Garuda and Dragon in your life

 

Garuda

Garuda is the dignity that everyone gaps on. What is a Garuda? Well, it is a mythical bird like creature that was prominent in Indian culture. So like the Dragon we only know it from stories and haven’t seen them directly. What we are told is that Garudas don’t go through a series of learning curves but are born fully mature and in fact fully awake. In a similar way that another mythical creature, the Phoenix, rises fully grown. They are also not creatures of the ‘earth’ but live entirely in the sky or ‘heaven’. Another fun fact about garudas are that they eat poison, (poisonous snakes actually) which they transform into the opposite of poison. Their cry or shriek is also unique; it cuts through discursiveness and fear and even beyond the fear of death. On top of all that they are an outrageous RED!

This is a continuation of this article.

So how is this unseen dignity of Garuda manifested in ones daily life? The first place to look for it is in the unseen areas of one’s life. The spaces. What does that mean? Well for example, when you are planning a project, you have to and should allow for some space or insight to guide you in making the final decisions. The unexpected? The thought that arises to change the project when you are halfway through and the walls are already torn out, for example and you can see it differently.

Another way to look at garuda is to see where you have a boundary and allow yourself to go beyond it. That could be in your field of work, setting yourself a goal that you couldn’t have conceived of doing when you were first learning that skill (tiger) but now that you are accomplished you could stretch yourself a little further with (fill in the blank). The Sakyong as a runner uses the example of setting yourself a goal that isn’t simply a mechanical or technique one. “The meditation technique of the garuda is moving forward with a healthy balance of mindfulness and awareness, with the result that we can surpass previous limitations”.

The unseen is also the unexpected parts of life. Being able to allow for the space to go help a relative when needed, to take in an unexpected guest, to allow for some space in an argument that sprung up in a flash.

Space is something to incorporate as part of ones life. For example planning to have a retreat, or planning space in one’s daily, monthly and annual cycle. Or not filling up every moment of your children’s lives, or always having that item at the end of the agenda to allow for insights, ideas and whatever.

Transforming is another quality of garuda in everyday life. When we are actually tigering and lioning along, when a problem comes up and we allow a little bit of space around it, rather than immediately pouncing on it, then we can eat the negativity of it and still be there with the situation. It makes for creative solutions that we could otherwise not have anticipated. This is how the garuda transforms: first there is balance, two wings stretched wide, then a spark, then choice based on having the space to allow dragon insight.

Garuda is balance. When you find that you are doing too much of one thing with your body it will go out of whack, you will stub your toe, you will hurt your back, you will make a mistake. Garuda is when you see that it is not your fault but that you need a balancing activity to bring things more into alignment. Garuda also is when you see that you haven’t called your favourite person in a while, or that you have been doing too much lion partying and not enough tiger housecleaning. Garuda allows you to see that and bring it back into balance again.

Sleep is also the area of garuda. We spend how much of our lives in that unseen realm? With the basis of meditation being the tigers ability to just be present and be with the breath, the lion takes if further and joyfully just is. Garuda soars into the big mind (as opposed to the little mind limited by thoughts) where the line between thoughts and the mind that produces them is not there. When we allow this to happen on a more regular basis then the line between sleep and dream and sleep and awake becomes less of a boundary.

So enjoy the red of the sunset, have a drink, let garuda be part of your life. Later enjoy your preparation for sleep, allow the gap to be an entryway into beyond your conceptual limits, eat your concepts of possible and impossible and dream.

 

Contemplation:

Where do you see your limits? How did you come to determine a limit to be a limit? Have you transformed a situation in your life? How did that actually come about?   What phase of your life to date would you call garuda phase? How can you expand to include others?

 

 

 

Kristine McCutcheon lives between a mountain and the ocean in Margaree, Cape Breton. She is married and on the Shambhala path as a Householder.