Living in Leela
Your hand opens and closes and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist, or always stretched open you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting,
and expanding,
The two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.
from Birdwings. Jaluddin RUMI
Well, what is Lila* ?
Life is Lila! When we are born, we are given an OPPORTUNITY to PLAY at the table of life, to live! Lila is sport, a Hindu concept that often refers to the play of the gods. It is the play of natural, creative forces within the universe (which includes us)—an energetic dance that brings the world (or anything we want manifest) to fruition.
The One, Brahma, divides (or explodes, as in “the Big Bang”), creating myriad manifestations of itself — plants, planets, people, pearls, elephants and all other “things” - forms. These many forms exist together, yet individually, and dissolve back into the One over time. The energetic force, or vibration of creation, represented as the sound of OM, which you could call the sound of Lila, also moves within us and is the ground of our ideas and desires. It is why we have the impulse to create what we envision, and influences the way we interact with the material world.
Passion, heat, rage, fire, freezing cold, wet… are all a part of the force of Lila - play, dynamism, strategy, surrender. These states are related to the Gunas. Gunas are Qualities. Gunas are States of being, states of matter. Descriptions. Rajas guna is active, fiery, and hot. Tamas guna is cool, slow, and heavy. These states of being require creative expression. Taking adaptive steps when out of balance to diffuse, and make use of, the power of rajas and tamas will lead to non-violence - ahimsa- equanimity. These qualities are of a Sattvic nature. Sattva is the guna of balance, steadiness, flow.
So everything comes together. Then divides. Becoming, dividing, dissolving, and so on again. This is Divine Lila, the play of Creation.
Sometimes we suffer, sometimes we succeed. Living in Leela is a mindset and a process… it’s HOW we PLAY. Curious, creative, carefree. Living in Leela is about accepting what IS and adapting to reality rather than fighting with reality - a game we always lose. Living in Leela is living with a light heart. Living in Leela is about open-hearted wonder, and imagination. No need to convince anyone that you’re right, or in control. No need to hold on to pain, or people, or force things to happen.
Leela is like being. And discovering the Number One thing. Or adhering to the Number one Thing. Groups of ones make many. Many makes community. Community defined here as seemingly individual objects drawn toward one another constantly. We went from the One into community, yet we all are of the One. We are together as One. WE must remember that. Drawn together by the gravitational pull that holds together the whole Universe. I want us to relax. Relax. And Be curious, not outrageous or outraged all the time. I have been what others (and me too) might find to be somewhat outrageous, and outraged. I have certainly been enraged and raged outwardly. Steven, I am writing about us.
Leela is living in ever-expanding awareness, living free from fear, and hatred. Leela is like musical notes bouncing over the clouds… the scent of Jasmine wafting through the air... laughter ringing from the cub of a bear …
