We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. ~ Teilhard de Chardin 1881 – 1955
While having an amazing time in NYC mid August with my beautiful friends, it dawned on me that life is all about having experiences. Let me explain.
Weeks before this amazing weekend I had a number of challenges come into my life. All of varying degrees on the stressometer. What did I do. Why me. Why now. Where all the too common thoughts running through my mind. Maybe there is something to learn from it all. And there were, a number of learnings. Very interesting ones. But that can be left for another blog post discussion.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift that’s why they call it the present.
So then came this amazing weekend with friends in NYC celebrating my wife’s birthday. So much amazing that it allowed me to put everything that has been happening to me in the last 2 months into perspective.
Our friends Elbra & Chris whom we spent time in NYC summed up the weekend well “Five rockin parties in 4 nights, bonding after parties, NYC’s best rooftop penthouses, bottle service, best NYC restaurants, dinner at Daniel…the.entourage, the paparazzi, the sexy censored photo shoot at the most exclusive venue in all of NYC right now…the jacuzzi room…our secret…the shopping sprees, also jam sessions with wall street traders, sushi cheers and drunken convos about past lives and trying to figure out if it was all a dream because we actually never went to sleep…….INCEPTION……..is ur top still spinning cuz mine is!”
“You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
We did this by embracing each day as though it was our last. Living to the fullest in the present moment. Nothing else mattered around us, just that moment together experiencing everything life has to offer. We saw the beauty and life in every moment, we partied together like it was our last day on this beautiful earth, we embraced each others presence and connected on an emotional level. We opened up our hearts and found our true self.
“Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves” ~ Teilhard de Chardin
So what does all of this narrow down to? – An experience. Both events were experiences but the NYC one allowed me to see everything in clear perspective. It was like night and day. Getting this level of perspective is like waking up and saying… wow, I now understand. I gained a level of understanding why the bad and the good experiences happen in life. It’s there for us to experience, to give us perspective and to make us realise how beautiful life is once we push through a bad experience. The experience was the take away. I learnt to never lose myself in a bad experience again. I realized that life is full of amazing experiences like the ones in NYC. What we take away from each day is an amazing experience.
Never stop asking for more experience
You may be asking, but Ernest some of these experiences you mentioned require money. The answer is yes and no. Our world revolves around exchange of paper carrying a promise of value, money. Yes we need money to eat, have shelter and transport. It’s a given. However money is available to everyone & can always be made when the need is there. Some people just don’t know how to ask. Jesus once said “ask and you shall receive”. So if you ask for an experience you shall receive it. If your experience requires money to get you there a way will always be found for you to have this experience, even if it involves money. Money isn’t the key here, rather the experience.
Few years back in Sydney (Australia) while doing my undergraduate Computer Science degree I always dreamed of working in Silicon Valley (California). I wanted to work amongst the elite in my industry. I wanted to experience. Experience working in a leading edge company. Experience the culture, lifestyle, people and everything else it has to offer. Today, I live in Mountain View, the heart of Silicon Valley, working at a leading edge company with the elite in my industry. Wow! I wanted an experience and the universe found a way for me to get there. There was no talk of how much money I needed just that I wanted to experience more. The bits in between, the money and how to get there all got sorted out as the dream became a reality.
Never stop asking for more experiences. There is no such thing as greed when it comes to experiencing more and being more. Greed is just a word, nothing more. Every experience makes you grow bolder, stronger, smarter and in turn enriches your spirit. The true you. Just never get lost in a bad experience.
Be open to change
If you haven’t already read my short blog post about a short story on how obstacles are conditions to success then please take this time to do it. You will see that change is at the heart of every experience. Being open to experience is all about being open to change. Know that change is what must occur in order for new experience to come into your life.
Aha moment
Change is that thing that rocks your status quo and makes you feel uncomfortable and can be perceived as a bad event. Wow, a label! Do you understand this now? Bad sometimes is a perception of change coming into your life. For me in the 2 stories above it gave me perspective to see the world from 2 different sides and experience something wonderful. We must embrace every experience else we can get lost in the one which lays the foundation of change heading your way for deeper spiritual growth. Remember, that the only boundaries are in form.
Your human experience
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Many believe that we need to be on a path, a spiritual journey, in order to find our self. I do not believe there is a path one has to be on / follow, I believe there is just being. Experiencing your human experience. We are not a human being having a spiritual experience, we are more, a spiritual being having a human experience.
The moment we stop or resist an experience.. we are stopping ourself from being more and our true self the spiritual being from having a human experience. This is why it is so important to embrace experience whether good or bad. The words good or bad are nothing more than words with a human meaning attached to them. Look underneath and between the words and you will see the true meaning of an experience. It has the power for spiritual growth in ways you never expected!
So what does it all mean?
It means many different things to many different people. To me it means that to have an experience is part of having a human experience. Spiritually fulfilling. It has the power to fill your cup with peace & love and make you see the world differently. Trying to think about how an experience can change you is not enough. Consciously we are bad at predicting how we will feel. I will talk about this in another post. But for now remember that there is no substitute to “just being” and letting yourself be bathed in the human experience.
Ernest
Popularity: 2% [?]
{ 2 comments }
