The Thing That's Underneath Everything
Friday Prompt #1
There’s an excited fizz in my stomach as I launch FRIDAY PROMPTS, my brand new series for paid subscribers. Tada! I’m sending three out to free subscribers over the next few weeks, like free samples of fudgy brownie or artisan cheese1.
On Tuesdays I will continue writing about living a gentle life, and on Fridays I will be showing you how. How did I get where I am now? What wisdom would I love to pass on? How can we support each other into a gentler, braver, more delicious life? There will be monthly free workshops too!
Each Prompt contains a short teaching and an Excellent Question and they are designed to… well, prompt you. You will get more sweet juice from them if you take some time to give them a good old squeeze. Ready?
We’ll begin our series of prompts by investigating the light that Cohen is speaking of.
I believe that the light (the divine, Gaia, love…) is underneath everything, if we go down far enough.
Are you willing to test that theory out with me this week?
Excellent Question: When do I catch glimpses of the light?
A note about my questions. I am calling them Excellent Questions with a glint of self-deprecating humour in my eye, but it is my hope that they might unlock some new insights for you, like finding the portal to a new level in a computer game.
Instructions for using Excellent Questions:
Put five minutes aside right now to think, move, create or write in response to my question. Be playful!
Jot down some notes and/or click the comment button. If you do comment, know that others will appreciate hearing your thoughts, whatever they are.
Write my question in your diary or onto a Post-it note or carry it around in your head with you this week. Check in with it once a day.
Be open to where the question takes you and welcome parts of you that might react with confusion, skepticism, annoyance or anything else - get curious about these reactions and include them as a part of your investigation.
Revisit this prompt any time to post your ongoing discoveries. I’d be so interested to hear them.
Don’t underestimate the power of questions. Especially excellent ones 😉
When do I catch glimpses of the light?
Go gently,
Satya <3
Fancy vegan cheese made from cashews for me but of course you can have the dairy kind if you prefer
Is it cheating somehow to comment on my own prompt? 😉
This morning I woke with excited anxiety, knowing that this first prompt was going out and knowing how much love and effort I put into it (and those that are coming next), and wanting some affirmation from people that they like it, that they like me.
It's a feeling I know well from when my books first get published or when I have an article in a magazine I admire.
I am looking out at the temple garden in the sunlight and asking myself, where is the light? And I just caught a glimpse of it - baked into the MAKING of this prompt, not the resulting piece, and not the affirmation that comes (or doesn't).
The light is already there. It is a comfort to see it. And the sun is out too and is lighting up the bright red geraniums and the daisies and the whole valley underneath me, and all is well.
One of my favorite activities is hiking through the Open Spaces (undeveloped woodlands) in a small city on the central coast of Oregon (U.S.A.). I always take my camera with me to document the things I find of interest as I hike. I find the best things to photograph when I look carefully at spots of sunshine that make their way through the mostly-coniferous trees. That spot of sunlight has travelled 93 million miles to highlight a spot in the woods for me to appreciate and often photograph.