On getting high
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Growing up in America, I learned quickly that everybody wants to get high.
I would know.
I smoked my first joint when I was 13 years old.
We chase being high.
High grades, high status, high numbers, high risers, high on the ladder of life and a high state of mind. This even translates to those on the spiritual path — experimenting with many different methods to reach high and higher dimensions.
This chase for the high doesn’t stop until one reaches the high point where they learn through their own unique journey that even they must come back down.
I rose out of my meditation practice to the sound of a woodpecker knocking on the skinny palm tree that towers over our house. It sparked this thought that even a bird gifted with wings for flying high has to come down to the ground for food.
If this bird is part of nature and if every part of nature; the trees, the bees, the flowers must go to the ground for nourishment— what makes us humans any different?
There is beauty in being close to the ground.
In descending from the highs.
In being grounded.
In being rooted.
In training our minds how to observe and learn from the lessons Life is teaching us rather than feeling like we need external input from other people, media, or plants to get there.
The beauty of Yoga Science is that it teaches us to include all and exclude none.
What I am saying is that we can learn and grow a lot by living in the “in-betweens of it all”- where we become steady, neutral and tranquil enough to heed the lessons along the way without burning ourselves to the ground.
These days, I find pleasure, peace and purpose dancing on the bridge of the middle. I can be close to the ground, washing the dishes, sweeping the floors grounded yet still feel high.
When we teach ourselves to absorb in the present moment (which is a constant moment to moment practice), we can do the most mundane every day tasks and feel joy with it.
In this sense, one can be enlightened not because they have fulfilled their dharma in the world but because when they fully engage in the present, they are living in perfect harmony with the Divine.
The Earth is a heaven where we build a nest for our home,
not somewhere far away above the sky.
That’s where space is,
and space is Eternal.
So are you. 🍵
Warmly,
