The Prime Directive

There is an unerring flow to life, as I’ve come to understand it, though that is not necessarily how I register the experience of events in my life.

Sometimes, I get a great positive win at work. At other times, there are setbacks. Sometimes, a dear one becomes sick. At other times, someone with sickness stages a fantastic recovery. Some events happen that trigger fear, others anger. Some situations bring great news, others not so much. This is a bit all over the place, isn’t it?

At one level, that IS life! The ebb and flow! The journey!

At another level, this begs deeper inquiry.

Why does something happen in our experience? Why does a certain event happen in our lives? What controls the flow of events in our life? Is it all random? Is there a method to the madness?

There are many possible factors at play. Take for example, the notion of Karma and rebirth, which Is said to determine the circumstances of our current birth – i.e. The notion is that our Karma has a role in what we are experiencing now. Take for example, the notion of free will, which does give us ability to make choices in the moment – i.e. We are experiencing that which emerged from our actions. Take for example, the choices and actions of others – i.e. We are experiencing something that is the result of others’ actions. Take for example, the acts of Nature – i.e. Rains, Storms, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, and even just seasonal events, all of which come into our experience as acts of Nature.

But the most telling factor I’ve come to notice, the one that causes all other factors to come into being, is what I call The Prime Directive.

Here’s what I understand about this, today.

We are sent into this life with the Prime Directive to Awaken. Awaken to our true nature. And recognize, amidst the bewildering illusion of duality, beyond the mesmerizing force of Maya (the force of illusion, that captivates and holds us prisoner to her seemingly endless attractions, also known as Mara, in Buddhist traditions), there has always been within us the essential presence of the Divine. It is that which animates us, and yet, we are drawn into Maya like moths to flame, and proceed to die in this birth only to return again under suitable circumstances with the Prime Directive to Awaken.

Every event that we encounter in our life happens with unerring perfection, bringing forth to us the opportunity to recognize that which, the recognition of which enables us to take the vibrational leap to the next level, taking us closer to the Prime Directive, the goal of Awakening.

So, a partner deserting us, the loss of a loved one, the uncontrollable desire for something external, the sudden illness, the unexpected road accident … all these are here not just for a reason, but is the perfect experience for us. We cannot see the perfection from our warped and twisted and limited perspective on the surface of it all. After all, when we are writhing in pain, or agonizing the loss of a dear one, or puzzled over the sudden negative”” turn of events in our lives, the last thing we can imagine is that somehow that is “perfect for us”! This claim then, would seem to stand on thin ice, if not sounding like total bullsh*t, right?

However, here is what I’ve noticed.

We can pause, and in the calm of the moment, ask the question, without fear, without anger, without resistance, “Why is this situation in my experience?” In that stillness, we can instantly recognize why the life situation is here in our visceral experience now.

The reason will vary, but is always aligned to bring the opportunity for the right vibrational leap to Awaken. The reason for a given event happening in our life may be about compassion, it may be about shedding fear, it may be about humility, or whatever, but it is always the perfect thing, at that moment, the recognition of which, and the subsequent embrace of which, automatically brings the vibrational leap to the next plateau in the path to Awakening.

Could this be true? If so, why this is the case? Why is it that the asking of the question “Why is this situation in my experience?” in the stillness of the moment, sans anger, fear, resistance, pride and such, why can it produce the answer about why that situation is indeed in our experience?

That is because we live in a world of duality. Nothing comes into physical experience in this world with only one side to it. Nothing! For an UP there is a DOWN. For a HOT there is a COLD. For every IN there is an OUT. And so forth. So, like a coin, every situation, regardless of what it is and when it arises, it comes with two sides to it. If the initial and visceral experience of that situation feels terrible to us, then we can pause to note that we experiencing the one side of that situation, and therefore, the other side should, by necessity, be a gift of a magnitude as big as the nature of the suffering delivered from the first side. i.e. If what you experience in an event feels like suffering, the other side to it HAS TO BE A GIFT. It has always been this way. And it has always been this way that we can pause to consciously ask nature to reveal the other side to this situation, so as to notice and embrace the gift it came bearing. When we do, the suffering disappears, in an unmistakable vibrational shift.

