toute doucement: a new year, an old year, a now year

the hindu name for capacity is akasha, which is often thought of as the sky, but really can mean everything. everything is part of akasha, and everything is produced by, and will return to akasha.

in meditating on this thought, i have been able to think of this place called the here and now, and how i am part of it all for this very moment, and will be part of the next very moment, as well as i am just as much a part of the last very moment that was had. in all, i am a part of everything, all the time; just as much as i am a part of nothing, nowhere, not at all.

it is funny to me how we choose to only think of the significance of a summary of a year at its turn, such as now, as the new year is set to unfold in a few short hours. but in reality, time tells us that there is a new moment occurring at every instance, just as older moments happen at every instance. what does this all signify? it means we exist. we are all parts of the whole... the same universal soul that shakes leaves out of trees, causes waves to crash, birds to fly, babies to be born, snow to fall, at men to laugh at it all.

there is nothing that i am that i am not. i am no more here today than i will be tomorrow. my existence now is no different from any other that has been, unless i am willing to accept it as different. this is part of akasha, that i am always part of everything, but only as much as i am capable of realizing. if i am able to open my soul to the world, then the world will be open to me. life has two divisions: one that is accepted, the other that is not. what is accepted can be called substantial, and what is not, we often never call anything.

capacity is matter. it is not merely matter in the everyday sense of the word, but is everything that is perceivable, it is the spirit which flows through life. spirit is in the presence and absense of everything, spirit preludes all being, as well as concludes it.

there is wisdom in pure being, in complete awareness, in nirvana. the meaning of the word soul is caught up in the essence of innate wisdom, making intelligence integral to the soul. in fact, our being is best understood as only place where intelligence has been captured for an instance, making the body and mind an accommodation for the soul, and its intelligence. the nature of knowing that our soul holds innate and universal intelligence is to have consciousness. the difference between consciousness and the soul is like a mirror, where consciousness is the mirror image of the soul, but the mirror itself is the vehicle of light and knowledge--the soul.

and so, as many of us look forward to a new year, i seek to look differently, to look within. the new year is here, it is our existence of forever and everything. there is plenty to be excited about in the years to come for certain, but let us also remember what there is to be joyous over that is already here, now. what we are is cause enough to celebrate... the magic of life, the pervasive influence of the universal soul, and the weirdness and awesomeness of it all!

the most important thing for me right now is to be present in what is, whatever it may be at the time... to understand that certain circumstances can be more or less preferable, but that true well-being emanates from appreciation of simply being alive in the world... breathing, listening, feeling. there is nothing true for me here that is not true for me there, or anywhere.