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Embrace What Is.
These three words ---"Embrace What Is" --- articulate a key principle for creating an extraordinary life. Embracing What Is gives us access to a life filled with inner peace, gratitude, love and grace. When we ignore this principle, we find that disappointment, anxiety, frustration, anger, resignation, grief and fear may be our frequent companions, and true contentment a rare visitor.
Embracing What Is has nothing to do with "liking" something or "approval." It has nothing to do with donning the heavy, dark cloak of victimhood, and passively succumbing to your situations and circumstances. Embracing What Is takes place in a dimension beyond the distorting filters of our judgments, ideals, beliefs, preconceptions and assumptions. It takes place beyond the realm of our "shoulds" and "should nots." Embracing What Is occurs in a timeless, inner space of openness and silence. Unencumbered by judgments or beliefs, we observe our outer and inner worlds arising and dissolving in each moment of NOW. Our actions then have power and authenticity.
Over the centuries, this fundamental principle has been stated in many ways in the Wisdom traditions of East and West. "Acceptance" has been a common term that has been used to describe this way of being. However, I find that those who hear the word often misinterpret "acceptance". For many, "acceptance" means to put up with, endure, or tolerate something or someone, as in the phrase, "grin and bear it." This makes "acceptance" nothing more than an act of resigned, passive resistance ----what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said that "most people live lives of quiet desperation." This is a far cry from the word's meaning in the Wisdom traditions, where it refers to the act of fully including and embracing whatever is happening in the moment.
Embracing What Is means to live fully in the only place where your life is unfolding --- NOW.
The truth sets us free. Lies enslave us. When we are not embracing what is, when we are resisting or denying what is manifesting in the moment, we are squandering our creative energy on futile inner turmoil and lying about reality. This leaves us unable to respond with clarity, effectiveness and power to what the universe is presenting to us.
Have you ever been in a traffic jam and gotten angry, feeling in that moment that all those people in the other cars got up extra early just to block the road so that you couldn't get to where you wanted to go? If so, recall if the anger made the traffic move faster, or just your heart rate?
Have you ever gotten upset because it rained on the day you planned a picnic? Did you mutter to yourself with frustration about how God / Fate/ It / the weather had not supported you and your plans?
Have you ever cursed someone under your breath for being the way they were being, instead of the way you believed that they "should" be?
These are simple, everyday examples of resisting, rather than Embracing What Is.
How would you describe someone who is not relating or connecting with what is real, and instead, lives inside their own beliefs and fantasies? Some might call such a person delusional. Others might describe them as insane. When we are resisting and lying about what is, we are insane.
"This shouldn't be happening!" is an insane statement. The truth is, it IS happening!
"I shouldn't have done that!" is an insane statement. The truth is, you DID do that!
Both statements are expressions of resisting and lying about what is. When we embrace what is, we are much more able to respond to what is so effectively, responsibly, and creatively.
One of the ways you can recognize that you are stuck in a lie about reality is that the problems and issues that you have are never resolved. They keep returning, often in new and more virulent forms. When you embrace what is, and realize the truth about it, the problems or issues that arise begin to dissolve in the light of awareness.
Reading about this principle, believing it, or understanding it is not sufficient. Living it is what turns on the inner Light, and nurtures your soul.
How does living from the principle, Embrace What Is, manifest in real life? What does it look like at the practical level?
A master of the Martial Arts must live from this principle or no mastery is possible. On the mat, there is no time or place for "shoulds" and "should nots." Opinions and beliefs are irrelevant. Embracing what is matters. The ability to respond successfully to an opponent's attack in a fraction of a second can only occur from a place of openness and non-attachment to what is arising in each moment. In that openness to what is, there is heightened awareness. Time slows down. Possibilities unfold. The perfect response is generated without thought. Awareness and action flow as a seamless continuum.
The great San Francisco 49er Quarterback, Joe Montana, was renowned for his ability to lead his team to dramatic, game-winning comebacks, including in the Super Bowl. Montana was considered to be "unflappable;" totally calm, centered and present in the pressure of the moment. He did not give power or attention to the past or future. The last play was over. He focused on what is so and what is required NOW. That is what Embracing What Is looks like on a football field: it includes whatever is going on in the moment, and responding creatively to it. In that embrace of what is, Montana operated with heightened awareness. Often, he found himself "in the zone." He reported that during plays, he could see the whole football field at once, with the players seeming to move in slow motion. In that openness, he saw possibilities that others did not, and his winning actions were a result of the synergy between his commitment and his being fully present to what was arising.
