I spent last week solo backpacking in the Western Sierra. These trails are surrounded by stone, pine and water. There is something especially imposing about the rocks. They are massive granite formations that have a timeless quality about them, even as the obvious wearing that creates fantastic shapes shows the impact of time, as long as you have enough of it.
It’s not uncommon for me to receive significant “downloads” during these trips, but not this time. It was interesting – every time I turned my attention from my camping routines and the basics of walking, and wondered what might be important to meditate upon, what would come back was “nothing.” An absence of anything important to consider, but also a sense that I truly needed to surrender to there being no thing whatsoever I needed to attend to. Nothing.
I cannot tell you the blessed relief this brought, and the gratitude I felt at the universe, literally, asking nothing of me. As the old Buddhist saying goes, “Before Enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water.” Or as Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas puts it “Split wood, I am there. Lift up a rock, you will find me there.” Such sweet simplicity.
On my final hike back to my trailhead, I also remembered one of the most important tenets of constellations work – ‘The Empty Center.’ It is much like the idea of being a vessel for the Divine, found in many spiritual traditions. With an ’empty center,’ a constellator has a much better chance of receiving the precise information they need to be of assistance to their clients. The gift of nothingness on my five day hike seemed to have – gulp! – a purpose in the continuing growth in mastery I seek in constellations work.
Whatever your healing work, I invite you into the next stage of your growth. How might your surroundings be teaching you about what that might be? I invite you to share here, on my blog, about your recent discoveries…
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