Groundhog Day or Enlightenment

I heard a lovely story in my yoga class today from my wonderful yoga teacher, Mandy that I know she won’t mind me sharing here on my blog.

There was a young Hindu disciple who wanted to reach enlightenment. He spent his whole lifetime buried in books, learning to recite the yoga sutras back to front. He reached the end of his life, expecting to find the enlightenment he so desired however it was not to be and he died, a normal mortal.

As in the Hindu tradition, there is life after death. So this young man was born again and decided, right, this time round I will study even harder and I will find enlightenment. He locked himself up all his life, learning everything he possibly could, believing he would finally reach enlightenment.

Sadly, on his deathbed, enlightenment yet again did not arrive.

So he was born a third time and thought to himself, surely now if I study again for my entire life I will finally reach enlightenment. On his deathbed, Shiva came to visit and this studious disciple thought to himself – yes! Finally I will reach enlightenment.

Not to be however. Shiva sadly looked down at the dying man and said, you cannot find enlightenment no matter how much you learn and study and lock yourself away. You must share your knowledge with the world, this is a gift that must not be kept to yourself.

So this is what he did. In his fourth life, he travelled the world, sharing his wisdom to young and old. He was so revered and everyone treated him like a saint. People thanked him wherever he went, he inspired everyone with all his knowledge and with his generosity in sharing it.

Shiva again visited him on his deathbed and said to him, you have reached enlightenment and I am here to take you there. This dying man thought for a moment and said, thank you but no. I would much rather come back and do it all again. The pleasure of helping people and making a difference in so many lives, touches my soul so much more than enlightenment ever could.

So the lessons I took from this wonderful story in my morning yoga class were:

1. Don’t hide all your knowledge away, share your wisdom with the world.
2. If you repeat the same actions, you will always produce the same results.

Since training as an RTT therapist, I feel I have reached enlightenment in some respects. I have helped people achieve some amazing results in their lives that has left me feeling so humbled and thankful that I made this career change.

When I first discovered Marisa Peer, I would often hear her say ‘I do what I love and I love what I do’. I used to think, wow, I wish I could feel like that every single day, and I have to admit I honestly didn’t think it was available to me.

To be happy you have to make peace with your past, love the present, and feel so excited about the future.
– Marisa Peer

How wrong I was! I can now honestly say that I do what I love, and I love what I do. And I am so grateful that I discovered this, over half a century into my life. I know I will be doing this for years to come and the excitement I feel every day, as my husband, family and friends will vouch for, is living proof that my new vocation is most definitely the path to enlightenment for me.