How Available Are You? The Science of Being
Welcome to Treehouse Treasures! I'm so happy you are here!
This morning, the Tree of Serendipity delivered one of those moments that brought laughter, smiles, and a reverent bow. There was nothing else to do—I simply had to share.
The random book selection for today is The Science of Being and Art of Living by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation and teacher to millions around the world, including the Beatles.
Of all the books.
Of all the pages.
Of all the mornings.
There it was.
As though another beloved teacher had quietly walked into the Treehouse carrying a lantern.
💎
What struck me immediately was the language.
Attunement.
Coordination.
Health.
The nervous system.
Being.
The very themes I have been exploring in my own practice and developing in my book, 1 Degree Up.
Maharishi describes the mind as standing between Being and the body, much like a tree standing between earth and sky. The roots draw nourishment from the ground and distribute it throughout the tree. Likewise, the mind receives nourishment from Being and carries it into the relative world of activity.
When that connection is clear, life flourishes.
When it becomes obstructed, we suffer.
What a beautiful image.
The tree.
The roots.
The nourishment.
The flow.
The remembering.
💛
One passage particularly caught my attention.
Maharishi describes a state reached through deep meditation in which the body becomes profoundly restful while remaining alert.
Not asleep.
Not dull.
Not passive.
Not striving.
He writes of a condition in which the nervous system is neither active nor passive, but poised.
Like an arrow drawn fully back upon a bow.
Still.
Ready.
Alive.
Alert.
The moment I read those words, my heart leapt.
Because they point so beautifully toward what I have been exploring through the lens of 1 Degree Up.
So often we imagine well-being as either activity or rest.
Doing or stopping.
Pushing or collapsing.
But perhaps there is another possibility.
A state of effortless readiness.
A relaxed availability.
A nervous system that is not bracing against life and not withdrawing from life, but participating with life.
Present.
Open.
Responsive.
Alive.
💎
Another insight that caught my attention was Maharishi's discussion of desire.
When we lose touch with that inner intelligence, we can find ourselves expending enormous energy pursuing what doesn't nourish us while overlooking what does.
💎
Guru ji also discusses how the breath naturally becomes quieter and more refined as the mind settles.
Because the entire system is becoming more efficient.
Not because we force it.
Not because we control it.
When the mind settles, the breath settles.
When the breath settles, the body settles.
When the body settles, our experience of life changes.
Not because we become different.
Because we become more available.
And availability, I am beginning to suspect, may be one of the great hidden treasures of spiritual life.
Availability to beauty.
Availability to joy.
Availability to intuition.
Availability to connection.
Availability to Grace.
Perhaps this is what so many of us are truly seeking.
Not more effort.
Not more information.
Not another self-improvement project.
But a way of being that is alert, alive, and at ease.
✨
Grace often arrives disguised as coincidence. Yet when we slow down enough to notice, life begins to feel less like a collection of separate events and more like a conversation with the Infinite.
The invitation is not to become something new.
It is to remember what has always been here.
Alert.
Alive.
Connected.
Available.
Ready to sing its song.
🎵🍓💎
Jai Guru Dev. 🙏✨
A Treasure for Today
