On smiles, masks - and joining in truth

I tried writing a short personal bit of personal background and it became long and as
yet unfinished. Perhaps I will get a bit of time to finish it soon and link
to it here in case it interests - though the personal can so easily be a
focus of distraction. I am 'any one' or some one that speaks to the centre.
A voice willing to speak to an attention willing to listen.

The loss of communication is the loss of trust.
The mind serves to provide a mask of protection in a 'loveless world', such
that we we become in some sense withheld and behind our presentation of
ourself. Where our presentations 'work' in protecting us or find social
acceptance, we accept them as handles on living and coping in the world and
develop them and in time identify our self and 'the real world' in terms of
the mask, and relegate the stirrings of our being to our dreams of a better
life or our sense of what life 'could be' if the 'world' or others would
only change to support our needs. And in some ways we find others who we
make relation with on a basis of mutual - but separate - needs met.

And there is a kind of love, for while the 'other' fits my dream, I feel
permission to be unwithheld and allow my natural presence or joy to shine.

But we find there are limits and demands to others and our self that
essentially say, "if you do not be as I need you to be, then you will upset
me", and so to enforce the behaviours of others so as to maintain the
controls in which we will not be upset, we 'guilt' them.

So a smile can become a coercive intent of both presentation an intention,
which may have some currency of acceptance and yet be felt as forced and in
some sense demanding.

Within the 'mask' is a complex world of seeking validation, mutual stroking
or competitive reaction. And one of the ways of reacting to the seeing
dominance of others is to present the mask of withdrawal, sometimes called
passive aggression, because it is not neutral, but has its own atmospheric
effect. Minds are very complex, and some study these dynamics endlessly...

To restore the conditions in which communication naturally occurs is to
restore trust. This calls for a defencelessness to honesty within ourselves
such as to be with others in the clear purpose and presence of what we are
moved to share and be.

This honesty is a 'spiritual path', that is innate to the form of any real
path of commitment we have in life, and is not merely a private
accomplishment of making a spiritual connection to our person, or in
private, but is the restoration to an unselfconscious trust in  - and as -
the movement of our being, which is shared because nothing to withhold from
is given value or meaning.

I read recently that 'love begins the moment we decide not to take offence'.
What was once given the power to trigger my defences is being turned to an
opportunity to restore communication.

This isn't the email that responds with specific ideas and suggestions or
examples of what invites a shared and free attention into our dancing, but
any such forms might be implemented as part of the mask of 'social
engineering'. So though there are conversations which I look forward to
sharing on such, at the moment I found myself writing this.

We've been busy but have a few days where I hope to get to come back on
this.

The 'culture' that we teach and share is not always conscious. Indeed we are
often blind to our own presumptions and need others to help us see that we
have them.

Noticing symptoms or effects that indicate a lack of well being is part of
waking up to health. If we are curious rather than defensive and reactive,
then what comes into view does not condemn us, but frees us.
It is all a matter of trust.

There are adverts that use the slogan "Because you're worth it". I recomend
using this not only for hanging in with ourselves through the difficult, but
for and with each other.

I might say that there is no way to 'come Home' without your brother and
that to be joined in clear and happy purpose is not so far from Heaven.

Acceptance and honouring of another just as they are is part of moving with
them, and reflects the same quality in ourselves.

We cannot 'do' love and any attempt to assert or control can be felt by
others, even children. Especially children!
But we can learn to let love move us and abide and be with us - without our
interference. This is 'deeper into the dance'.

We don't have to call it love - or call it anything! - but the movement that
touches us in an uncontrived moment of welcome or togetherness is a natural
expression of being alive.

We like to talk of 'cooperating with Nature' at the level of our planet, but
if we are interfering and exploiting our nature at the level of our personal
sense of being - then can there be a true foundation for otherwise sound
ideas?

Being out of control is fearful to that which still believes it needs to
wield it, but in the moments where we feel the music moving us, we are one
with our experience of life in a very simple way.

Rather than plunder this until the seam runs out, why not let it abide in
our hearts and grow?

For it is a portal if we walk through it - or rather realize that that is
the real self and world, and begin to give welcome and commitment to it.
When masks no longer serve, they are nothing. But you - the movement of life
that is being all that you are - is still here.

Why do we hide our light?
Fortunately we are not completely successful, and another who is in their
acceptance can see another in a worth and beauty that they don't yet have
for themself - but in the sharing is the remembering.

We may have a special relationship with our music and dance in that it can
be used to 'keep the ugly world out' and protect the 'little that we have
left', but it can be consecrated to life in a way that transforms us and our
world in ways we cannot pre-think or imagine from the stance of defence.

The matter I speak of are deep and far reaching in implication. But the
world running as it has been running, has deep and far reaching implications
too. The sense of coming out of the closet is not fear-driven, yet the
nature of our times are such as to activate a greater leaning into trust
than I might otherwise allow.

"Smile and the world smiles with you" is a simple truth for a compass
direction in life. But the wherewithal for our smile is a trust and a
willingness of discernment and cannot be a technique to get a better handle
or become more 'spiritual'. We don't need to validate ourselves, but to
accept ourselves exactly where we are - and let that be the context of a
natural curiosity and joy in learning and becoming more able to abide in
life.

Brian