In the agriculture, the principle of the scorched earth or the burnt earth is the fact to burn the soil.
Then the farmer leaves the fields in fallow to restore the soil fertility.
One lets it to rest. After the earth has better productivity and growth.
The technic of chaos or the burnt earth at the human scale is a metaphor but the principle remains slightly the same. Many people realize the importance of something or someone when they lose it or lose this person. One says in all mystical quest that to live deeply and really one has to learn how to die. In the holy scriptures it is literally written “die before you die”. Of course this is an image and not to implement to the letter. It is obviously a psychological death: the loss of the prevalent ego. In esoteric dimension it is said “Mors janua vitae” meaning “death door of Life”.
The metaphor of the Phoenix who has come to birth again from its ashes evokes this aspect.
When we voluntarily extend the lack it emphasizes the importance of this aspect. When you fast 24hours or 72hours, you realize how good is to eat, even what you normally do not like could be a source of pleasure and happiness.
All kind of fasting in the different cultures beyond of the hygienic intake highlight the gratefulness of what you have normally. Most of the time we think, having eaten enough is normality, living in peace is normal, freedom is normal. But it is not, we became more and more in a society of the “too much” sometimes capricious and we think that all is a due.
In the past, all civilization had a passage between the teenage stage and adult world: a kind of initiation like the myth of Hercules to emphasize life and death and also to strengthen people. Many societies still apply this kind of initiatory journey. Certain so-called “primitive” civilizations like Dogons or Aborigines consider in western society we are not mature as we never lived such extreme initiation. It is true that pushing the limits emphasizes the beauty of something always perceived as normally: walking, eating, breathing properly, smelling all kinds of smell.
There is a Turkish legend explaining that God first makes you lose your donkey that you love, and after He makes you find it back for being deeply aware about it.”
Said differently a Buddhist philosophy reveals “if you have some psychological problem, wear some square shoes, then you will see them differently”.
Being aware that we never own anything except a bit of time: health, a house, a land… all this is an illusion because it will never be forever, even your wealth could be affected by a currency depression, your land or your home by a cataclysm: even if you have insurance, time to find back your normal state takes a while. Those who lived a disease, an earthquake, a collapse… can realize that everything is fragile. The goal is not to be scared always by each potential strength, not at all. The goal is just to be aware of the chance we have by something imagine the abnegation of something or just by projection or by stopping a habit punctually to appreciate much more afterward. This is not being paranoiac or stressful, on the contrary, to be grateful each second of the present which is a gift and also it allows to have a certain detachment for all of the kind of possession. This is just a sort of awareness and a deep consciousness of Life which is perceived as a miracle.
In Shambali you will explore these technics and put in practice sometimes just to feel even more living and to appreciate Life at a deeper and more intense level.
Issa ~ AM