Window Cleaning
People clean windows to be able to see what’s outside. Equally important for the spiritual practitioner is to ensure that the inner window is cleaned regularly to perceive the truth behind the form. The inner window reflects whatever is within the subconscious, which is mirrored in the circumstances that surround the person in the manifested physical world. Just as the grime of the world sticks to the glass on the window, so inwardly the sticky substance of emotion smears the clarity of perception by obscuring the light of the inner being. Both the inner and outer windows need some kind of cleansing agency to bring the surface reflection to optimum brilliance and shine.
Before cleaning begins, let’s first inspect the window to see where the best place is to start. It can save a lot of valuable energy to start work methodically, one step at a time. The idea is to become accustomed to the interior world of the body. This is done through entering the body with the focus of attention on the subtle emanation of life without form, often felt as a fine tingling sensation. With the mind disengaged from the memory, examine the inner window just as would be done in the outer sensory world. Don’t think about it; just be receptive to what the body consciousness imparts. When this becomes a conscious practice, any tension or emotional discomfort smearing the inner window reveals itself energetically to the observing intelligence.
The next step is to surround, with the focus of perception, whatever is exposed as any emotional disturbance. This has the effect of transforming the attachment to the pain and disappointments of the past to the present. The emotional energy, over time, degrades the pure sensation to innumerable feelings, each an unresolved part of past experience kept alive by the prying curiosity of the mind. The impulse to revisit the pain and traumas of yesterday must be overcome by knowledge of the workings of the emotional self. This self in the adult body is the window through which people perceive their world until inwardly inspired to clean up the portal to the source of the inner light.
Some stains and smears are cleaned up with little effort; others are more stubborn and require a greater resolve and a more powerful cleansing agent. The depth of sludge on the window is determined by the degree of attachment to someone or something experienced in the personal life. Deep marks on the inner window are preserved by keeping the emotion alive by thinking about the person or event that caused the inner trauma. It may be the case that it was in that person’s lights to undergo something deeply distressing, but this must not be a barrier to the task of cleaning the inner window. An efficient window cleaner doesn’t needs to go back over old ground and gets on with the task at hand.
A sense of the bigger picture is essential as the journey of self-discovery becomes the purpose of the life. To heal any emotional wound, surrender to the unknown, which is God, whatever is being held onto as any pain, anger or wanting to understand. Give up everything as any thought, feeling or imagination while remaining conscious and inwardly alert. This invokes pure love that is beyond all understanding and the power to restore all back to original state of being.
There are a lot of dirty windows….
Thank you Lance. I am always driven to comment in full – perhaps it is not considered appropriate to elaborate but I know I appreciate feedback so I give feedback. What I have come to understand as being so helpful in my own experience is to know that these ‘things’ that come to try us are there for a specific reason. – to give us an opportunity to practice rising above/letting go/detachment. It has nothing to do with not caring. At first it may be small spots on the window but as our practice matures, the spots become patches. No different to school where we are challenged with each passing year to experience the next level. The ‘dirt’ gets heavier as we advance but we can cope because we have been practicing. In the end we are unmoved but we/I have finally understood what compassion means. When personal love is consumed by impersonal love – when the finite is absorbed by the Infinite that must be the true meaning of freedom and liberation. (for want of words.)