Treading Water

Siddhananda: (showing a rock) Another little [one], kind of like the one we had a little bit earlier. (pause) Okay, I’m getting… [let me] make sure that this is for this one, but… I see someone that is treading water (laughing). That is kind of what I am getting. They want to go more with the current, more with the flow. They are finding a lot of stopping places and getting absorbed in whatever is happening there. Let’s see what kind of practices they have done. (pause) As we are speaking, I’m seeing more flow happening for this energy, like a flow coming in. At first I saw more [of] the circles in the water or maybe it was just someone was there and that energy just sort of…

G: Right.

Siddhananda: …stuck in one spot.

G: They are just stuck in one spot…

Siddhananda: Right!

G: …in one thing, yeah.

Siddhananda: Right, yeah. I’m feeling even as we speak some more flushing through.

G: Yeah, I would say just be more open to the moment rather than being in a stale practice that you are doing over and over and over by rote.

Siddhananda: (nodding) Okay.

G: Yeah. I think that probably what they did with the treading water is that they are stuck in one practice that they have done over and over and over, but, it has just become a… (flapping her fingers together like talking). They haven’t gotten to the heart of it. It’s not moving them. They are just mouthing the words.

Siddhananda: Right, yeah.

G: (again, flapping her fingers together like talking) Just mouthing the words. So when you are mouthing the words, you are just going to tread water. You are not going to go anywhere. You are just going to be sitting there paddling, (moving her arms like treading water) doing the same thing and be stuck. So for this one I would say, just the immediate thing, just be in the moment. Be open to life. Be open to the moment. Yeah, and then go forward.

Siddhananda: Let that carry you a little more…

G: Yeah.

Siddhananda: ..versus.. just like you say, just sort of having… people get into these patterns.

G: Right, right, right.

Siddhananda: That’s what I am seeing, the patterns in the water. I mean, it’s just kind of there and needs to be…

G: Right, you get into these practices but it’s just all intellect. It’s intellectual and you haven’t opened to feel. You haven’t opened to really be in the moment with what’s there.

Siddhananda: Right, connecting with even what’s around you,

G: Exactly, right.

Siddhananda: …nature or whatever is there in the moment.

G: Yeah.

Siddhananda: Kind of, “here I am” with this (holding arms tight close to her)… rather than opening… (pressing arms outward)

G: Right, right. The first step is to be able to connect with nature and connect with life that’s going on around them instead of isolating…

Siddhananda: Makes sense!

G: …in this one practice, which has just become just a verbal… (flapping her fingers together, like talking)

Siddhananda: Yeah.

G: …yada yada. That’s going nowhere. (laughing)

Siddhananda: Okay, yeah. Get’s tiring, too!

G: Yeah.

Siddhananda: Okay, so there is some more flushing through. So, that’s probably pretty good right now for this being.

G: Yeah.

Siddhananda: Okay.

G: I think that’s where they need to head next. (laughter)

Siddhananda: Yeah, so, thank you!

G: Thank you! Yeah, I was just getting more of that Buddhist type of a thing that they are doing, that kind of sending out that goodness and stuff.

Siddhananda: Right.

G: But, it has all just become verbal…

Siddhananda: Yeah, something is happening in that way.

G: …verbal ba ba ba… (flapping fingers like talking)

Siddhananda: which can happen over time… With some practices, for sure… And also if it’s really not very heart centered…

G: Right.

Siddhananda: …or open. Not to say… I don’t think people know that there is that difference. I know that in this path you have always talked about opening up to life and breathing in the moment and not closing it, you know what I mean. just so there is a balance between effortlessness and making some efforts, versus…

G: Right. There’s a big difference between intellectualization of practices and [being] very heart centered. So, I feel that this one was more into the (holding her hands up by her head) intellectualized ideas of it, but not really fully feeling…

Siddhananda: Makes sense.

G: …opening to everything. Yeah.

Siddhananda: And that’s definitely a big part of the practices, opening up and…

G: Yeah.

Siddhananda: …listening and being present, not just in your own, whatever stuff is with you.

G: Right.

Siddhananda: Okay, so next!