In his beautiful poem Guest House, Rumi bemuses the spiritual essence of words. The words are eloquently portrayed as feelings experienced by human beings, inexorably part of the human experience, but not a part of the humans themselves. This is an important distinction. Often we get discouraged, depressed, delighted, apathetic, happy, and distraught. At our highest point we want to spend money on people, dote and indulge ourselves in desire. At our lowest point our ego looms large enough that we feel valid in destroying our own life energy by taking our own life. Rumi, in this poetic discourse, has another notion. What if life were here for learning? What if we are able to look beyond the boundaries of right and wrong-doing and into the endless plain of possibilities on which they lay? He postulates that if we are able to separate ourselves from emotional states we are able to see that they are not us, rather they are momentary lessons, experiences, guests if you will in the mind and hearts of our biology. Granted a “moment” can be fleeting or chronic, but even that is determined by our ability to s-e-p-arate from the experience of being.
My name is Changa Bell. I am a life coach, a yogi, a spiritualist, a father, husband, son, brother, uncle, friend, foe, asshole and a myriad of other expressions. I am everything to some people and no-one to others because I am nothing at all. I like you am an endless form of thought consciousness. I am perpetual rhythmic waves of vibration and all vibration produces sound; therefore, at best I am a melody, and a timeless song. What better place to explore consciousness, being-ness and humanness as curious adventurers, patient, trusting, accepting, non-competitive participants of life. In this monthly post, I will share my travels of life that have yielded devastation, and success but are all blessings. If spirit moves you to write me directly, I will sit at the table of life with you, welcoming all feelings, and challenges as friends at our Guest House. Like children these feelings will come and go seeking our attention and wisdom and when ready they will depart guaranteed to return again when they need the warmth and light of our love. And that is the point of Rumi’s great poem, that without love there is no humanity. The neutrality of unconditional love is impartial to the design and make-up of the social-emotional, and physical environment in which we find ourselves. Words aka emotions are “spirits” that often find us. But joy can escape us if we lose sight of the impartial nature of unconditional love. This is why killers and psychopaths share air, water and breath on the same planet with humanitarians and living saints, because unconditional love is non-judgmental. We lose our ability to be resilient and thus the propensity to grow spiritually and eventually mature to enlightenment itself. I hope that you will set with me in the Guest House of love there is much for us to learn!
Changa Bell is a father of six and a leading mindfulness expert and Georgetown University Health and Wellness coach. He is the Founder and Chief Yoga Officer of The Black Male Yoga Initiative and co-owner of The Sunlight & Yoga Holistic Wellness Center. He, his wife and children live in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information go to www.changabell.com.
