Resting Naturally

Published Monday, December 03, 2007 by Dan Gainsford | E-mail this post

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It was at 6:15 that Hanna Hannan walked into my life... or rather I walked into hers. We were both just resting naturally. peace, d

Resting Naturally
a redundant rant on resting within environment by Hanna Hannan....

As human beings in contemporary life the long to have a connection of any magnitude on any level arises due to the extremity of modern life. The need to feel a kind of authentic experience exists. Everyday life is filled with contrived situations, social obligations, culturally defined behaviors, and busying tasks. Many seek and long for meaning that has nothing to do with belief systems or religions whatsoever.

This seeking of meaning perhaps stems from an inability to relax. Perhaps it stems from the lack of opportunity to feel authenticity in relationships, work, time spent, and even natural play or recreation as living beings. The social obligations, behaviors, and expectations of our lives permeate our free time as well.

The solution, therefore, could be in making a decision to have an authentic experience with one's environment or in one's life.

The most healthy and mindful teachers in the world believe that this solution is to rest naturally through these experiences. Yet, in it's very essence of simplicity, resting naturally, is difficult to grasp because it feels so very unnatural to us in contemporary society.

We have, over time, learned to analyze and take in to account that all things are valuable and display a learning experience. Yet, learning to rest naturally through these experiences, emotions, and life events creates an authenticity which we all long for and desire. Resting naturally means exactly what it is. Resting. Relaxing. Being thoughtful. Allowing our mind to think quickly and honestly. This is quite different from impulsivity or intuition. Resting naturally is more being mindful in the immediacy of what is going on around you and in direct relation to you. It takes practice. This is also different from being passive. Resting naturally allows a person to literally 'see' the things around them and within themselves in a non-objective, beneficial, and authentic way.

Resting naturally allows a person to almost always perceive an expected or unexpected event as a benefit rather than as a disaster or dismissed as an easily forgotten event. One no longer needs to dwell or think about the future. After all, the future happens whether we think about it or not. We can continue to exhaustively entertain scenarios or we can simply rest through them, with the realizations that correct actions and answers will be provided naturally; our perceptions of circumstance being all that is stopping us from resting naturally. Ask yourself this: how many times has your mind changed past perceptions/points of view in the wake of present events and experiences either learned or forced upon us by our environment/others?

By resting naturally, all decisions become clear and easily decisive in everyday action of life. When resting, you are like a line drawn in water or an old man basking in the sun in a rocker. You are still engaged, yet relaxed and at ease. When resting, personal conviction dawns revealing who and what we are, a simplistic and basic space of self-awareness. Our minds are literally allowed for once in their life to simply be "aware" and open to what is around us. There becomes a complete ease in who we are as human beings that has nothing to do with belief.... Life becomes easy and natural. There is nothing left to say or do. Events happen. Emotions happen, and disasters happen to us and others., but when resting naturally, happenings become perceived with wisdom. The happenings of life become like a line drawn in water. They are neither real nor unreal because they are not tangible to us and will continue to change. They just are. They display themselves and then resolve themselves without us doing or acting on anything.

The solution to obsessing about events, the fading away of conditions (like love or sadness), as well as the falling away of expected results throughout our life, is simply imperturbable rest. Realistically, it is, quite possibly the single factor that ensures this "freedom" which u and i feel from what we do. This feeling of "freedom" is simply resting naturally and allowing the environment around us in all its wisdom and chaos to happen without the exhaustion of forcing it into old patterns and social conceptions, expectations, and contrived ideas. It is all perception. We have all heard that the only thing matters is how we perceive something. We can either learn, live, and love the wisdom given to us though events or continue an exhausting barrage of thought patterns that analyze situations.

Things/events arise and then dissipate whether we choose to do anything about them or not. We could analyze, dissect, and use our energy and mental capacity to dwell on them or we can succumb to the fact that they all will resolve themselves naturally, so why waste
energy on repeating patterns. Truly, we all know and understand that it is exhausting.

Life is a collection of these 'appearances' or events... we can choose what to do with what we are given, and we can create..... We continue to make life meaningful by attempting to give ourselves a self identity by labeling these appearances. (Our culture is very good at this) For example, i am divorced, i am an artist, i am Hanna, i am compassionate....... but a collection of appearances or these "points of view" if you will--a life does not make. They are exhausted analysis that do and will come and go throughout life. They are all viewpoints and perceptions which are not tangible; which make them unreal, and constantly changing and moving; just like our emotions.

As a response to our environment we can choose to rest naturally under all conditions and situations and the outcome will present itself....well, naturally.

Dan has a passionate viewpoint about human interaction with their environment. He is creating a film about it. If he chooses to rest naturally the film will create its own pattern of wisdom. Dan has not forced or contrived anything to happen with expectation.

If you rest naturally you are as wisdom awareness on top of a mountain. You can see all sides of the situation to see where you are going. Your mind doesn't become muddied by the points of view and "appearances" of daily life. The mind is no longer cluttered with contrived notions of definitions and labels. You still have emotions. You still have experiences, but what you also have by resting naturally is an ease of conviction. You are seen by others as authority because you have obtained true wisdom within resting naturally. People feel it. You command life around you with the obtained wisdom that you are comforted by your natural environment and its wisdom to solve all problems without action. You rest. You know what to do, and where to go and when. You trust yourself. By resting naturally you have placed yourself in a position of great success. It is like natural selection because you are in direct contact with your environment.

This direct contact is authentic because it is highly connected to other beings and the world. It is also filled with wisdom and meaning because of this innate connection. Resting naturally makes life simple; so simple it takes only our mind to decide to rest within its simplicity. It takes only your mind to allow itself to "see" and reach its full capacity and potential as being aware. Our mind can have direct contact with its true natural potential in all there is to see and experience with authenticity as basic natural organisms and living beings.

Rest.

Hanna Hannan
ZOOTOWN ARTS
Owner/Artist Instructor
art workshops and classes in the Missoula Valley
zootownarts.blogspot.com

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