Oracle of Consciousness

What does that mean?

Well, let's illustrate it with a story.

Imagine if you will, that you're going to go whitewater rafting down a popular river, something that has been on your 'bucket list' for quite some time.

Your excitement builds up for this day, and as it arrives, you amble down the valley with the rest of the adventurers and the rafting guides, negotiating all the challenging steps down into the gorge.

Waiting at the bottom is your raft.

During the mandatory safety briefing, one of the guides says:

"Upstream of this river, is a beautiful waterfall and downstream there'll be some rapids, they're not too dangerous and you will see some beautiful views".

Everybody excitedly piles into the raft.

And just at the last minute you decide and say,

"Listen, you guys go ahead, I'm going to do something else",

Off they go, slapping the churning water with their paddles, uncontrollably laughing and having much fun.

I enter the water, with my helmet and life jacket firmly secured, and my little wading booties to counter those sharp rocks.

Instead of heading downstream, I decide to swim upstream, against the current, in opposition to the force of the water coming down the river.

I begin swimming overarm, and a little constricted with the life jacket buckled up so tightly, but none-the-less I am swimming upstream.

It's pretty hard going.

I didn't imagine it was going to be this difficult and notice that despite all my effort, I have hardly made any progress.

But (stubbornly, yes I am a Taurus!) I am determined to reach the waterfall.

I apply maximum energy, exert a lot more effort and after about 20 minutes, I decide to give up, sit on the side of the bank, totally exhausted, frustrated and annoyed that I've hardly made any progress upstream to reach my goal.

I am totally dejected!!

water stream surrounded with green trees

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

As I sit watching the river flowing by, I decide

"Okay, now I'm going to join my friends".

I wade into the river, lay on my back and allow the water to carry me downstream. My jacket keeps me afloat and the helmet protects my head. The rubber booties are doing their job admirably.

Suddenly I feel a wave of relief and liberation and think out aloud,

"Wow, this is really cool".

There's energy here, an intention, but there's no extreme effort going into it. It is effortless surrender.

As I journey on, the river starts picking up some speed and all of a sudden as I exit a bend, there are rapids dead ahead.

The turbulent water is churning furiously as it passes through the narrow passage of polished rocks.

I bump my bottom on a couple of big stones and steer past a tree that has fallen, having to duck my head to get underneath it.

This is scary but at the same time, exilerating!

I am feeling the adrenalin rush and aliveness in every cell in my body

I pass over and through the rapids, bumping my way down the river grinning from ear to ear.

body of water between trees under cloudy sky

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

Then the water calms down to a barely perceptible movement.

I pass under a lush green canopy of trees the dappled light poking its head through the leaves and dances on the almost still water.

Overhead a troop of grey monkeys, the alpha male eyeing me off suspiciously, while the little ones play tag and nimbly swing from branch to branch, with reckless abandon and unfettered confidence.

On the left bank, there's a beautiful white heron, wading through the water looking for its morning feast.

On the other side, a pre-historic monitor lizard ambles slowly by, flicking its tongue out to gather scent molecules, which will lead it to his prey, find a mate and avoid danger.

Clearly I didn't represent any of these and barely took any of his attention.

I am laying back in the stillness, this womb-like quietness, being gently and lovingly carried down the river.

Above, looking through the be-speckled light, I see the azure blue skies, shining through onto the leaves, all glistening and green from the overnight drizzle.

This is a beautiful, peaceful moment.

As I drift around the next bend there is another set of rapids and so this journey goes on:

Moments of stillness

Moments of peace

Moments of clarity

Moments of bumpy ride

Bruisingly rocky

Frightening

Even scary sometimes

But a majestic journey to be sure!

Photo by Iain Kennedy on Unsplash

Isn't this the story
of your life?

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Life will gives us our ups and downs, obstacles and freedoms and we can express our choices, one of which is to release all the effort, strain and stress of pushing against the will of our heart and intention, forcing ourselves into doing anything, we can let go and go with the flow.

Radically surrender!

There will still be challenges, but our life can be a lot easier.

It's not going to be perfectly easy of course, there's going to be the bumpy, rocky bits, but when you make your life in-the-flow, as athletes call it being in the ‘Zone’, it is going to be a lot more palatable!