Walk in the Realm of the Subtle
It has Gifts for you.
September: Number 9 – Guru Teg Bahadur – Subtle Body
The Dharma of number 9: Calm, Persistent, Patient, Tolerance, Enduring, Peaceful, Subtle and refined.
The Karma of number 9: Impatience, Perfectionism, Tyranny, Disgust, Pressure, bluntness.
9 is beyond the infinity of the 8. It is the other shore beyond the ocean of time and space. Everything in life has another side to it. September is a month not to be impatient, but to tune in to the other side – of everything. The other side of things, events, people, and life itself may also reveal itself without invitation. Like after a long winter the spring reveals itself, or after a long summer the leaves start falling.
What was falling starts to rise, what was rising starts to fall. The end becomes a new beginning.
Sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is the best direction you need to take. If you will go in that direction it will build in you the rare quality of Spiritual Perseverance. Remember it is what we become through the journey, not merely where we end up. The diamond we are to be, that we are making within our-self, must pass through the stages of pressure and discomfort.
The Subtle Body offers us peace: Peace is subtle. It is not concrete or material. To materialize peace requires the most intense silence of the mind and receptivity of the heart. Peace awaits us to call it down. Through an atmosphere based on the common ground of all beings. Valuing tolerance more than perceptions of right and wrong, good or bad. Whatever our differences are it is the same spirit that flows in the same red blood in all of us.
Guru Nanak’s reference to the 9th Guru came in the mantra of ‘Ajooni’; unborn, or beyond the womb. The Subtle Body never takes birth. It is the home from where we (the soul) came and to where we return. It is the soul’s resting place and the spiritual ground that makes possible an unshakeable calmness within.
It is said ‘meditate on Guru Teg Bahadur and the 9 treasures shall come into your home’. The 9 gifts of insight, the revelation of the universal principles, which give the capacity to live by the virtues.
So lets meditate on Guru Teg Bahadur by reflecting on his final moments of life. His name means Great Wielder of Sword, yet in the last noble act of his life he had a very special degree of restraint and did not yield the sword of metal but rather the sword of faith. Consider the highest level of altruism that moved him to give his head for the freedom of all beings to practice their faith in their own way. Without living in fear of others, nor in such a way that others should fear them. Consider his message that – when faith is true then nothing can take it away or destroy it. No amount of persecution or suffering or bribery or seduction can separate, or distract, one who is in love with the One Supreme Formless Being; the Unit Totality of All.
Some things to practice:
To help you remember and be open to communication from the other side: Take a guiding line, a sutra, a universal spiritual principle, like a motto, and let all your thoughts, words and actions be governed by that for the month.
Take a few moments to imagine yourself an ancient hermit/monk who has often sat in a cave and confronted and cleansed all your personal and family ghosts, phantoms and demons.
Invite peace into your inner being and from there spread it around you. Any simple altruistic act where you stand for others rather than yourself.
Walk slowly and calmly in your environments. Not to start the new term/season with a rush.
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