Category: Spirituality

Energy, good, bad, diverted

For more than ten years I practised Aikido, a Japanese martial art.  I was never very competent at it, but it did teach me one thing, and that’s about observing another’s energy.

The Japanese word Ai-ki-do translates broadly as the way of harmonious spirit, with the Ai also meaning Love.  I adored the concept, someone goes to attack you, and you simply turn their own energy back on them, no anger, no hurt, just taking the outstretched fist a little further than the attacker is comfortable with, they fall over, you run!

No hate, no anger, just love and compassion.

And the application of the lesson?  When you meet with another, in meetings, in relationships, in any way whatever there is always an energy that the another radiates.  Sometimes it is wonderful and warm. Coming home from work, and your children rush to greet you.  Going into the corner shop, and the shopkeeper gives you a broad smile of welcome.  Meeting an old friend unexpectedly.

And then there is the negative energy that some another can radiate.  The glare from another car driver caught in the Monday morning queue into work, the impatience radiated by the shop assistant as you fumble for your change, or the anger from someone in a passionate argument.

And what have I learnt?

That you can learn to see, to recognise, that energy, good or bad.

And when you can do that, then you have a choice. To choose to accept that energy, and radiate it back, good or bad.

Or, especially if the energy is bad, to sidestep it, to remain calm, to choose to allow it to pass you by, to not get caught by it.

Instead to reflect Love, Ai, to know that actually there is no opponent, only the dance.

 

 

It is, as it is meant to be.

And it is thus.

It was a Retreat.  The mix of lack of sleep, inner contemplation, the challenge of solving/understanding a Koan.  A process anointed by the passage of centuries, a path followed by – perhaps millions? – over the centuries.

And somewhere on my own personal journey on that Retreat I understood something deep, profound, that moved me to tears of joy. An insight, no, deeper than that, an understanding that this IS the way the Universe works.

It is, as it’s meant to be, for better, for worse in our short term view, but as it is meant to be.

I am an Astrologer not an Astronomer

I look to the heavens for meaning, not for science, although I find meaning in the science.

I feel the weight of all of humankind who have also gazed up on a starry night and wondered about the meaning of life, the Universe, and their own destiny.

Were their questions mine?  I suspect so, and what answers did they find?  What knowledge did the Wise Seers amass? The Druids, for example, spent 30 years learning their craft and were renowned in antiquity for their knowledge of the heavens, and before them, came the builders of the Stone Circles which predicted the movement of the Cosmos.