It’s the Olympics! Time to marvel at the displays of extraordinary strength, grace, and artistry—and go for the gold!

Gold has always been the symbol of mastery and the highest attainment. And not just in sports. Spiritual traditions also prize the gold. Alchemical and esoteric systems around the world have sought to transform the base lead of conditioned consciousness into the the gold of awakening.

What is the gold of awakening? It’s realizing, embodying, and expressing radiant presence.

When? Now. Where? Here.

This moment is an Olympic moment. Will you realize its golden nature? It depends on your practice.

Going for the gold is not a competition. There’s no panel of judges, no opposing team—unless you conjure them up in your mind. It’s easy to do.

Anyone who has practiced meditation for more than a week has thought or said, “That was a good meditation” or “That was a bad meditation.” The habit of judging is well developed.

The truth is, these internal judges have no medals to give.

For years, when we co-ran North County Yoga Center, I used to tell the students, as they strained and struggled to touch a nose to knee or wrap foot behind head, “All the awards have been previously distributed.” We’d laugh together and they’d stop struggling. They’d stop straining to appease their internal judges and truly enter the asana.

It’s the same in every posture of our lives. We don’t realize the golden nature of this moment via struggle. But, it does take practice.

Here’s why: our capacity to realize, embody, and express that golden nature—in this moment—is limited.

It’s not that this moment is any more or less sacred, radiant, or golden than any other. It’s rather that our capacity is limited.

What creates this limit? The mind’s tendency to identify with patterns of the past limits your capacity to realize and embody the Golden Radiance of this moment.

The patterns, by themselves, aren’t the problem. Each pattern has its usefulness in the right context. The pattern of doubt has its place as much as the pattern of certainty. Sadness is no more or less golden than joy.

It’s true for any and all patterns. Every thought, emotion, sensation—every experience!—has a golden essence. It’s not even buried treasure. It’s the very essence, the very nature of experience, of life itself.

But, when the mind identifies with a pattern, it loses the gold. When the mind believes the thought, the pattern becomes a prison. The mind locks itself in memories and throws away the key.

Spiritual practice puts the key back into our hands. Spiritual practice gives us the method for gently releasing the mind from its identification with patterns.

And, spiritual practice is a practice. We can’t skip steps.

In the same way that a weight lifter, swimmer, or gymnast builds her athletic capacity, practice builds our meditative capacity.

To do what?

To let go of identification with patterns and reside—in the golden essence of your being.

Practice loosens the mind’s identification and builds spiritual capacity.

Through meditative practice, we discover a state of being that is prior to thought; a golden, ever-radiant state. By returning again and again (do it now!) to that golden essence beyond thought, the mind naturally relaxes its habit of identification. The mind learns that with each release of identification there is an influx of energy, insight, and bliss.

As the mind lets go, it simultaneously fills with a palpable, grounded awareness of peace and fulfillment. The mind is freed from patterns—and reconnects with its deeper identity—as unformed gold.

The patterns do not go away.

As identification releases, the patterns return to their natural state. They were potential expressions, forms, permutation, and possibilities of the golden essence. The patterns never were you. They were and remain possibilities.

Every possibility is available to be embodied and expressed as the moment requires.

It’s all golden.

Take a breath and feel that golden essence—the radiance—within you and around you. Relax and open.

Welcome to this Olympic moment!

You’ve already won!

 

Author: Eric Klein 

Image: Author’s Own

Editor: Emily Bartran