Power and a Cup of Coffee
Is this man free?
Is this woman free?
I know that both are care givers and that this not only restricts travel freedom, but can be just plain tiring. I know that both have mobility limitations; hip, back and/or leg problems. These would seem to not be the characteristics of free people – yet I think they both have a mastery of something most people have never thought about and many will never understand. They both have a quiet mastery of the moment.
The man in the top picture is my friend Ramana Rajgopaul at his home in India and a post on his blog spurred this posting. The woman in the bottom picture is my mother in her home in Kansas. Different cultures, different genders. But, in the scheme of things, what difference do these small matters make? Some things are universal and universally available – and time pretty much fills that bill.
What you cannot see (unless you look very closely) is the cup of coffee behind Mom’s knee. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen her sitting with a cup of coffee… We were sitting and talking one day and I told her that I thought I knew what sitting with that cup of coffee was about. It was about just sitting. Not worrying about money or transportation or anything else. Just sitting for awhile. I felt it was her form of meditation – and she agreed. To me, her coffee drinking was a very valuable time exercise.
The present is the point of power. Nothing can be done at any other time. Nothing can even be at any other time. But, the present can be expanded or contracted. Expanded, it can contain both the packed trunks of the past and the ephemeral concerns for the future. The price paid is dissipation. Life becomes a washed-out, half-hearted ghost of itself. The result is emotional and spiritual bondage. Every movement, every thought is without enthusiasm. Every action is without potency. Life has no immediacy. Life just isn’t alive!
Don’t get me wrong. There are great memories to be shared. There are good plans to be made. But, they are part of a laser-like focus in the present when done in the most healthy way. The past is not viewed sentimentally, it is celebrated. The future is not dreaded or obsessed over, merely prepared for and released.
The present offers an even greater treasure when it contracts. Athletes know it as the zone, when they are so attuned with the moment and only the moment that everything slows, their timing becomes perfect, their touch precise. Any action offers that zone and you know when you are in it. Writing offers that zone when the words flow and the ideas pour out in an ordered, coherent fashion, content expressing inner emotion and understanding. Public speaking, teaching, music – even partying – have the zone.
Meditation contracts the present even further, for it couples with a quieting of the inner dialogue, a cessation from broadcasting the world. It allows the most fundamental perceptions to arise and the world becomes magical. Suddenly it becomes clear that there are more dimensions available to the human perception, questions unasked in the normal hustle and bustle. It becomes a world of wonder and the mundane becomes miraculous! An inkling forms of how the prophets and the shamans see the world at all times, for they learn to reenter the world without leaving their meditative state. They are true masters of the present.
That is why I see these two people to be free. Not just these two, of course, but they are part of this blog’s close family and I treasure that. It is not because I see them as shamans or prophets – although, who knows? – but because I see them ever savoring the moment, reflecting within to expand without. That is what makes them warm and supportive of the people and world they find around them. That is what makes them free.
That is why I offer a toast to fellow free spirits from some fellow free spirits:
From left, my mother, me, my daughter, my father.
How are you doing right now?
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Tags: Corky, Family, Ramana, The Present, Time
Conrad, you brought tears to my eyes, you did.
I could not have explained my philosophy of life as you have so beautifully done. In fact, to tell the truth, I did not even know that it was my philosophy of life! I suppose that when you live like that, you do not pause to articulate your raison d’être. If your mother lives like that, I am sure that if we ever meet up with each other, it will be like two houses on fire together! AND, if you as you say, the whole clan are free spirits, I salute you.
Just last night, I wrote something on Jean’s blog and I quote it here. When I look back, I find that Buddha was right. ‘Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof.’
That is a lovely photograph of the clan Hakes, and I toast you in return.
rummuser’s last blog post..One Lovely Blog Award
What am I doing right now? Besides marveling at the thoughts said here, what is that green & blacked edged thing Carly is clutching? I get caught up in detail, but I didn’t miss the beautiful & clear way that inter-perception is stated.( I made up that word inter-perception. I hope you know what I mean.)
Mid morning here, so I raise my cup of coffee to all free spirits!
Grannymar’s last blog post..Just for You!
I’m having a couple cups of coffee to wake me up my 5km run this morning. Bikehikebabe, do you wnat to join me on that run?
