Saints, animals, and more

A goat or a Saint?

For those of you who might think being a Saint means sitting around while disciples wait on you hand and foot--guess again.  That is a moment of glamour in the reality--not unlike a Hollywood movie without disclosing all of the work that goes into producing it.  I can see that running an ashram is a lot of work:  the grounds, the "workers", the events, the daily use, and more.  Gurudev works hard whether he takes credit or not.  He would give us all a run for our money in terms of dedication and workload.  If he sleeps, (do Saints sleep?), he is up at 4:00 am or so to start his practice, 11:00 he is available to the public for phone calls, consultation, and decision making on whatever crosses his lap.  He is on duty until 9:30 pm and often is taking care of financial details/bookkeeping with the head priest (who also started at 4:00 am and went on to practice medicine during the day) until after that when we are executing our last pranams.  The inside part of the public availability is that he listens to the life challenges of everyone who passes through the doors, the phone is ringing nonstop until 9:30 pm, and he is dealing with the maintenance of the present ashram, making decision in the construction of the new, sorting through issues from the school operation, and who knows what else he is involved with.  Of course, this doesn't even start to tap into his global awareness and presence that I, as a humble mortal,  can even begin to wrap my head around.  He appears to be an installation of a super conductor.  As I am constantly awestruck by the depth of his love, compassion, and humility (and I have so little capacity to reflect on something so beyond my knowing:  it is again rough at best when trying to find words for something so vast that there are no suitable words.)  A beacon of hope and a transmitter of optimism in a world so filled with darkness.  I understand that we are transitioning out of the darkness by bringing light into matter, but I am not sure we would have a chance without these inspiring, recognized forms on the planet--Beings as Divine lighthouses (and the unseen lineage of Beings.)

Front gate access 

Just being here a week has already created a lot of internal shifts.  For me there is a big difference in visiting versus settling in for the "long" haul.  I need to find a deeper balance with the state of permanency settling around my physical presence.   Maybe later, this will all shift as well and become even a lesser state of attachment.  My room window is a few hundred feet from a main road, so there is traffic nonstop, but there is also a tree when I look out.  There are dogs in the neighborhood that are barking before the light of dawn and beyond the darkness of the night:  it is becoming only a slight disturbance in the moment.  There is a family/store operating below, so there is a stream of family noises, children screaming. customers filtering by. Actual moments of stillness/quiet are very deeply felt and are becoming surprise punctuations in the life flow, but they are already dropping away as a requirement for being.  I reflect back onto seeing the man sitting in lotus position in the middle of town without an apparent attachment to any of it--that also brings to mind the cows/dogs taking a nap in the meridians with traffic whizzing by.

View looking towards my room (open door)

What to do? I shall see what happens with the horse contact.  In the meantime, I emailed the local animal shelter and Mother Teresa's Orphanage to see about volunteer work.  A small offering of service and selfishly, an opportunity to look more deeply into what challenges exist in the world without yet venturing into such playing fields as Somalia http://in.news.yahoo.com/drought--famine-and-refugee-crisis-in-africa.html  I can see it as a staircase, stepping into the different levels of humanity.  One of my goals in this life transition is to find a place of peace in all situations.  At this point, I won't know if it is real unless I touch it.  I am leaving it up to the Divine plan as to what that might entail.  For now, I have the gratitude for being housed in a safe environment, with clean water available, healthy food, internet, and a supportive/protective field of beings.

Some of them have blue eyes

Liz gave me a lovely, hard-backed, autographed copy of Hope of Animals and Their World (How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink) by Jane Goodall.  That is the next body of thought that I am going to digest after the last book centered around aiding the humans in need.  What about the animals and their needs/habitats?  They are part of the silent partnership/presence in the global community.