“As I was walking with a friend through a beautiful nature reserve near Malibu in California, we came upon the ruins of what had been once a country house, destroyed by a fire several decades ago. As we approached the property, long overgrown with trees and all kinds of magnificent plants, there was a sign by the side of the trail put there by the park authorities. It read: danger. all structures are unstable. I said to my friend, “That’s a profound sutra [sacred scripture].” And we stood there in awe. Once you realize and accept that all structures (forms) are unstable, even the seemingly solid material ones, peace arises within you. This is because the recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to the dimension of the formless within yourself, that which is beyond death. Jesus called it “eternal life.”
ā€• Eckhart Tolle
All Structures Are Unstable
Allow me to break down the walls of formality for a second and address you as a dear friend.
Sweetheart, listen. It will all be OK. I don't mean nobody else will die. I don't mean you won't be ill. I don't mean you or your partner won't lose their job. I don't mean your wedding won't be cancelled, or your marriage won't fall apart, or you won't discover the shadows of those you love and find it too hard to continue to love them. Any of those things may happen.
What I mean is that your personal, physical beingness is not all there is. And, ultimately, it will all be OK. How do I know? Well... I died, and it was OK.
When I was a kid, I was in a coma from a car crash and I left my body. I floated around the hospital. I felt no pain. I was just interested in everything. It wasn't until the part of myself that was somehow still in my body started shrieking at me that I went back, but every second I was away from my body it mattered to me less. Mattered. Ever consider that word? We all want to 'matter'. I'm not so bothered about mattering. I want to spirit. Matter: the stuff of the material world, is a myth anyhow. As Einstein said:
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
What I remember of leaving my body is that it was very important that I find it again. Because I was not done here. I'm not advocating shuffling off this mortal coil in any way. I'm just sharing with you my experience. You are not only the 'you' that is your body or your mind. You are something more. And that more is not material. It matters, but it is not matter. And it feels no pain.
The Deaths of Coronavirus
Coronavirus will cause much death. But not all of it will be physical. Much of it will be the death of ego-constructions.
Cast your mind back to the first quote. Particularly: "danger. all structures are unstable".
It's true. We construct a view of who we are, and it's almost entirely false. As Einstein says, our reality is a persistent illusion. You think you are Elizabeth, wife of Andrew. You have two kids, a house in a 'good area', two cars, and you run a shop selling handbound books. Andrew runs a gym. At the weekends, he works on classic cars, and is on the board of the local club for classic car owners. Then Coronavirus hits. The kids are sent home. Andrew has to close his gym. You have to close your shop. The cars have to go. Andrew must resign his position on the board, since he must be a classic car owner to qualify. Neither of you can afford the mortgage, so it's only a matter of time before you lose the house. One of the kids comes down with Coronavirus, but shows no symptoms, so soon you all have it. Andrew takes his frustration out on the kids while you're all ill and you suddenly realise you don't know what you see in him. When he recovers, he's the one to say it, and now you're a single mother in a one-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the sofa so the kids can share the bedroom, while you try to make the money to afford the lawyer's bills to fight for custody. See how the structures of your life are unstable?
But beyond the unstable structures is who you really are. In the midst of this crisis is the chance for you to discover and uncover your inner self. In this example, Elizabeth discovers through the struggle that she's with the wrong partner, that she loves her kids so much more than the house or the lifestyle that she would gladly sleep on a sofa rather than lose them, that the right partner for her must first be the best role model for her children. As she rebuilds, she discovers a love of brand design that is greater than her love of hand-made books had been. She realises she can run her business entirely online, which keeps overheads low. She builds up a customer base and moves into a two-bedroom house with a small garden. Her kids grow closer because they were forced to share a room. Before the divorce settlement comes in, she's financially independent. Not rich, necessarily, but making her way. Any money from the divorce will be a bonus, but her attention is not on that but on building a new life taking care of the kids for which it now looks as if she will have custody, while building a new dream for herself. She now knows who that self is. And it's hers.
What Are The Lessons & Blessings For You?
Within this battlefield are your blessings. Within this armageddon moment are your lessons. What are they? What has to die from the past so that you can be reborn? See the logo for this site? It's called Clockerfly. It is a symbol of the death of the past structure of who you have been, and the birth of who you are. For a butterfly to exist, first a caterpillar must die. And it must, as was the case for me, be alive through that death. A part of it will remember its caterpillar life, and the complete destruction of its caterpillar self (scientists recently discovered this) and it will carry these horrific memories into a new and beautiful version of itself that is entirely different to what came before. That self can fly higher, see further, and rise above the pain of the past. That is what we must do.
This moment in our self-isolation is not actually being quarantined in our homes; it is being quarantined inside our chrysalis. We didn't ask for this consciously, but we were involved, and now we are trapped and dissolving everything we once were. We don't understand it. It's painful and frightening. We cannot see how long it will last or who we will become, but it is our reality. And instead of being the reality of illusion, it is REALity. It is our now moment. It is, for whatever reason, our collective destiny. And we will emerge as butterflies. Some will emerge as butterflies that fly higher in the physical plane. Some will graduate Earth University and fly higher than we can understand right now. But all of us will metamorphose. All of us will fly. We just have to choose how high.
It's OK to feel the pain of this. It's OK to feel the profundity of this. It's OK to know that one way or the other things will never be the same again. And it's OK to dream about the day when you will spread your wings and fly into a totally new REALity. It's OK. Sweetheart, it's OK. ā¯¤ļø¸
If this has helped in any way, please share it so it can help others, and I'd love to read your comments below. Thank you.
Rebecca
P.S. I made a course on how to be a Happy Hermit while you go through this transformation. Take a look at it (opens in new window).
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