Total Relaxation - Total Peace Within...
It is 5.37am on Sunday morning... We are sitting outside a closed airport; we were not quite the first to arrive, one young guy was already here, sitting with his rucksack on a bench...
Others are gathering now, there is chatter around us, and lights are coming on in the building... But no sign of people inside yet...
I do enjoy airport time; my brother teases me about how early I like to get to Edinburgh airport when he has dropped me off there after a visit to him.
I have just been contemplating whether it is too early to text him on a Sunday morning to tell him of this 'first'...!
I have arrived before the check in desk has opened before now, but never the actual airport...
Last night we said goodbye to Jose in the bar across the road... Anadi and I both really like him, and it was sad to tell him we were going, and Jose had tears in his eyes...
We have hardly been able to say anything to one another, and yet there is a resonance between us that transcends needing to speak.
'It is good in many ways not being able to speak the language', Anadi had said earlier in the day... 'It means we don't get caught up in it all...'
And as we zoomed through the empty roads this morning, I affirmed to him how much a travelling lifestyle makes for not getting 'caught up' in anything that might make us believe this existence is real.
And yet we clearly do believe it at a level, or we wouldn't be here having it!
The paradox is that were we to totally shed the illusion, truly surrender our attachment to tension and who we think we are supposed to be, the relaxation of being ourselves would accentuate this journey here beyond anything, to a place of living in total joy...
Really enjoying the ride to the absolute full, knowing it is an illusion...
A Chinese proverb says it all...
'Tension is who we think we are supposed to be, relaxation is who we are...'
It sounds so simple.
And in truth it is...
Total relaxation means total peace and joy within, rather than seeking happiness outside ourselves in the form of possessions, experiences or other people...
But as I wrote yesterday, it can take a commitment to truly examining the underlying causes of our tension, and that can be hard work, very painful at times and can take a long long time to unravel...
Along the way it might also mean changes occur... In letting go of our created self we might find ourselves letting go of parts of our life and ourselves we are very attached too...
In my own experience it is worth the investigation, and taking the leap...
But I also totally understand why it feels challenging to do so...
I read a question once, which caught my attention which asked... 'Do you want a better life or do you want truth?'
I have always been committed to discovering my own truth, my prayer 'please show me truth, I don't mind how it comes' sustains me...
But surely a better life and truth are the same thing...
How can life not be better if we are living true to ourselves...
Later...
We are aboard our little plane....
In the end a handful, or rather a gathering, but not that many - no more than forty or fifty of us took over the airport...
It felt like the start of a novel, or a film... All the main characters meeting early on a Sunday morning five days before Christmas...
Out of the window dawn is breaking in magnificent orange and black streaked fashion...
The propellers are whirring and we are all flying to Madrid together....
Later still...
Spanish time 13.21
UK time 12.21
We are flying over London,,,
The Thames, the London eye on our right
'There's Piccadilly Circus ' Anadi said ' can you see the neon lights?'
'I can', I said...
'Wow, and there's Wembley' he continued...
'We are travelling fast'.... 3 minutes later...
We land.....