The Opening is now hosting a monthly meditation drop-in space, live online✨
This is a no-pressure place to gather and practice simple sitting meditation for greater everyday presence. Naturally, our energy shifts from the mind to our entire being, opening up new layers of reality. The next one is this Sunday (tomorrow!), free RSVP here.
Row row row your boat.
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.
Life is but a dream.- American folksong, attributed to Eliphalet Oram Lyte (1852)
Across many traditions, mystics and religious teachers speak of a common illusion of everyday life. We experience ourselves as separate from the world, when really there is one infinite, inseparable, all-encompassing whole.
Your experience, your life path, your individual soul are all deeply part of the broader human experience of oneness.
The mind is noble, but limited. It filters reality, narrowing what we can perceive of the greater whole. Every religion and spiritual path is ultimately about our return - different doorways to open the heart and allow us to rest in our divine, infinite nature.
Life actually shares more ‘dream-like’ qualities than the linear, clear-cut story our mind tries to comprehend.
The spiritual teacher Ram Dass often sang the childhood song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as a simple portal to this teaching. Off we go into life, carried by the long river of existence. Hopefully with joy - merrily, merrily.
“Actually, we all know that reality is relative; we have known it since childhood.”
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When I think about the most important moments in my life, the people and experiences that mean most to me, they come in like snapshots of a dream. A big wave crashing in of life, moments of deep care, acceptance, beauty, and grace. A little hazy, zoom-ins that transcend time. Here I am, tender as a child again.
Much of the last 15 years of my life were filled with immense adventure. I got to see the world, and be in rooms of great power and influence. I’ve always had an awareness of time passing, but it was more in the background.
Now, time has entered the main stage. Ten years went by in a flash. Each year feels precious. My friends and I talk about our parents getting older, about babies being born. Soaking up these good times, when we are all still here, together.
Life has humbled us a bit, and now simple things seem to matter the most.
Merrily, merrily - how lucky we are, to enjoy this beautiful dream.
An optional simple practice: spend an hour today experiencing your life through “new eyes.” As if this were a world you’re encountering for the very first time.
Nothing to change or do, just go about your normal life. Look around at your home, your loved ones, your body, your hobbies as though you’re encountering them for the very first time, the miracle of it all.
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