by the influences of society.  We would cherish the given knowing of the newborn and the elder. We might not allow for lines to be drawn, turning regions into countries, and for things and people to stay in or out of their place.

If we can remember to feel and acknowledge the awe we feel for life and others, we might reconstruct our desires and beliefs: therefore, wanting less and needing less, including not wanting to take the beauty and strength of others, nor accepting the imposed structure of buying and dependence. When we might prefer to share, trade and cohabitate in joy with each other.

May we see clearly what is going on so that we may believe in our power.

May we hear and listen carefully to what is spoken and what we say, for from these, seeds are sprouting. May we know where we are standing so that we can gratefully gather all the wisdom left that walked before us. May we exercise our freedom of imagination and intuition when we read or see the ravaged images of people, animals and our planet in the news. May we live in person; walk sturdy and flexible, emerging from our heart- stance whose strong capacity in the power to love guides our beliefs.

Therefore rather than from the outside in, we believe from the inside out.

Knowing that we specifically believe in something because we feel it.

Our conviction will become strengthened, simple and sincere. Our hands will communicate with our heart, with our brains, with our mind; our feet will lead us and follow us. Redundant surplus will dissipate, leaving cohesion in action.

 

 

 


shanti kumari johnson lives and works in Chicago.