Somewhere during my mid-40s, I read a book by Pema Chödrön that describes the charnel ground. If you aren’t aware of this term, it refers to an open-air crematorium of sorts, where bodies are left out in the open to decompose naturally—usually connected with Hindu or Buddhist cultures.
The charnel ground is full of profound transpersonal significance. It represents the ‘death of ego’ and the end of:
• Attachment to this body and life
• Craving for a body and life in the future
• Fear of death
• Aversion to the decay of ‘impermanence’
This next book I’m working on represents another transformation and transition from the decade I spent building up that nonprofit through to its dissolution. It has to do with my detaching myself from the identity I had as a founder and an understanding of the “me” that exists independent and apart from that identity. Through this period, I’m learning how to deal with the figurative death of who I was and the impermanent nature of life in general.
That’s partly why this blog exists. It’s a way for me to examine and hold up to the light the various aspects of creation, destruction, transformation, resolution and evolution. And through this journey with you, I hope that we will all benefit.
From my very beginnings, the arc of my behavior is one of a learner and teacher. I make a really big mistake and then take the lessons learned from it and help others. The organization was born of my lack of transportation and empathy for those who still find themselves in that position of lack of access and mobility.
But more than just transportation, I know what it’s like to feel misaligned and out of sync with my environment—unseen and unrecognized. Over the years, I have had the good fortune to have many people who were in a position to recognize me for not only who I was but who I could be (without diminishing who I was at the time). I mentioned one of them in a previous post—these were executives, investors, organizers, business owners and friends who provided the incubator for me to expand and to fulfill my potential.
What I’m hoping to accomplish through this blog and my book is to help others recognize opportunities for growth while observing beauty and grace along the way.
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