The Point of Living

"What would be the point of living if we didn't let Life change us?"  (Carson on "Downton Abbey)

Many people are constanting asking themselves, "What is the point of living?"

It seems to me, that Carson's response to Mrs. Hughes when she says, "I'm not the farm girl I used to be.  I've changed."  And so, she had to turn down a proposal of marriage from a "nice man," because she couldn't be a farmer's wife.

The point of living, I have come to believe, is to let Life change us.  And it will, you know, if we don't demand that it bring us what we want, and allow it to bring us what we need in order to change in ways we are not even aware of.

I just read an article in the Yoga Journal by Phillip Moffitt called "The Yoga of Relationships."

He talks about using our relationships as our dharma, our daily practice  of coming to consciousness.

There are several options, according to this article, but Option 3 he calls "Trust in the Dharma."  In relationship, it means "fully surrendering all or part of your ego wants in your relationship."  You give up "any expectations that your needs will be met," and whether they are or not, you do not "allow the giving your your love to be affected."

Not most people's idea of the perfect relationship.  Certainly not our culture's idea.  But great dharma practice -- and quite daunting -- when you can manage it.  "It simply means responding to daily frustrations and disappointments with love, over and over again.

Robert Johnson in OWNING YOUR OWN SHADOW says this:  When  "...the bush will not be consumed and the fire will not stop, you can be certain that God is present."  He calls this place the mandorla, the place where light and dark meet.

He goes on to say what I think is the same thing Carson was saying:  "One can view a human life as a mandorla and as the ground upon which the opposites find their reconciliation."  And it demands conscious work to "... let Life change us."