Seeing in the Shadows

John de Ruiter

It's been another busy week and the podcast will take a little while longer to upload, so I thought I would share some of John's wisdom from our recent dialogue with you, in the form of a quote.  The following excerpt is part of John's answer to a question concerning preparing for a relationship:

"It’s of use to prepare to be in a relationship even if you would never be in a relationship. Preparing for a relationship gives a larger context for how you are in yourself than how you might normally be in yourself outside of any thought of relationship. In preparing for a relationship you would be dealing with yourself. Dealing with how you think, how you feel, what you feel, what you think – not just from the perspective that you have within yourself but from within a perspective that is able to include someone else. So how you are in yourself; how you are in the privacy of your own heart is going to be much more magnified if you’re with someone else. Preparing for a relationship is the same as putting a magnifier to your heart and to your self and living consciously with a magnifier."

  

 I loved hearing John speak in this way of living consciously with a magnifier.  It is all too easy to fool oneself into believing one is doing well, particularly if there are some profound experiences and insights occurring.  But in the privacy of one's own mind, all sorts of murky thoughts can easily be lurking, ready to have their say when no one is looking.  But our being, I feel, is always looking... and thus, we always know, even if we are so used to turning a blind eye to all that and covering it up.  So I have been consciously living with much more of a magnifier and I can see that it is taking real responsibility for one's self to notice such murky thoughts.  I like seeing them, then they're out of the shadows.  And I feel the goodness of this, whether it's in preparation for relationship or not.  I can see the truth that in a close relationship sooner or later such murky lurkings would unfortunately leap out - far nicer to be dealing with them privately!
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As well, I am still honing the large cutting edge which is that of staying sharp.  Without staying sharp, it's easier to slip into believing crappy thoughts and then a mood can overtake me and it's not so easy then to get back in the saddle, so to speak.  When I'm sharp, I'm on my horse (for clarification of this metaphor go to the older Post Picking up Speed) - and then it's easier to stay planted in what I Know.

John will be holding meetings in the UK over the next three days, starting tomorrow evening in Glastonbury, click here for more details. If you're going to any of those meetings, enjoy! and don't miss out on the opportunity to meet John in person if you can.

Until next time,
Love,
Shanti