The French Master Ananda Devi said: “We have an immense power of creation, and when we are capable of using it in its full dimension we can become conscious of our divinity. We constantly participate in the Great creative act and this movement does not cease even for a moment. Our task is to participate with this flow with our whole being and feel its creative spirit living inside of us, manifesting through us”.
In this reference, the Master invites us to conceive creation as an active Presence in our existence. In addition to this, she urges us to use this “Great” movement in life, as a path of self-discovery.
However, how can we become aware of this creative River and what strategies can we employ to activate it? As an initial step, I propose to establish an alignment with the deepest and most harmonious parts of our consciousness. In this World of Creation of Deep Delight this process has two facets: in the first, we discover the sense of perfection in our actions. That is, the understanding of the nature of our acts and the way to perform them: their intention, grace, precision and dexterity. In the second, we explore what actions deserve our attention, what are the best ways to carry them out and how they can contribute to other people’s lives. In this field, meaning, innovation and service are integrated together.
When we approach a path of self-discovery and recognize the importance of meditation, a common remark is that “we do not have time” for the practice. In this World of Creation, we learn the way to integrate the richness of meditation with its diverse states into life, to be able to achieve a meditative existence. With various methods we discover that life itself can be a vehicle for our transformation.
In our journey of Deep Delight, we concentrate on the union of three areas of development of being: the cultivation of the relationship with ourselves; the bond with what we consider to be sacred, and the incorporation of these two states in life.
With the first facet, active life becomes the stage where we develop our presence and consciousness. With the valuable help of our inner observer, we can begin to understand who we are, with our thoughts, feelings, motivations, words and movements. In other words, we allow the emergence of a diagnosis of our nature while we continue to create. This approach does not seek self-recrimination, rather it is an orientation towards the process of self-improvement. Our motivation is to create Acts that Liberate us; that is to say, while we act, we adjust and take ourselves towards a spirit that is more true and authentic, with inner calmness and an external dynamism. On this path, each small act constitutes, through consciousness and perfection, an opportunity to manifest a mastery and flow of life.
In the second facet of creation we analyze what actions can combine our talents with our vision of contributing to a better world. This adventure has the purpose of creating acts and initiatives that represent our dharma (in Sanskrit), understood by the thinker Sri Aurobindo as: “An ideal that we choose and manifest in life”.
In our journey of Deep Delight, we concentrate on the union of three areas of development of being: the cultivation of the relationship with ourselves; the bond with what we consider to be sacred, and the incorporation of these two states in life. It is in the present moment, in life itself, where these three relationships become important. Through its development we can discover our place in the world and the meaning of our life.
During the fifteen years of study with my Master Premananda Deva I lived an integral training process. It included inner work, esoteric techniques of meditation and learning eastern philosophies, aswell as western schools of thought. But without a doubt, the area where I received the most guidance for the transformation of my being was in life.
My Master, with his example, counsel and instruction, revealed to me the parts of my being that I needed to pay attention to; he guided me to the process of observation and conquest, and inspired me to perform actions to the best of my ability, with a sense of perfection. At the same time, he taught me about the importance of being kind to myself and accept that I would continue to make imperfect actions. Little by little, I trained how to be more present, to observe my being in action, to direct my will towards elevated objectives.
The great vision is to become creators of a luminous life, that is an offering and a song to the sacred reality.
This training of the consciousness reveals to us how a simple act can connect us with a presence of sacredness in life and create an experience of joy. This vision inspires us to search for opportunities to serve others, with altruistic intentions that benefit “all sentient beings” (as the Tibetan Buddhists say).
With the observation of our actions, the pursuit of perfection, and the fluidity that emerges from the inner unity, we have the possibility of turning life into a symbol of beautiful, wide and brilliant ideals. The great vision is to become creators of a luminous life, that is an offering and a song to the sacred reality.
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In the World of Creation we learn how to act from the most profound part of ourselves and explore how to create actions aligned with our deepest motivations. To achieve this we will pass through four states: Perfecting, Offering, Directing and Expressing.
Perfecting
When we make a pact to do our actions as a meditation, with the assistance of our observation, we can turn our active life into a transformative experience. These expressions will become Liberating Acts that allow us to unify mind and action. The objective in each act is to take the mind in one direction, connecting the outside with our inside.
Directing
With a sense of perfection in the execution of each task, however small it may be, little by little we become aware of the spirit behind each action. Here we learn how essential it is to integrate qualities such as slowness, grace, beauty and love when we act. This process will not only guide us towards a continuous improvement and eventual dynamism, but it will turn our acts into an extension of our deepest Self.
Offering
When we awaken empathy and compassion for others, the next step is altruism. Here it is necessary to inquire about our deepest motivations (to connect ourselves with our essence of goodness) and visualize the actions that could express them. A beautiful paradox about carrying out actions to serve and take care of others, is that they can awaken a deep delight in us.
Expressing
With the vision of serving and conveying with others, we can activate creative processes, where we feel inspired and co-create to transform realities. This last state guides us to celebrate the uniqueness of each person and at the same time explore our collective capacity to create innovative ideas and actions.
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When we appreciate active life as our ally in the process of transformation, we see that each moment becomes an opportunity to deepen and elevate our consciousness. By uniting with the presence of the River of creation and clarifying our vision, we can be an active part of the solution to improve the world.
With an awakened consciousness and our acts directed to the service of others, we can flow with the sacred reality and feel a natural impulse to create in life. A way to know when we are sailing in this River of creativity, is that we experience a Delight in our mind, heart and action.