Making meaning is what our bodies, minds and emotions do in this physical reality
I was talking with a friend the other day, debating what drives us as soul-beings. Where is our truth? I’d had an experience that started us down this path and we were deep into it. A few nights previously, I was at a kirtan concert and was allowing the music and the sanskrit to work their magic on me. Listening, sometimes singing, allowing my consciousness to dance along with the energy in the room. I settled into that place in awareness, before we add meaning. That place of stillness that I like to think of as my soulself. I settled there and I watched how I (humans) add layers to truth, based on physical, emotional or cognitive projections.Those layers are masks and shrouds and camouflage. The more inflamed I am about an experience, the more robust the shield and the tighter I hold on. Interesting contemplation ensued, with my body, emotions and thoughts moving and informing my soulself, telling the story through past experiences and filters.
This experience led to me considering the meaning we add and how it blooms into and impacts our reality. My own way of processing is swiftly optimistic. I often don’t even notice the down side of something before I make a positive meaning. This I attribute to my genetically high serotonin/dopamine state and an early childhood of teasing and drama where I didn’t want to be caught out as wrong (even to myself). In contemplation, I question whether my subjective sensitivity is helpful to my spiritual growth or a roadblock. It can make it hard to see into the natural equanimity that is my soul state. It can impinge my full range of emotional expression. From my optimist’s perspective, it also keeps my vibration higher and my body more settled and happy. But at what cost? Since this body is my receiver and my learned filters are my garments, awareness at every level is key to presence. This life is subtle and intricately woven.
I come to understand that making meaning is what our bodies, minds and emotions do in this physical reality. There is really no experience where we don’t make some kind of meaning. How we notice and react to this meaning is the food our souls long for us to dine on. The table is set.