Wild Horses

Coming to acceptance of life on life's terms

I awoke from a dream of wild horses stampeding through my childhood neighborhood. I was a few doors down from my house and felt the ground rumbling as I looked between the houses to see a herd of brown horses swiftly running by. They did not come towards me but ran over the neighbor’s lawn, across the street and down the hill.

Where did they come from and where are they going?

The questions in my dream are indeed the questions of our times. Where did you come from? Where are you going? At this time in our history we are being called into a deeper level of self-reflection in order to learn from our unique life experiences. There is a great energy moving through the cosmos right now that is propelling us in the direction of acceptance of where we find ourselves right now.

It’s easy to lay blame and think it’s someone else’s fault that I am the way I am. We think this thing happened to me and I must carry this wound as part of my identity. I am not suggesting we gloss over the hurts we have experienced but rather to see them in a bigger light. How has that experience shaped me into the being I am today?

People are suffering. I have suffered and probably you have, as well. Recently, however, I’ve come to consider the pain as sublime suffering. Those two words don’t seem to match up, I know. Simply repeat them a few times to yourself: sublime suffering, sublime suffering, sublime suffering. Why or how could suffering be sublime?

It directly relates to the concept of karma in the system of yoga. In Sanskrit, the word karma literally means action and often refers to the idea that a person’s actions influence their future. There is a cause and effect in the Universe so therefore, whatever you put out into the world comes back to you. For example, if you don’t let that driver in when their lane is ending, you probably will have a harder time getting in the next time your lane ends.

According to yoga philosophy we make a free decision to take on this birth. As an individuated soul, we choose our family of origin and all the experiences that could help wake us up to the truth of ourselves. And if you didn’t sign up for this lifetime then another soul would have stepped in to take on the responsibility. In that way of thinking, your experiences are not so much your karma as the karma.

In an even bigger picture, we take form on this planet as part of this planet in order that this planet may become more self aware of itself. We are but one neuron on this vast plane of reality that is playing itself out. We may not have a choice about which damaging experiences we have lived through but we do have the free will to decide how we are going to learn from those experiences.

Maybe someone in your past has set a good example of how you don’t want to be in life. Someone else’s greed could make you more generous or someone’s abuse could cause you to be more kind. Or in the worst case scenario, the victim becomes the perpetrator. What have you learned about yourself? If we can each find a way to accept what we have experienced for the good of the entire planet, maybe then we could find some forgiveness for ourselves and those we still want to blame for our suffering.

Can you imagine your life free of suffering? A world free from suffering? In the past I would not have believed it could be possible but then I changed my mind. What would you do with all that energy that is stuck in holding grudges and resentments and betrayals? What would that energy feel like coursing through your body?

It could have the energy of a herd of horses shaking the ground as they help move you forward into your future.