Breakingfree oh AUM Welcome.
I'm Jacob Watson,
And it is my pleasure to welcome you to another mini satsang,
Brief spiritual teaching interwoven with meditation silences,
Time to reflect on what we have discussed.
So today,
I'm reflecting on my years and the many different roles that I have played in my life.
Uncountable really,
If we stop to think of all these roles that we've played in our lives.
Many are voluntary.
That is,
We choose to adopt them.
We choose to play them out.
They're close to home,
Certainly family,
Certainly jobs.
Hopefully,
We choose our professions.
And they come and go.
I'm struck particularly by how many roles,
How many beings I've been in my life looking backward.
Again,
Many are voluntary.
Yet,
It's important to remind ourselves that some are involuntary.
There are roles that people asked us to play.
There are roles that we had to play.
We didn't want to at the moment,
But life demanded this role of us.
We needed to play it out.
We needed to serve someone.
We needed to take care of something that was beyond our control,
But we could affect it.
On and on,
Over the many years.
In this silent time,
Perhaps you have reflected on some of these roles in your own life.
When I look back,
Way back,
The first role that I bring my consciousness to now is of an elder child.
I was the oldest of four.
So that was a role that I didn't ask for.
It was given to me by my parents and by the universe.
So after that,
I looked around and had models,
Other students,
Fellow students at schools I went to.
I admired certain ones of them.
And so I adopted things that they did that I liked,
That I wanted to be known for.
I wanted to be living out those ideals on through school.
And I had some mentors,
Elders that I looked up to and really appreciated in particular,
One uncle who was an educator and a teacher and a school administrator.
And I loved how he did his job.
He had his responsibilities that he carried out to run the school.
And yet,
And yet he was very approachable.
He still had a wicked sense of humor.
And he related to not only me,
But my friends and other students at the school.
So there was a way that I adopted his persona,
Took on things that I learned from him as a mentor.
And so that was a role I really appreciated and tried to live out and to the best of my ability,
Indeed made myself join the profession of being a professional teacher and really liked that for many,
Many years.
So those are the professional,
But closer to home,
The family roles continued.
Certainly the eldest child has certain expectations placed on him.
And that was true for me.
And so I lived that role out as well.
And being a good sibling and elder sibling was part of that.
Teaching my younger siblings things that was also a part of that role.
So reflect in this next silent time on roles that you played early in your life.
Now.
Now,
Let's look at the roles as they continued midlife,
Even into older,
Elder years.
So the roles continued,
Again,
Two kinds,
Voluntary,
Parts that we chose to play,
And then involuntary,
The parts that other people placed on us,
Demanded of us,
Wished for us,
Those kinds of roles.
But then,
Beyond the roles,
All these things that we did,
I want to emphasize things,
That's the doing part of life.
Every action,
Every,
Indeed,
Accomplishment,
How we spent our time,
The full spectrum from family to profession to community,
All these things that we did,
The doing part of life,
There's something underneath that,
Isn't there?
Something that's perhaps harder to define,
Not so much recognized by other people,
And yet,
And yet.
Absolutely.
And yet,
And yet,
Something underneath all these roles begins to emerge and becomes more and more clear as the things we do pile up year after year after year.
The Hindu religious tradition has a wonderful saying,
Neti neti,
N-E-T-I,
N-E-T-I,
Not this,
Not that,
Not this role,
Not that accomplishment,
Not this doing,
Not that doing.
No,
There is something underneath all of that,
Something,
Yes,
Harder to define.
But as the years unfold,
It becomes more and more clear because we have done a lot,
Played out roles,
Accomplished certain things.
Again,
The doing,
The things,
They come and they go,
Don't they?
The coming and the going of all the roles,
All the accomplishments,
All the doings.
Underneath all of that,
There is a being,
There is,
Again,
We know we're in the spiritual realm when words are hard to come by.
So underneath all of that doing,
There is a being,
A human being,
A being.
For me,
This being emerges more and more in the sunlight and sometimes in the moonlight.
For,
As all the doings come and go,
Come and go,
And indeed continue in this human realm,
This human kingdom.
The essence,
The soul,
The being emerges with more clarity,
With more,
Clarity is the only word I can think of right now,
Clarity,
Clarity.
It's as if the others recede all the doings.
Yes,
We still do them,
The ones we are called to do.
Many others drop away,
Of course,
But we still do what we want to do.
And yet again,
The clarity of being shines forth over and over again,
Rising inexorably to the surface,
Shining in the sun,
Shining in the moon.
Thank you for joining me for this mini satsang.
May you go forth with the new and deeper understanding of what has been there all along,
Underneath the roles,
Underneath all the doing,
And is for you too emerging into more and more clarity as the years pass,
Clarity in the sunlight and the moonlight.
