To flow with life means being able to adapt to everything that happens. When you live at your center, you can flow with life.
I once read a very interesting article about a man who worked in the French Underground at the time of the Nazi occupation. Somehow, the Nazis heard about him and came to arrest him. He was up on a top floor and the Nazis were in the lobby, in full force.
There seemed to be no way to escape and his first thought was one of despair. “I don’t know what to do. It’s hopeless.” As soon as there’s any thought of despair, there’s a sudden lowering of energy, a sudden paralysis of the mind.
“I’m getting better and better”
But this man followed a teaching in which you affirm, “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.” This positive, cheerful outlook was a very important part of his life. He suddenly remembered this affirmation and started saying it. Things certainly didn’t seem “better and better”-with the Nazis ready to swarm up the stairs. But basically he was saying, “Okay, this has happened. Now what can I do about it? At least I can be joyful.” Joy is an expression of your soul reality, of that inner center from which positive attitudes radiate. From that center, this man was able to generate the magnetism to draw the inspiration he needed.
He said, “Oh, I saw that fellow. He’s up there on the top floor.” And while the Nazis went storming upstairs, he walked calmly out the door.
The test of intuition: does it work?
When you can keep a cheerful, buoyant outlook-and that necessitates affirming that whatever comes is the right thing-you can change situations. For instance, this man did not affirm, “Oh, my God, the Nazis shouldn’t be here.”
He said, “They’re here. Good. Now things are getting better.” A ridiculous thought from a reasonable standpoint but it worked. That’s the point.
A common characteristic of the flow of intuition is that it often defies the reasonable way of doing things. Not that it’s irrational, but it’s a different kind of reasoning which is difficult to explain to people. The only proof of whether a feeling is intuitive or not is whether it works.
Absorb the obstacles as they come
To shift with the flow of circumstances, you need to be flexible and not always think, “I’m going to do this and I’m going to that.”
The expert skier sees the ski slope as a continuity. He absorbs the obstacles as they come, into a graceful, flowing movement. Similarly, when you begin to see life as it really is-a divine flow-you understand that life’s obstacles are simply a part of that flow.
How do you “break?”
Without an ability to flow with life, spiritual growth is difficult. There is a story about Saint Francis when he was living in a leaky, fragile hut with his brother monks. It was wintertime and a peasant with a donkey entered the hut and said, “This place is just perfect for me and my nag. Get out you bums.” The monks were outraged. They said, “How can we give this place up? We’ve given up everything else for God.” But Saint Francis said, “No, we must leave.” And they left.
God was testing St. Francis to see whether he had absolute faith in Him or whether he would say, “All right. I’ve given up this much, but not that.”
Swami Kriyananda is a living disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananda. He is also the founder of Ananda Sangha with nine communities all around the world