From limitation to limitlessness

I’m getting toward the end of Arnaud Desjardins’ small book, Pour une mort sans peur (For a Death without Fear.) It’s only in French, and if I had more time, skill, and confidence I would set myself the goal of attempting to translate part of it myself; the French is not difficult, I'd learn a great deal, and it is a remarkable book. I wanted to share the following excerpts, especially for a friend, but also because what Desjardins says about human nature and the way we limit our spiritual progress toward wisdom, fearlessness, and ultimate consciousness – here and everywhere in the book - is simply so true.

Regardless of how “open” we think we are, he states, we have all received a restrictive education, by virtue of growing up in particular cultures, families, places, each with their set ways. Those limitations and boundaries, often unseen, imprison us in our cherished opinions, judgments, insecurities and fears. It is up to each one of us to investigate our particular set of limits, and begin the work of dismantling them. In case his audience (the book is drawn from lectures at his French ashram) doesn’t think this applies to them, he makes the point using opposites:

“You, you are entirely French, entirely Protestant, entirely Catholic, entirely atheist, entirely to the left, entirely to the right, entirely bourgeois, entirely in reaction against the bourgeoisie -- entirely prisoner.”

He exaggerates of course; most people do exist with some internal nuance. But he insists that something very concrete is possible for us in this area, if we are willing to look deeply. One of the major keys is a willingness to open to life -- to say "yes" to expansion and growth.

In the chapter, “From Limitation to Limitlessness,” he talks about what holds us back, and the goal: expansion. For this he uses the image used by his own guru -- apparently common to many Hindu teachers when talking about individual and universal consciousness -- of a drop of water falling into a pond, forming concentric circles on the surface which become larger and larger until they eventually disappear and merge with the water itself.

  Each little circle formed on the surface of the river which runs in front of the hut of Swamiji -- each little circle follows the law of growing, growing, growing. It is you who hold back your own development. These little circles return to the infinity of the water only when they are completely expanded. And you, you are called to that, to pass from the pettiness and narrowness of your consciousness to the immensity and vastness of the Consciousness…

Break out of your narrowness, become vast, and include in yourself the entire universe. Then the circle of the little drop of water will grow, grow, grow, and the ego itself transforms into Atman, into infinity. Many times, in front of me, Swamiji made the gesture of opening his fist which had at first been closed:  loosen, unfold, open, open, expand. And then it’s finished, completed. When will you be able to say: it’s over, it's realized, I’ve left the narrow strictures of my ego and found the immensity of the universal? Become universal.

Comments

[Robb]

Kia ora Beth,
Very cool thoughts, ones I find very inspirational and meaningful in my own journey. It is hard sometimes, at least for me, to realize how our ripples are ever expanding. Kia ora beth!
Ka kite ano,
Rangimarie,
Robb

[Pica]

(o)

[Pat]

Thank you.
This moved me deeply, deeply. Will have to try for words some other time.
But... Thank you.

[Fred Garber]

The next time I drive down that same street I will see what is over that same hill. I promise! Maybe....

[beth]

Thanks Robb, Pica, Pat, Fred. I'm glad this post said something to each of you.

Also got a nice email from Al (Wandering Toward My Shifting Self) which included an aptly-quoted poem, Love After Love, by Derek Walcott. To prevent copyright infringement, I won't copy it here, but readers can take a look at Walcott's take on the subject of "union" here:
http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=487