The Inner Treasure of Well of Being

I have to admit that the first quarter of 2016 has been a pretty rocky time for me. There have been health challenges, relationship issues, and plenty of unexpected problematic events. I’ve had to step back, or “turn away from the conditions” as Ernest Holmes says to examine if something in my consciousness was calling forth these occurrences.
I tend to refer to challenges, problems, trials, etc as “the chaos.” And in my practice of T’ai Chi there is an energy movement known as “Dancing in the Chaos” or “Shaking Off Disease.” Actually what are the challenges of life if not the things that make us feel uneasy–the Dis-Ease life presents?

I also know that Chaos and Dis-Ease serve various purposes in our lives:
1) If we accept and “dance WITH them” they can be teachers showing us ways to manage and move through discomfort and hardship.
2) Chaos allows us to express greater gratitude for the times when our road is easy and chaos-free.
3) And most significantly to me, they call me to drop down into that inner well of reserves, of stillness and of strength that help me to calmly ride out the chaotic storm. In SOM we often refer to residing in the “eye of the storm,” that place where there is comfort, peace and protection while all else swirls around us.
Lao Tzu, author of the Tao de Ching, has written:
“The inner is foundation of the outer
The still is master of the restless
The Sage travels all day
yet never leaves his inner treasure.”

For me, lamenting, complaining and struggling against trials only cause me greater suffering. So instead, I attempt to “reframe” the challenges as invitations to drop deep into my inner well of stillness. That inexhaustible place where comfort, strength, clarity, guidance, protection, peace and joy arise for me to utilize, embody and express in calming the restlessness of both my inner and outer experiences.
An advanced form of T’ai Chi Chih I practice derives it’s name from the Japanese word “Seijaku,” meaning “Serenity in the midst of Activity.” There is always “activity” and often “chaos” in our daily lives. How can we best live in the “Serenity” amidst the chaotic activity?
Perhaps you have already found your Seijaku which can be accessed through spiritual practices such as meditation, affirmations, chanting, stillness, music, or sacred rituals of various sorts. When we Practice our spirituality, we more easily discover, embody and express those treasures within.

In Chinese lore, this is the year of the Fire Monkey. It represents a year of adventures, change, possibilities being realized, and turbulence. Just as fire can transform, it can also burn. So know that when the fire gets too hot, you can always quench it in the waters of your inner well.

I also would like to share the thoughts of Patty de Llosa about “Sitting By the Well” from findingtimeforyourself.com
“When all is in confusion, when I don’t know what to do next or where to find inner quiet, I go and sit down by the well. Usually I’m at a point where nothing else works before I give up and just sit and listen to myself and the world, saying goodbye to all the permutations and combinations of efforts that seem to have brought me relief in similar past situations. There’s nothing more to do. Just sit. And wait.

The well is deep. I know that. Perhaps it’s bottomless. I don’t know if that’s true although it certainly feels that way. What I do know is that there is a life in me over which I have no control. And when I’m in anguish or at wit’s end some inner guide tells me nothing will change until I sit down by the well and give up all my usual solutions, all my doings.

It is essential to acknowledge ignorance and open to the unknown. Will help come? It usually does but you can’t count on it, because when you do that you are already creating a side-path, already haggling with the Almighty, so to speak, and trying to get things to go your way.
So you just sit there, listening. You sit there with all you’ve got, noticing your thoughts upstairs as they pass by like clouds, and your bursts of reaction like sparks of energy in the solar plexus: agreement, disagreement; I like, I don’t like. Maybe if you keep a focus on your body, sitting there in real time, legs crossed in yoga pose, or tucked under a Japanese kneeling stool or perched on a chair as your torso rises like a tree trunk and your head floats on top, a prayer will appear all by itself.

I just learned that a dear, dear friend has Alzheimer’s, so I sat by the well today with my heart/mind shouting, “it cannot be so!” Anguish rose and swirled around my chest, impeding my breathing. Tears fell, but I scarcely paid attention to them. Finally the pain settled down into a dull ache, and gradually a larger energy than mine surged up from below, from the bottom of the bottomless well.

This well of being isn’t mine even though it is in me. It is deep and wide and perhaps endless. Although it can connect me with a source of energy I seldom contact, life tends to pull me along as if I didn’t need or want to live with depth. Even after I sit, firmly seeking a deeper sense of myself, as soon as my attention wanders away to follow a thought, I’m back up at the surface of myself and of my life.
We live on the surface and seldom slow down to notice our own earth or have a sense of the depth of that well of the Living Water of Being. Why not take Rene Daumal’s admonition more seriously when he says, in MOUNT ANALOGUE, “Beware of the surface of things.”? Or Marion Woodman’s clarification in CONSCIOUS FEMININITY: “If we have no bridge to the unconscious depths that drive us, our rational attempts to correct our situation are merely Band-Aids. They work only so long as we remain cut off from the living fire inside. When that fire blazes forth, our Band-Aids go up in smoke.”

How, O how, to rouse the fire and send those Band-Aids up in smoke? The only way I know of is to sit by the Well of Being, and wait.