Living in the Visible, Awakening to the Invisible

Afternoon televised soap operas don't play a big part in my life, but, thanks to two friends (Alice in the US and Sujata in India), I have watched Bold and Beautiful and Young and Restless off and on, for the past six years.

Besides the strong story line about DECEIT (everyone is always lying to someone and worried the lie will be discovered) the major trademark of these daytime dramas is that if a character has a streak of good luck, you can be dang sure something horrible is waiting around the next corner!

Alice and Sujata and I would laugh about this formula: if Stephanie smoothed over her conflicts with Brooke and got close to her husband Eric again...she would soon face the death of granddaughter Phoebe and Eric's cheating with Donna. Yup, it is an absolute certainty on the soaps that if life is going along swimmingly, somebody is gonna drown.

So isn't this pattern of good/bad, easy/tough, simple/complicated, clarity/confusion called LIFE?

The only difference between the soap actors and us is that we have the freedom and power to interpret what happens in a different way.

When good things happen, we can ride that wave of pleasure.

When difficult times occur, we can seek the lessons of the moment and know that whether something gets labeled good or bad, it is Just Life, and Everything Changes.

India's wise, wise teacher, Astavakra, in his short treatise, Astavakra Gita, (sometimes called the Samhita) explains what he called the "Supreme Reality", which is that we must transcend what seems to be happening and enter the Stupendous State. This ancient sage taught that what we call life is a dream, and we must wake up to something far greater. I read my Astavakra Gita as often as my Bible; I love the lessons, and especially this one: "How can the pleasures and sorrows of the dream affect anymore the one who has awakened?"

In other words, our reaction or interpretation is what labels a moment "a good experience" or "a bad experience." It is really neither, once we move beyond our fascination with the limited concrete world.

I had to comfort myself with this truth when Alice died earlier this month, pretty close to her 100th birthday. She was unafraid, and had the mightiest love of Jesus I have ever witnessed. Alice knew there was more to life than meets the eye .

I reminded myself of this truth today, when I had to wash our enormous comforter because one of the dogs decided it was easier to pee in the bed then go out into the windy day. (How ironic! My comforter provided me such discomfort....a good soap opera story line, huh?)

And I reminded myself again when I found the dog had chewed open a doggy toy, and the fuzzy white stuffing had spread all over the comforter in the washing machine.

And I further reinforced this mindset when, throwing the heavy comforter on the outside clothes drying rack, the rack spun around and hit me in the mouth, cutting my lip and making me bleed.

I'M NOT KIDDING!

Fortunately, besides recalling Astavakra's wisdom, I know from watching Poor Stephanie on Bold and Beautiful that once three bad things happen, the good times will roll again. For awhile. Ha!

p.s. Last week, Sad Sharon, on Young and Restless, was really happy going on her honeymoon by private jet with her new husband Adam. They crashed yesterday (see photo above), but I missed the show today, cuz of the Comforter Case, and I had to go to the doctor, and blah blah blah....