There is a quote by the mystic poet Rumi that goes, “Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field: I’ll meet you there.”
I am interested in that field. I am interested in the freedom of that open space. I want to breathe that oxygen. In it there is no fear or shame or guilt or the word “should.” It simply opens its spaciousness to us. Calls forth the possibility of what we can create there.
What do you create? I don’t mean the nouns of your life. I create books, for instance. Those are my “nouns.” But behind that, I create the intention to live at the intersection of heart and mind and craft that is writing. It’s the intention behind our thoughts and behavior and achievements which guides us.
What is your intention? Is your intention to be happy? As much as we are quick to say, “Of course I want to be happy,” I find that we tend to cling to our pain. That we dwell in the victim stance. And that we are daunted by Rumi’s field of freedom. Suffering becomes, in so many cases, our normal.
I propose a different paradigm. And it has to do with the present moment. How do we go out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing and should, and open our arms and hearts and souls to that wide open place of freedom? What gets in our way?
Usually, it's one thing. Us. We get in our own way. We block the flow of freedom which is so available to us. We say no instead of yes. Why? Because we're scared. We have blind-spots. We can't believe in our own power. We'd rather stay small and afraid because...because...why?
Broken down like this, it's hard to see the answer, isn't it. I think it has to do with the pay off for saying no. "See the world has done us wrong. See what happens when I try? I just get shot down. See-see-see." We choose our world of hurt and call it home so that we can play victim. So that we can be "right."
Outside of right doing and wrong doing, what's there? The present moment. What is it to live in the present moment? We hear about it all the time, whether in church, or yoga practice, or athletics, or a meditative walk in the woods...but what is it like to commit to exiling those thoughts about past and future which take us out of our present moment-- moment by moment, no matter what it is that we're doing?
For me, it begs the question: what can I create? I can create my moment with the intention of bondage. Victimhood. Misery. Or I can create my moment with the intention to be free. To run wild or just wander around quietly in Rumi's field. To be exactly who you are. And to have it be easy.
Laura is the author of the international best-selling memoir This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness.
