Stop Erasing: A Lesson In Conscious Living
I was in an art class with Mrs Nyland, Willem Nyland’s wife, at the San Francisco Gurdjieff Foundation many years ago. As I was drawing, not very well in my estimation, she came over to me and strongly suggested that I stop erasing everything I had done and just move on, accepting how I manifested. A painful but great lesson in conscious living!
My wife and I were talking recently about the fact that many people say that if only they could live their lives over again, they would change this and that and so on and so forth. What an illusion! The fact is, though I might be tempted, there’s nothing that I would change (even if I could), for everything has brought me to exactly this moment with riches I never imagined! And I do indeed accept my life–all of it, including not just the great beauty and love, but also the confusion, pain, and suffering.
Copyright 2014, Dennis Lewis
Harmonious Awakening 
I appreciate your story but your conclusion is very different from mine.A lifetime of addictions,psychoses,eating disorders etc.culminated in chronic fatigue syndrome,eventually narrowed down diagnostically to late stage neurological Lyme.I consider all the spiritual help I have received on the way,the satsang with advaita teachers,etc.to be nothing but soap bubbles and pearls before swine in retrospect,and the end result of my life to be failure,regret and guilt.The soul is as real as the loss of it or the death of it,which you can only know if you experience it.On Tue, May 20, 2014
Yes I totally agree with you. upon reflecting my life it’s hard to say what to erase because everything led up to this point. I now am a 50 year old widow even though I feel empty I can say looking at my children I feel full. There were good and bad times but I can’t imagine my life any different. Thank you for your insights.
Acceptance of one’s life maybe requires a good level of insight and inner wisdom, which I have personally begun to appreciate more, as I get older (and wiser??) and perhaps more philosophical about the past. Yoga and mindfulness helps me to stay Present, in many situations, including difficult ones. Perhaps we may not always Erase, for me, self-care involves at times, editing out the really miserable stuff, to filter the negative and remain positive.Thank you for your thought-provoking blogs.
Agree wid you ! Love ,beauty , pain care confusions ,mistakes .. These are the part of our life . without these things we can’t analyse our meaning of life .