Ab ovo is a Latin term that means “from the egg”, “from the beginning”. Thus, we restart our lives every single minute, every single hour, every single day, and every single year. All the time we are given the opportunity to choose how to respond to life. We have freedom of choice.
Since time immemorial human beings have tried to control nature and reality to make our lives more predictable, and therefore, less scary in face of adversities. However, the impermanence and unpredictability of life circumstances are an intrinsic characteristic that challenge our notions of reality and our need for control.
Regardless of factual evidence that puts us in direct contact with the essence of reality, we struggle in vain to hold on to the notion that we can control, and even avoid the inevitable winds of change. Our fear of surrender to the unknown spawns a series of symptomatic behaviors in the form of neurosis. We become entangled in a web of mental instability that brings us much inner suffering and pain. This phenomenon starts in the mind as a thought begins to take shape and eventually becomes a feeling that takes hold of us distorting our perception and wreaking havoc in our lives. First a thought arises in our minds coloring our views of reality, then our behaviors set in by interpreting that reality according to feelings triggered by the seed thought.
It is the nature of the mind to create stories and try to explain events and situations by making up its own interpretation of reality. Thoughts are energy manifested in the brain, and as we listen to our thoughts we create a reality based on the thoughts by interpreting the reality we see. The emerging neuroses (anxiety, obsessions, mental confusion, phobias, negativity, aggressiveness, perfectionism etc) we experience are actually epiphenomena of our basic primordial fears that stem from our fragile condition as humans living under the universal laws of nature.
It’s time we learned to live in harmony with the world around us, trying not to separate ourselves from nature, but, on the other hand, perceiving the similarities that bind us together to every single component in existence. Our thinking minds create the illusion of separateness and duality throwing us into a dichotomy of good and bad, right or wrong, and so on. We find our niche in the middle of a mental confusion and we get ensconced in dysfunctional behaviors that give us a false sense of security and identity and we suffer. The suffering originates from our inability to lose our grip on the things we cannot control, simply working with what is without resistance, truly exercising and embracing acceptance and gratitude in every day of our lives.
Acceptance is not an act of passivity in face of problems but an act of courage and a willingness to work according to the flow of nature, in perfect harmony with events that we can’t control. The Universe is never against us. We are part of the same process of creation, with the ability to change and co-create. The sweet dream of illusion covers our mind with a subjective mist that interprets reality based on our own perceptions. Our relationship with other people, and with everything in life, is tarnished by the interpretations we are constantly making in our minds.
There’s really nothing to be gained through resistance. In the end, events will follow their natural course leaving us exhausted and in pain. It is a practice, and like any other new habit we try to adopt, it requires patience and constant observation. We become observers of our own minds and behaviors, and in the process, we get closer to the very essence of who we are. By observing our minds thinking, we can spot the erroneous perceptions and struggles to disguise our fear by trying to control that which we cannot control in an attempt to go against the impermanent nature of life. Instead, we need to find ways where we can become better surfers of life by riding the waves of change with grace and boldness.
Acceptance is the complete surrender, not a sanctimonious attempt to sound lofty or special. Acceptance is the act of trusting unconditionally with your entire being in all aspects of our lives. It is the supreme act of humility and surrender. When one accepts, one transcends the pain through trust and surrender. It’s a letting go of everything that fetters. The mind is always arguing in a play of opposites. The duality the mind experiences can set the individual into the realm of illusion, or Maya, the Sanskrit term in Hinduism; it’s the veil that covers the true nature of who we are in relation to everything else; it goes hand in hand with gratitude for our lives and our experiences; gratitude for the divine miracle of being alive and evolving.
On this note, I wish everyone all over the world a happy new year and a happy, fulfilling living – to all those who are happy, healthy and well, and to those who are suffering and in pain, angry, perhaps, indifferent. May everyone be blessed and find the source that brings it all together. Happy new year to everyone all over the world, all peoples everywhere; all living beings all living creatures in any form: animal, human, plant life, rock life – anywhere, everywhere. May the universe accept our prayers and our lives and bless us with the divine light of the spirit who created us, the Divine Source, Creation Itself, present intrinsically within each and every single person, in every single representation of life on this planet throughout all universes and beyond.
ANSHAM FOR ME 