Life will generally begin communicating with a very subtle voice—a whisper. Sometimes, for whatever reason, we do not respond. A good thing to remember is that life’s first offer is always its best. To the extent that we can purify our senses to hear, and cultivate the power to respond, we will truly be able to receive the best that life has to offer. Life is always offering, this is not the question. The question is, at what level are we able to receive it? In this way, we precisely choose the level and nature of our lives. Life happily provides the resources; the quality and amount is determined by our receptive capacity. We perceive, respond, and receive.
However, at times when we are grasping in greed or fixated on something pleasurable, we often ignore the whisper. We may also ignore it when we are frozen in a state of survival-based fear where habit tells us to contract—a high-threat screech that drowns out any other voice. We may turn the whisper all the way off if we feel resentful, abandoned, or betrayed, asking ourselves why we would listen to a life that does not play fair. In other words, when life does not play by our rules, we may stop listening to it, ignoring the fact that life is ultimately leading us to where we want to go with infinitely more intelligence.
Life has an intelligence that goes beyond our own. We can tap into it, but if we disconnect from life for whatever reason, we lose access and instead become reliant on our intellect. What we want is to live life on life’s terms rather than our endless attempts to get life to live on our terms—to control nature and make our mark, to effect change and assert our will. Even higher-order consciousness practices are often done with the aim of controlling our own nature or getting it to cooperate so it will go where we want it to go: into the profound and away from the profane.
Eros would suggest this is a rather aggressive stance to take with life, that it’s elitist and prejudiced. This stance is ignorant in the truest definition of ignorant—not understanding due to lack of contact or experience. In contrast, control in the context of Eros is alignment or friendship with what is, and an offering of support to the way of life.
The final admission—and life will help us greatly in the understanding of this one—is that life is unrelenting and indelible. Simply because we ignore the whisper does not mean the suggestion-turned-request-turned-demand-turned-no option will go away. It will only increase in pressure, moving from playful to not-so-playful communication, taking everything we have in the process, including our dignity. Had we simply responded to the first request, we could have aligned ourselves easily to the truth as it presented itself.