I’m getting a hip replacement Tuesday & my hip is yelling NO RUN!
I think that Carly is just showing a fist. The green black thing that appears to be in her fist is perhaps something in the background.
rummuser’s last blog post..One Lovely Blog Award
BHB,
The thing that Carly appears to be holding in her fist is one of the wings of the “butterfly chair” that she is sitting in. As you can tell by looking, I am very much a keeper much to the dismay of most of my family unless they need something and I “just happen” to have it poked away in some nook or cranny because I KNOW that someday someone will want this thing. Viki can tellyou that you can walk in the door, ask, and ye shall receive (whatever it might be). If I did not have all this stuff, how could I teach my kidlets to make flower wreaths, paint, etc.? We were all toasting the new year and Papa had not received his drink yet (whatever it was….looks like Alka-Seltzer, lol)….as for me, it looks like I had had way, way too many glasses of wine.lol
I do not understand all I know about what Conrad has written but we have talked about meditation many times and I generally do have a cup of coffee in my hand when I’m off in my own world…..thinking about what has been and what might be in the future. I’m not much of a philosopher but I really do enjoy taking a little time out now and then to think about the way I think things should be…..not only my family and friends but the world. I know that I cannot change much of anything but I guess if you help just one person along the way, you have changed things for them at that time…..are you paying attention Maynard? lol I would love to meet Mr. R. but do not plan to do that anytime soon…..maybe on another plain?
I wish you good luck with your hip surgery BHB and know that you will be in our prayers. Surgery of any kind is not fun (I have just had half of my nose redone and will not go into all the other things they have done to my body) but I’ve decided that attitude and patience are both really important at a time like this for you…..at least it helped me along the way. Age helps you learn some things I guess.
Corky
One of the most thought provoking posts I have come accross in recent times. I haven’t yet given the concept of freedom too much thought. I feel totally free during those small and rare vacations I take, but after a day or two it frustrates me and I long for the burdens of work, theatre and what not to come back to my life. So there freedom is not really present.
I guess for me freedom is the freedom from myself, the ability to simply shrug off all those things that bind me to things that limit me and my thinking. It is difficult to explain really.
Ashok’s last blog post..Meaning and purpose of life, ideas and more
Ashok, as I said on your blog, I am a growing fan of your writing and of your thinking. I think there is the potential for a synergy between us that I would like to explore. I wonder whether it is freedom from yourself that you are actually achieving or whether it is freedom from attachment to Maya. If it is the latter, that would seem to open the path to knowing yourself. Vacations aren’t freedom if they seperate you from your own passions, from your own value fulfillment.
Grannymar, you are ever the free spirit. I bask in the joy of the freedom you express every day.
BHB, we will all be with you in spirit for the hip replacement and the recovery! That should improve the life of one so active.
Here’s to fantastic success!
Maynard, you are amazing. You and Bell were pretty decent cross-country runners, as I recall!
Conrad, your timing was perfect on this one, as it came on the day when I became free for the summer! On the 18th I finished my last report, after a long week of working to 11 every night to do so, and on the 19th I went in for an unpaid day to pack up my offices at my two schools for the summer so the cleaning crews could do their stuff. I am learning about pacing myself–there are summers when I might have a few, or many, reports still to do. This year, it was perfection. My little atman has spent the last few days just rollicking in the maya, totally careless of illusion for the nonce. Freedom from the paperwork and the timelines, from putting in the hours at school and at home, freedom from a job I really do enjoy (school psychologist) but that can eat up huge amounts of time. And freedom TO, freedom to sleep late if I wish, freedom to focus on diet and exercise and garden and reading and crafts to rest my mind and engage my soul. And freedom to get ready for a cross-country drive back to Abilene in a few days to see family. Life is good.
That’s quite a drive, Ronnie. Enjoy the trip!
Congrats on what is obviously a sense of some real accomplishment. Even if it is an illusion, LOL.
Thank you Conrad, your words truly mean a lot to me. Coming accross your blog has provided a breath of fresh ideas which I deeply admire and respect. I am all ears about what you have in mind and you can expect my full involvement and support.
Ashok’s last blog post..Hitting the sack