What happens in reality though, is that we are stuck in our response and in our resistance to the situation of the loss or the desire or the accident or the illness or whatever, and we let our mind tell us a story from its limited framework about why that situation happened. And in doing so, we grasp for explanations like bad luck, like bad karma, like past life, like being punished by the Higher Power, and on and on. None of these explanations in the end are really satisfactory and, worse, they keep us further mired in the realm of the limited mind. Often we don’t learn from that situation. And the Prime Directive is ALWAYS AT WORK. So, if we didn’t get the thing we needed to learn and grow from a situation, life has a fantastic way of bringing us another event or situation with the same objective, except this time, it raises the stakes, and the noise level, and the likely “suffering” associated with it, to enable us to “get it” better. This, we mistake often, as a chain of bad luck, or some mysterious punishment meted out to us etc. But it is infinite compassion at play there.

How can something that brings us suffering and hardship be a result of compassion, that too infinite compassion? This analogy might help to understand this – If at once, by shouting at a certain decibel level, we cannot get the attention of our child who is walking off the driveway into the busy road, what do we do? Really yell out loud, and perhaps startle and scare the child in the process, but why do we do it? Out of compassion and love for the child isn’t it? So it is with Nature.

If we recognize that the dynamics of the Prime Directive are at work ALL THE TIME, and that is the driver of every single situation and event in our experience, then, it brings us a fantastic choice. The choice to halt the drama of our conventional reactions and resistance, to create a space of silence to separate us from being caught in that event, to pose the question in stillness about what this event came bearing to us, recognizing that there was always a gift attached to the other side, knowing the gift, embracing it — and witnessing the leap of freedom we gain in the vibrational shift to the next plateau.

No longer are we in the grip of the situation or its aftermath, but we are free from it, having embraced its essential learning (the gift). And life will have no need to bring situations of this kind anymore. But in unerring perfection, the march of the Prime Directive will continue, bringing other suitable events / situations / people etc. into our experience that are most suited at that time to help us gain that next vibrational shift towards Awakening!

And that way, the flow of life continues, ALWAYS bringing us that which we need to be aware of, embrace and shift, so we can Awaken!

Stuckness happens when we are evaluating life experiences and ruminating about them or analyzing them from the limited space and framework of the mind. When we are stuck, noticing that we are not able to “get” the point, life will raise the stakes to deliver a “noisier” event/ situation, one that will have better likelihood of jolting us out of our stupor of looping through our mind endlessly.

There is only LOVE and COMPASSION at work in life ALWAYS, even if the surface experience is horrible, ghastly, painful, confusing, and bewildering. All those agents of suffering emerge from the mind, and mind alone. There is nothing inherently wrong with the world, or our experiences, regardless of how we experience it today. There is only something wrong with how we each perceive it, usually from our limited and warped mind, and act from that limited state. That said, it is true that we do damage the world around us when we act out of our limited, twisted state, but even the unfolding experience of the damage is the perfect thing in our experience.

This method I suggest here unfailingly enables the perspective shift, from reacting/resisting the event, to knowing and embracing the gift it brought, which creates the vibrational shift, which was the only reason the situation/event came into our experience in the first place.

The LOVE and COMPASSION of the Prime Directive at work is the tether that holds our essential Divine Nature as it is plunged into the bewildering realm of duality, form and illusion. It is like a loving parent bringing a child into a foreign space to let her explore, but is ever present with their gaze and attention just a step away to protect her and help her return to her source (the source). In this way, we are plunged into the cosmic kindergarten of life, navigating myriad events, and maybe myriad lifetimes, BUT always with the love and compassion of our essential Divine Nature, programmed to direct us to Awaken through the learnings uniquely suited for us.

This is one thing I’ve come to understand about the fabric of life! As always, this is evolving understanding from one practitioner. Do share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.