We are all individual expressions of the one consciousness. Our companionship is built in, deeper than blood, more real than the frill of genealogy. In the West, we hear, “Love one another.” This strikes me as a bit mushy. In the East, where they prefer to state great truths in the negative, it is ahimsa, meaning ‘do not hurt’. It’s not about helping people. It’s about ceasing to hurt them.
Right action issues from a place of total acceptance. Wrong action has its roots in resistance. Hence, Nisargadatta’s twisty caution: “Leave alone the reforms. Mind the reformer.”
The idea isn’t to change yourself but to accept yourself. Acceptance changes everything.
If it is unexpected and unpredicted, it is real; it is true. When we are taken by surprise, when we are seized and ravished by the experience of being stood upside down, the mind stops. In that moment, what “sleeps in our paper flesh like dynamite” explodes, and we are conscious of not knowing anything.
When you stand, do not favour one foot over the other. Note the scalene triangle connecting big and little toes to the centre of the heel. Allow your weight to fill this geometric. Do not stand with your knees locked.
Feet control legs, hands control arms. By attending to the extremities, we move gracefully, economically. Let the eyes lead the head, not the other way around. This prevents us from walking like tourists.
Men's Work 