Namaste

I'm thinking about something Deepak Chopra recommends in his book The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire.  He suggests that each and every time you make eye contact with a person you silently greet them with "Namaste," which translates "The spirit in me recognizes the spirit in you."

He makes the point that, when we do this, the energy field of the person we're silently greeting in this way recognizes our greeting and responds accordingly.  This is a practice I have adopted.  And I find it makes a lovely, free flowing shift for people without my having to have any opinions about them or about me or about the situation.  And I haven't taken any action that is overtly designed to change anyone else.

It actually re-affirms for me that I am the universe arising in this form and I'm in the presence of myself arising in another form at this moment.  And it reminds me that nothing "needs fixed."

Here's an example of an encounter I had once a while back.  I was walking along the sidewalk with a friend.  We approached a man coming toward us.  Although I had no sense that we were hogging the sidewalk, he stepped completely off the sidewalk and far onto the grass to skirt us.  The sense I had from him was that he was really feeling like he needed lots of space and didn't want to have any human interaction. 

I happened to make eye contact in the course of this moment.  I remembered my practice and silently greeted him with "Namaste."  Instantly his whole body seemed to relax and he turned to us and greeted us warmly and asked how we were doing.  I responded warmly as though we were close neighbors and walked by.  He seemed a little baffled by his own behavior but walked on in a lighter mood. So did I.

That's how I experienced the situation.

For me it's about encountering everything in the universe as me and nothing as not me... nothing foreign or in need of distancing from. 

It's a process of allowing everything to flow in and out of my auric field freely without barriers... and without things becoming lodged.  It's a process.  If I do experience myself feeling reactive, I feel thrilled to notice that's an area where I'm still clinging to wounds and judgments.  It's an opportunity for me to address them sweetly... inviting new ways of being to arise.