All World
Gayatri Pariwar

[Abstracted from Catherine Ingram’s universally acclaimed book- Passionate Presence. Published with glad consent of the author. Catherine is a world-renowned Dharma teacher. She is also the author of – In the footsteps of Gandhi: Conversations with spiritual/social activists. Catherine considers late Sri Hariwansh Lal Panja – Papaji – as her last teacher. Panjaji was one of the foremost disciples of Ramana Maharshi. Acknowledged with gratitude.

“Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited, for a short stay, without knowing why. To me it is strange enough to wonder at the secrets.”

A friend of mine bought a telescope for his eight-year-old daughter, and on a full moon night they set it up in the backyard. He fixed the lens on the moon so that it took up the entire view and had his daughter take a look. Astonished at the sight, his daughter said, “ Look, Dad, the moon is moving." Her father explained to her that the moon was indeed moving around the earth, just as the earth was moving around the sun, In a moment of revelation, the wide-eyed girl exclaimed, "Oh my god, we're in space!"

We may be equally fascinated by what we can know in form and what we can sense in formlessness. The Dalai Lama, though dedicated to a lifelong study of meditation and dharma, has always loved to know the workings of mechanical things. In a documentary called Compassion in Exile, he is seen taking apart watches in order to put them together again while cheerfully explaining that it is his way of relaxing.

A fascination for Einstein revolved around something that we take for granted but don't actually understand. “For the rest of my life, " he said I want to reflect on what light is." Who knows what will turn us on? Whatever it may be, when we are soaring in wonder we are connected to the divine. In awakened awareness we trust our fascination to be an aspect of existence wanting to know itself through another aspect of existence, like facets of a jewel, each intrigued by the other's color. When our attention is not wearied by neurosis, it is free to hover around whatever strikes its fancy. One's awareness mingles with its object of interest and there is that wonderful feeling of forgetting oneself that is actually a remembered aliveness. This is what is meant when we say we are lost in something we love. "She was lost in painting for hours. He was lost in his woodworking project." "They were lost in each other's eyes." The direct experience is actually that we are whole and fully present, not lost but found. We are not obsessing about our small sense of self, so it is only the constricted sense of I that is "lost". What is found is a greater sense of being.

A mind released from self-obsession and limiting beliefs is freed for fascination, for wonder, for love. In fact, in awakened awareness fascination is a form of love, a desire to experience oneself more fully in the limitless exploration of "other." Our awareness is forced to enlarge itself to accommodate the new, and widening the awareness in this way is exhilarating, like removing a tight suit and slipping into pajamas.

Finally it is this love of feeling that drive fascination---feeling ourselves anew, enlarged by understanding and empathy, enlivened by curiosity. In awakened awareness there is no shunning of fascination. It is a welcomed aspect of passion; a way to know that we are fully alive.