Drama Farmer
Does a less dramatic and action packed life sound and feel inviting or daunting? Does a few minutes of serenity and silence sound enticing or frightening? Would time alone, free from hustle and bustle, bring tears of joy or tears of fear? Is your life easeful and subtle, free from undue drama, or do you move briskly from one drama to the next only shifting in degree and depth? Is everything a “big thing” and has perspective and reality gone missing?
Cultivating drama has become a pastime for many folks. This drama cultivation helps to evade the uncompleted work of the heart-mind. Fertilising the fields of our heart-mind with exaggeration, untruth and unsubstantiated projection produces harvests of discontent. Fertilising our paddocks with correct perception, discernment and inner strength yields a harvest of peace.
Drama intensification and multiplication causes the body to live in a heightened state, the mind in turbulence and our energy in agitation. Filtering the dramas of our life through the sieve of reason, rationality and emotional intelligence allows the body, mind and energy to respond correctly.
When our external world is exceedingly dramatic and extremely active, stillness and inner gazing is impractical. When our external world is unfolding so gracefully that even the lumps and bumps are less saturated with drama, inner gazing is reaped naturally.
Looking In
We are encouraged to cultivate drama with incorrect and inflated reporting by external sources (e.g. media) and our own unclear minds. Exaggeration has become common, and reasoned and rational expression is seen as boring and lacking in titillation. Companies, governments, friends and family inflame things to conjure a dramatic reaction. Staying centred and easeful whilst others respond differently can be challenging at first, but with a little practice it is surprising the peace that is maintained in significant situations.
Modern society via media, expectation and an excess of doing has most living on a razors edge. Our devices beep and squawk as if they are the infants who need instant attention. Our constant desire to be entertained has us grasping for exterior fulfilment. We rush everywhere and the thought of smelling the roses, enjoying the moment, is cloaked by achieving, receiving, overdoing and underbeing. We are now even in a rush to get to places we don’t even want to go.
Extracting the drama is straightforward, but not easy. Cultivating friendships with calm and joyful people is a pillar in promoting tranquility. Planting and cultivating seeds of discernment will keep the weeds of delusion at bay. Guarding the eyes, ears, skin, mouth and nose from the weeds of manipulation and untruth. Disbanding the belief that without drama life would be boring, recreates an environment for healthy spiritual growth.
Unsurprisingly, when drama declines, natural beauty is amplified, simple things become intriguing, activity is infused with awareness and haste is replaced with joy. Our experience of the world is seen through new lenses, lenses devoid of distortion, lenses instilled with allowance and authenticity. The simplicity of the universe rests at our feet and equanimity pervades each step. The movie of our lives is transformed from an action packed drama to a love story between us and everybody and everything.
Take this day and gather your unwanted and unnecessary dramas and shovel them into the cosmic mulcher for obliteration and vow to be a calmer farmer.
Love & Strength
Greg/ Hanuman Das
