I’m just blown away! When did all these wonderful spiritual teachers appear?
Where have I been?
Partly, I’ve been catching my breath with the world politics that caught me, like so many others, by surprise in November 2016. But now, as I find myself randomly browsing blogs and YouTube videos, I feel deeply hopeful about spiritual trends and the way so many traditions are coming together.
Especially encouraging is a movement away from eradicating and warring against ego/ignorance, toward appreciation as the ground of our experience, including even ego into that appreciation.
Appreciation for breath, for sound, for others as ourselves, but also for striving, for questioning, for not knowing, even the fear of never knowing.
For the frailty and preciousness of our lives where we are, and the selves we embody to navigate them, and the defenses we’ve developed where our wounds and fears have been.
One new term for me, coming out of these explorations: lesha-vidya.
Lesha-vidya is the trace of ignorance left after beginning awakening, described as the potential for downfall in terms of one’s aspirations, but also as the very basis of service and connection; intentionally surrendering ignorance, compassion arises.
My core sensibility is that any self-absorption gets in the way of expression and availability, but No mud; no lotus. No human; no Buddha seems a quite tangible opening toward stability, toward maturity to allow for enlightened action to flow. A middle step.
I resonated with a Stonepeace quote early on in my spiritual journey: “The foolish are trapped by karma, while the wise are liberated by it.” And this seemingly new emphasis feels to be another aspect of that point, perhaps also a deeply feminine way of approach.
I’m down with that. 🙂
For anyone who would like to hear more about lesha-vidya, a good interview would be a Buddha at the Gas Pump interview with Jerry Freeman, starting after the 1 hour mark. The whole interview is interesting, but the latter portion digs nicely into what I’m imperfectly describing.
~ Singing Gecko 