Lack of precision is one of those things that still sometimes bugs me, and so shows me a belief…
A belief that precision is somehow superior to lack of precision, a corresponding identity as someone who is, or rather wants to be, precise, and being caught up in struggle with the shadow of the belief (the truth in its reversals) and of the identity (me as imprecise).
In the world of the bodywork I am doing, there is a great deal of opportunity to explore this…! Imprecision seems to abound, including from the senior instructors.
And of course, I see that it comes from them setting a ceiling at the soul level, not including the Ground. And I also see some of the gifts in it, including a deepening familiarity with the territory on this side of the boundary they set up that way.
One of the ways they talk which seems imprecise is how they use the word eternal, and even the word “permanent”.
When void is awake to itself, even to a certain extent, what is is revealed as arising within and as this timeless now. That whatever arises, arises within and as this timeless present is alive in immediate awareness. It is revealed as the play of the timeless now, always fresh, new and different.
The void is void, so also void of space and time. So when this awake void arises as form, those forms are also timeless and spaceless, although can certainly appear as time and space through an overlay of the story of time and space.
Eternity is something very different. It comes from a story, and it comes from within the perspective (and experience) of space and time. There is space and time, and something lasts throughout it all, so is eternal. Using the word eternal reflects a(n unquestioned) belief in the stories of space and time, and also reinforces that belief. It comes from and props up that particular filter. Which is fine of course, but gets a little weird if taken as the absolute and final.
The word permanent is even worse…! It too obviously comes from within the belief in the stories of space and time, of not seeing beyond that filter. But it also implies something substantial, something in the world of form, a content of awareness, which lasts. And by exploring what happens with content of awareness, even in a superficial way, it is pretty clear that inherent in content is change. Content is change. No matter whether it is at a physical level, thought level, or soul level (e.g. alive presence).
So having gotten this out at this level, it is time to inquire into my own beliefs around this! Something is triggered by what I see as imprecision, so there is clearly a clutching at a particular view there. My own reactions – of emotional reactivity (belly), a closed heart (heart) and rigid views (head) – are the signposts saying “blind belief”, nudging me to inquiry and a seeing what is already more true for me than this initial belief saying that people should be precise, that being precise is superior, and so on.
If I resist it, I end up fighting ghosts, and only fueling the patterns of rigidity of views, closed heart, reactive emotions, and even beating myself up for being caught up in it.
If I follow the invitation, and inquire into it with some degree of sincerity, it allows me to see what is already more true for me, which opens for the wide open field beyond beliefs… which is always and already there, only temporarily covered up by the drama and struggle created by beliefs.