In life there are two distinct paths, the left and the right. The right is the path of restraint, self control, discipline and purity. This is often thought to be the only path toward clarity of heart an mind. But the left path is another, very interesting and curious approach. This is the path of exploration, of pure experience for the sake of our existence. Living without laws or rules, wide eyed for the pursuit of the heart and love of the moment. This is seeing God in a brownie, a cigarette, a yoga practice, in making love or making toast. Everything goes, everything is Holy. This is the path of Tantra.
This path does not care at all for what you do, but only for the context in which you do it. My teacher Amit was speaking to our class in Dharamsala about how we are only here to realize our own true selves, how we are not capable of making mistakes because we are all a part of God and all of God’s actions are simply a beautiful unfolding. ‘Everything you do is a blooming flower, a rising sun’ he would say. I started to wonder, is this permission to indulge in all of our vices, and take all of our actions as work and worship? It was an exciting thought, but something didn’t add up.
One girl spoke up, ‘but my father ate as much brownies as he wanted and he died because of it. How can you say that is a path to clarity?’ Amit responded, ‘if you eat the food with grace, with God in your eyes and heart, then the food itself will be healthy and nourishing because of the pure joy you find in it. This joy will fill you up and you will naturally in time through this perspective begin to take only what you need.’
This approach doesn’t encourage you to go overboard and drive yourself over the edge, but it will love you just the same if you do. What it really offers is an allowance for when you do move through the ebbs and flows, highs and lows of life. Rather than creating a resistance to habits we wish to break it welcomes them and explores exactly what they have to offer. It is not a path of ignorance, but of absolute awareness.
Through allowance, self love and understanding this path is meant to connect you to with the seed of your heart, your destiny, which will open you up to your true needs and desires. The most interesting thing is that for most of us the more we connect with this seed, this true self, we naturally want less and less of those things we were resisting. Through cutting out resistance and self loathing we find that we actually only craved these things because we were trying not to.
So, in your pursuit of health begin to explore these ideas of allowing yourself to pursue what calls to your heart. Drop the negativity associated with things you resist and enjoy them with love, awareness, and understanding. View yourself as an incredible being floating through a divine experience with nothing expected of you but for you to simply unfold exactly as you are. Practice gratitude for the opportunity to explore; not only mountain tops and foreign lands but any and all experience offered in this sacred and miraculous life we live. From there, watch how love nourishes your soul and leads you naturally toward what this is all about; simply finding more and more happiness in your life.
Written by Jordan Ross Dore of Breathe in Life
