The Rapture of Being Alive
I just returned from four days of silence at one of my favorite places in this world – the Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island. The second edition of my first book, Belonging to Life, has just come out and both of these experiences remind me of one of my all-time favorite quotes which I put on the first page of the first chapter of Belonging.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about.” –Joseph Campbell
I go to the Earth Sanctuary periodically to slow down and reconnect with life so that I can deepen my experience of the rapture of being alive. On one windy day I was sitting above one of the woodland ponds simply opening to life. The wind was dancing through the trees, creating a beautiful symphony of sound that was accompanied by the music of thousands of birds. It would then dance across the water in heart opening ripples. After a bit the rain began, and rather than closing down in resistance, I opened up to it like a child. What magic it is to feel the rain touching your skin! As the rain danced across the water in different variations of movements, I felt such gratitude that I was able to come out of my mental world and fully experience life in this moment.
When I first started going on retreat a number of years ago, I would quickly get bored (boredom is just awareness trapped in the mind), or start judging myself for how well I was doing, or I would try to ‘do’ being! After many years of learning how to unhook from all of the stories in my head, I could now deeply relax into life. In this place of stillness, a deep knowing arose that we are all addicted to being entertained by movies, music, television, iPods, iPads, etc., because we are homesick for a direct connection with life.
This is why Joseph Campbell said that we are not seeking meaning – that we are not, nor ever will be, nourished by thinking about life. Meaning has its place, but seeking it keeps us stuck in our heads, cut off from the nourishment of the resonance we experience when our body/mind/heart vibrates with the joy of life. Or as Campbell said, “our life experiences on the purely physical plane have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about. ”
So be willing to come back to life today. For a moment here and a moment there, stop and take a deep breath and say to yourself, “I’m here! Or use the song of birds to remind you that this moment is the only moment that matters in your life. (You’d be amazed at how many places – even deep in the heart of cities – you can hear the sounds of birds.) Maybe take a moment and see your place of work or your home as if you have never seen it before! Give yourself the gift of directly experiencing your life. Give yourself the gift of opening a doorway into the joy that is always here in each moment.
And know that the more you come back to life, the more you become a healing presence in the world, for this is what the world longs for.