Thursday, May 17, 2012

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

A dear client of mine gave me a homework today (May 17th, 2012). This is the first time that I have received homework from a client. She felt that I have talked to her many times about how the brain works and there is a lot of similarity between what I told her and what Jill is talking about. Getting homework actually feels good. Most of the time I am the one asking my clients to do some homework. Hmm!

My homework is to listen to Jill Bolte's stroke of insight video at http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html and give her my take on it.

Left and Right hemispheres of your brain
   

I enjoyed listening to her video. She had a stroke due to which she lost the functions of her left brain. Her consciousness changed as a result and she experienced the beauty of living with the right brain. She talks about her out of body kind of experience. She felt enormous and expansive, full of joy, euphoria. She describes being an energy being. Listen to it for more information.

My take on this is as follows:


Our ability to transcend from left brain to right brain seamlessly is our spiritual quest on this planet. We are part of collective consciousness (right hemisphere), very expansive, full of joy, happiness, compassion, love, peace.

At the same time we are an individual (left hemisphere) with a given EGO, separated deliberately from the universal consciousness, so we can perceive the world from our EGO viewpoint, learn our lessons and focus on our growth. Ultimate goal is to learn all the lessons over lifetimes and then merge effortlessly into the universal consciousness, enjoying bliss forever. That is enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, whatever name you wish to call it.

However it is not the final destination that is our goal at this moment in this lifetime for most of us. It is the journey that is important. It is the journey that will smoothen the roughness of our inner self to reveal the smooth precious gem within. It’s like we are a drop of water separated by our EGO from the ocean right now. One day this drop of water will find its way to the ocean and enjoy being the ocean with no separation from the ocean.


There is a reason why we are a separate drop of water right now. There are no accidents in nature. We need to recognize our current form.


I feel many people are so focused on the final destination that they are missing on walking the path and enjoying the path and learning from the path. It’s good to see pictures of Mt Everest peak to know our destination, but to reach there, one has to be focused on the journey to reach the top, one has to be in the present moment, aware of each step, aware of the dangers, aware of the beauty, aware of what needs to be done to take the next step. It is this present moment awareness that will reveal the next step and the next and the next. It is in the present moment that we can learn, we can enjoy, we can grow.

Enjoy this journey you are on now.

God's (Universal consciousness, Higher consciousness or whatever name you want to call it by) purpose for you is simply perfect. He wants to show you things that only you can understand by living what you are living and by being in the place you are now.
With compassion, love and understanding for yourself and for others, we can all grow.
 
Share your thoughts, write in your comments or send me email at kj@karuna-healing.com.
 
Bon Voyage.
 
Karuna Jain, MS, C.Ht
http://www.karuna-healing.com/