Do things just happen? Is everything just down to chance, or is there something else at play?
I was talking to a friend just an hour after he almost died in a car accident.
"What an experience!" I said.
"Everything happens for a reason."
Some people live by the very notion that nothing is mere chance: everything that happens is karma and the law of attraction at play, and exists in the perfect moment in relation to everything else happening in our experience, otherwise known as synchronicity.
I was talking to a friend just an hour after he almost died in a car accident.
"What an experience!" I said.
"Everything happens for a reason."
Some people live by the very notion that nothing is mere chance: everything that happens is karma and the law of attraction at play, and exists in the perfect moment in relation to everything else happening in our experience, otherwise known as synchronicity.
There are many interpretations of how karma and the law of attraction work and what synchronicity is, but what if they have only served to give us the wrong end of the stick? Interpretations, and words, can be tricky at times.
For example, in psychoanalysis, "synchronicity" refers to the "irrational meaning attributed to unrelated causal events due to their particular timing"; however, in physics and electricity, "synchronous" simply means "having the same frequency".
So how about contemplating synchronicity, the law of attraction and karma from the perspective of energy, the essence of mind and matter? In a universe made up entirely of vibrating atoms, with their neutrons, protons and electrons, it is not too hard to conceive the notion that:
We are all connected in consciousness ... which gives rise to synchronicity. And of what we give out, we receive ... karma and the law of attraction are a law of physics!
Our every 'now' affects every next manifest moment. What we think and what we feel directly affects the reality we experience, both in the inner and outer world.
Life doesn't just happen, we have free will, yet, simultaneously, we are programmed. Are we aware of our core beliefs that condition our attitude towards work, love or life itself? Do we even realise when we are lost in negative thoughts, or when emotions control our behaviour?
"The mind is your best friend or your greatest enemy, depending who is in control." says the ancient Vedic scripture, the Srimad Bhagavat Gita, yet, "the mind is more difficult to capture than the wind," it also says in another Sanskrit verse.
True story, but not a hopeless one. Yogis and psychologists alike have been directing us inwards to observe our thoughts and feelings. We do not intend to suppress our thoughts and emotions and force a smile, but embrace them without allowing them to take control.
Here is a simple practice to try next time you are triggered:
You will be pleasantly surprised by the results. I like to think of this process as tit bits of accumulated pain stored in our cellular memory being starved of drama and substituted by chi or prana, commonly translated as the "life force energy". This facilitates self-transformation on an energetic level and helps us find our balance. We can make more conscious choices regarding our experience and reaction right now.
Do not get disheartened if you do not succeed; some pain is very deep and you must keep practising. The good news is that everything happens just as it is supposed to. Every experience contains an opportunity for evolution: if we do not learn the lesson, it will present itself again and again until we do - the so-called pattern. Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost (I love this album title from Shpongle).
"All the world's a stage, and we are merely players," writes William Shakespeare in the play As You Like It. Indeed, we are like actors in this play of life, yet we write our own script as we go: how do you like it?
On the other hand, I dedicate this to my surviving friend and his surviving mood of acceptance, surrender, trust, gratitude ... and service:
"Facing death makes being alive feel like it's because I have something to give."
Indeed. We all have something to give. In fact, we are all contributing something, all the time. We are pulsing, vibrating, dancing a cosmic dance ... always changing and being the change.
For example, in psychoanalysis, "synchronicity" refers to the "irrational meaning attributed to unrelated causal events due to their particular timing"; however, in physics and electricity, "synchronous" simply means "having the same frequency".
So how about contemplating synchronicity, the law of attraction and karma from the perspective of energy, the essence of mind and matter? In a universe made up entirely of vibrating atoms, with their neutrons, protons and electrons, it is not too hard to conceive the notion that:
- every thought, in every moment, is an electrical impulse that influences the energy field of the whole, and;
- every feeling, born of thought, creates a vibration of a particular frequency within my aura, with which the energetic universe resonates and responds with an "equal and opposite reaction", as Newton would put it.
We are all connected in consciousness ... which gives rise to synchronicity. And of what we give out, we receive ... karma and the law of attraction are a law of physics!
Our every 'now' affects every next manifest moment. What we think and what we feel directly affects the reality we experience, both in the inner and outer world.
Life doesn't just happen, we have free will, yet, simultaneously, we are programmed. Are we aware of our core beliefs that condition our attitude towards work, love or life itself? Do we even realise when we are lost in negative thoughts, or when emotions control our behaviour?
"The mind is your best friend or your greatest enemy, depending who is in control." says the ancient Vedic scripture, the Srimad Bhagavat Gita, yet, "the mind is more difficult to capture than the wind," it also says in another Sanskrit verse.
True story, but not a hopeless one. Yogis and psychologists alike have been directing us inwards to observe our thoughts and feelings. We do not intend to suppress our thoughts and emotions and force a smile, but embrace them without allowing them to take control.
Here is a simple practice to try next time you are triggered:
- Bring your attention out of your head and into your body, right here, right now.
- Become aware of any physical sensations, breathing into them.
- Stay present, fully aware of your experience throughout the process.
You will be pleasantly surprised by the results. I like to think of this process as tit bits of accumulated pain stored in our cellular memory being starved of drama and substituted by chi or prana, commonly translated as the "life force energy". This facilitates self-transformation on an energetic level and helps us find our balance. We can make more conscious choices regarding our experience and reaction right now.
Do not get disheartened if you do not succeed; some pain is very deep and you must keep practising. The good news is that everything happens just as it is supposed to. Every experience contains an opportunity for evolution: if we do not learn the lesson, it will present itself again and again until we do - the so-called pattern. Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost (I love this album title from Shpongle).
"All the world's a stage, and we are merely players," writes William Shakespeare in the play As You Like It. Indeed, we are like actors in this play of life, yet we write our own script as we go: how do you like it?
On the other hand, I dedicate this to my surviving friend and his surviving mood of acceptance, surrender, trust, gratitude ... and service:
"Facing death makes being alive feel like it's because I have something to give."
Indeed. We all have something to give. In fact, we are all contributing something, all the time. We are pulsing, vibrating, dancing a cosmic dance ... always changing and being the change.
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