Last night about quarter after midnight following four blissful hours of kirtan (devotional singing), we were gently guided through a "puja," dedicated to the "energies of Ganapati, Lakshmi and Lalita Tripurasundari to remove obstacles, promote beauty and expand grace in all those present," a sacred ceremony performed by Gita for the Masses (gitaforthemasses.com).
I haven't a clue. None. Some did, some didn't, but we just went with it. In sacred space, you don't question why they are spreading a beautifully intentional ring of baking flour around a tinfoil baking dish with a shiny golden icon inside and then filling that baking dish up with milk; you don't question why a beautiful woman in enlightenment clothing is rapping in Sanskrit and how inexplicably cool it is to feel the words spread within, syllable by sound. And following that, when you are invited to either/and drink the milk or rub it in your hair, you figure, "well, we're here, aren't we?"
Well, you might question it a little bit.
"Should we go?" I asked my friend as others lined up.
"I'll take all the blessings I can get," she said and up we went.
What stood out most about this brief ceremony was when Gita Gal, Myra Godfrey, thanked us all for spending our New Year's Eve "in consciousness." Well. I patted myself on the back for knowing what she meant... in this particular context, anyway. She meant (or what I think she meant) is that we chose to spend our evening singing out "here now all beings everywhere" love (for this is what I would guess most of us feel when we chant) instead of say, getting wasted at the bar and singing about lost love: Think Om verses Auld (Lang Syne)... Lyrics "Because the one I love lives inside of you..." over "These Boots are Made for Walkin." She was talking about what many people are talking about who are talking about this kind of thing as the "new consciousness" which I won't get into because many people like Eckhart Tolle are doing a mighty fine job doing so. I know it has a lot to do with dropping the "auld," which really burns because, oh, I do love that song. Perhaps if we chanted it over and over, mindfully, it too could integrate into sacred space. But what I mean is dropping the "old"—old personal and cultural mythologies mainly.
If ....Old=rote, checked out, perfunctory.
Than...New=present, intentional, less in your head
But really, what is consciousness anyway? Is it what Julian Jaynes says in "The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"? Is it what Freud says? Buddha? The geniuses who wrote "A General Theory of Love"? Orwell? Is texting rotting consciousness out? Is it Ma shouting at all the LA drivers who are "totally unconscious"? Is it daring to make eye contact? Is it calling instead of texting? Is it visiting a person in real time instead of via www.wtf.pdq.bff.lmao.itissafehereincyberbook.facelies.friendunfriend.com?
Are you new, old, somewhere in between? Where is your current state of consciousness? Higher? Lower? Self? Un? Sub? Like I said, I haven't a clue. And just when I think I do, it's old.
As always, write until you are done and to post privately, just for me, send it to rox@writingwithrox.com or on the blog for everyone to see at writingwithrox.blogspot.com
Nighty night!
Rox
Roxanne Sadovsky
612-703-4321
rox@writingwithrox.com
www.writingwithrox.com
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