The Bus on the Bridge
An event that occurs and seemingly gets in our way can actually be viewed as a precious teaching. How to shift from one perspective to the other is an interesting psychic space to examine. There is fierce resistance, the grip of fear and pang of memory. We sometimes feel held hostage by the circumstances.
Upon further examination we discover it is thought that has the capacity to move us either towards darkness or light, illness or wellness. When we are smack in the middle of our situation it appears we are our thinking. There is no distinction. We believe (and feel, somatically) that I and thought are one. This is an illusion. The gap that exists, sometimes tiny and unrecognizable, is what allows us to access our knowing, intuition, and higher self.
Underneath (or above) the noise of busy living, she exists. Here she stretches and expands, yawns open and reaches lovingly for our attention. This is how we know we are not only alive but sentient and connected to divine, loving forces. This connection is what allows us to intimately relate to our soul, mind, and heart; what inspires us to action and what compels us to contemplate. It gives us balance, variation, stability.
Most of us have been on a bus on the bridge. It’s a relatable image. We can say that the bus represents mind; the water below the bridge represents thought. The bridge is the permeable layer between mind and thought.
When we take a bus ride in the morning we experience ourselves as merged with mind, place, thought, movement – the event. Later in the day, however, we sense some distance between who we are and that bus ride. The event occurred but it no longer shapes or defines us.
Realizing that we are not our thoughts — that the Self is pure and therefore cannot be wedded to any thing, experience, place — means that issues are not fixed or permanent. They are not who we are because who we are exists beyond this one moment. It doesn’t mean we are exempt from experiencing it but it does give us the freedom to choose how we relate to problems.