Great Jazz musicians embrace this relationship with what is in their playing. It is the source of their ability to flow seamlessly with their fellow musicians. The magical improvisations that arise in the heat of creative jam sessions occur when a group is fully embracing what is. In those moments, a transcendence of individuality, time and "doingness" occurs. Both players and audience find themselves transported by sound that touches the soul. It is music that, paradoxically, seems at once both spontaneous and inevitable.
When we embrace what is in our personal relationships and in our workplace, intimacy and possibilities can arise that are not historically predictable. When we drop our stories, judgments and beliefs about others, and ourselves we can see things as they are with clarity, insight, and love. In that embrace of what is, we can know, appreciate and have compassion for each other at the deepest level of Being.
I received the following email messages from a student in the Spring 2002 Core Wisdom Mastery Class. She has been using her participation in the Mastery Class to incorporate the principle, Embrace What Is, into all of her life, including relationships and work. Her words demonstrate what is possible when we stop resisting and fully embrace What Is. In the past, she had dreaded being with her mother and her brothers, even for short visits.
Here are her comments about a transformation in being with her family that occurred during the three months of the Mastery Class:
"I went to LA this last weekend to spend time with my mother for her birthday. One of my brothers hasn't been communicating with me for over a year now. He came over to my mother's to see me and spent some time with me. I saw all my brothers this weekend and that was great. I saw each of them from what is so at that moment and saw truly wonderful human beings.... It was nice to be present. It was more difficult to do this with my mother but I did. My time with her was interesting. Her sister came over and spent time with us. This time when my mother was nasty to her sister I could see her pain more clearly. I didn't defend my aunt this time but let my mother say what she needed to about her. It is still difficult to watch her choose to be miserable, but I do understand that she feels so badly about herself. I got less hooked by her nastiness and was able to let it go quicker. The process of seeing what is so with my relationship with my mother continues. I am so very grateful for my life and all that is in it...Happy to be me."
Here is an excerpt from her email regarding embracing what is in her workplace:
"This morning the person that usually works [the early morning shift] is off, which required me to work at 7am. Usually I start at 8:30 or 9. So all week I was resenting this and resisting it. This morning when I got up I really enjoyed getting up earlier as I used to do this all the time and kinda missed it. On the way to work I realized that everything that happens is perfect. After all, it is! For one of the first times I had the feeling that whatever happens is perfect and as it should be. That is really a wonderful feeling and sensation. It allows me to be perfectly in the moment without judgment and gives me a tremendous sense of peace and tranquility. Yikes this stuff really works! I want to thank you but also to thank all that is and I appreciate the beauty of it all. Ecstasy in this and every moment..."
As we can see from these communications, when we embrace what is, and drop our judgments and shoulds about life, others and ourselves, there is a freedom, vitality and compassion present in each moment.
In Core Wisdom classes, participants learn powerful techniques to dissolve past-based energy patterns such as fear, resentment, anger, dread, depression and sadness. They learn to release the negative beliefs, thought patterns and decisions that have stopped the flow of creativity, success and love in their lives. They learn how to dissolve the traumas and phobias that have constrained them from engaging fully and joyfully in life.
What is the first step that allows for these remarkable transformations?
Giving up resisting What Is.
Embrace What Is.
Anything that we cannot include about what is has power over us. Only by including all of what is, can we see it clearly, and allow for a constant flow of creating and dissolving to occur.
When you fully Embrace What Is, you realize the essential truth about yourself, others and the world. When you Embrace What Is, you realize that all self-rejection and self-hate is a lie about yourself that has hidden your true Divine nature from you.
In that moment, all the heaviness and seriousness you have been carrying dissolves in the light of the truth, and you find yourself laughing with joy at the cosmic joke you have been playing on yourself. In that moment, you have compassion for your story, for your history, for what happened, for what others did, and what you did, but you no longer identify with any of it or give it power.
If you do not love yourself, you cannot fully love others. When you fully embrace what is, you are present to the Divine Light of I AM within you ---Love manifested in form. Simultaneously, you are present to it in others. Separation dissolves. You see both the Light within others, and the myths that keep them stuck in suffering, pain, and struggle. Compassion flows. Love Is. What the Buddhists call "right action" flows from that love and compassion.
When we Embrace What Is, we are in the real world, we have awakened from the mental prison of the illusionary past and future where most people spend their days in inner struggle and suffering. When we Embrace What Is, we are fully awake and aware. We embrace the circumstances, whatever they may be, and act with power. Our energy is utilized to respond creatively to life unfolding in every moment of NOW.
-- Hal Isen
From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 19 - Jun. 14, 2002
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