Guest House

Today we may be able to bring together several themes we've been talking about or looking into in our personal investigations.

I wanted to call this theme "Appreciation", and then I thought "Participation" was a better name, and for a while I considered "Beyond Appearances". Those words just name parts of it, though they may be doorways to understanding.

This theme doesn't have a name, but is a way of knowing and being with the world.  Rumi has written a lovely poem about it, which often says new things to me when I read it afresh. That poem is The Guest House. Rumi talks about how we can approach our inner and outer experiences.
 

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all.
Treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

How do we approach and engage in experience?  Participation and Appreciation are two complementary qualities that work together.  

Participation means engaging, going to meet the world, getting closer and deeper with things. It is what you do, a way of being-with, a way of welcoming and being in relationship with what happens.

Appreciation means, a way of giving things your interest, and with this attention, they start to grow in value. It is an expansive quality that has refers to seeing the truth and value of something.  It has both a giving and receiving aspect.

Participation and appreciation work together.  They form a virtuous cycle.  

Interestingly, appreciation is both a key to unlock experience, and a signal or sign that you are following a path of getting closer, deepening and being-with.

As Rumi's poem points out, this can happen regardless of whether at first we think some situation or experience is "positive" or "negative".  These likes and dislikes are often about much less than the full value and worth of what is.  Participation and appreciation may open up a kind of experience that is positive in a more real way.

Some Questions:

• How do things "come to" you in your moment to moment experiencing?
• Are there times when you find or create  these qualities in your ordinary life and  practices?
• How are you a Host in the Guest House that is daily life?