Ether: All that can be
Ether, space, emptiness. Potentiality.
The element of Ether is defined by what it is not.
Cold because it lacks fire and therefor heat
Light because it lacks the heaviness of Earth and Water.
Immobile because it lacks the propulsion of wind.
Subtle, as it lacks the profound presence of other elements. It is omnipresent, everywhere, a part of all other elements.
Either has the greatest potential because of the void. There is room for anything. You think of moving into a new house, it has the greatest potential when it is empty, or even before it was built. When you are hungry and there is space in your tummy for food, there is the greatest potential for nourishment because your body is ready to receive. When we turn the page to a new calendar, or we clear an afternoon or take a week off, there is the greatest potential because there is no certainty in events planned.
Today I contemplated the role of space in our lives, how we need room for things to move through us, like taking space from a situation that is overly emotional or tense to give us the chance to process it. I thought of the ways that we can create space in our lives, blocking time off in our calendars, turning off the music or podcast to have space in the silence, being in our hunger rather than filling it right away, getting rid of stuff from our houses or contacts in our phones or old photos off our drives. I thought of when we move to a new city or the space that is created when we disconnect and go on a trip. It also occurred to me the fear that can exist with this space, especially in our society that is pushing for business. I say business rather than productivity because when it comes from fear, it is filling this space quickly for the outward appearance, rather than mindfully for the real productivity that takes patience within this space.
I realized two things from this reflection:
When we know that space is scary, we can mindfully move away from the subconscious (or conscious) desire to quickly fill the void with convenience. We can choose to hold that space and invest in quality time rather than quick fixes.
The second thing I realized was the next part to a lesson I have been rolling with in the past year. While we have not been able to travel I realized that some of my travels have been cool ways to run away from problems and challenges. I was longing to travel and because I couldn’t, I found myself just sitting in the discomfort of a lot of emotions, drawn to meditation to quiet the chaos. I had no where else to be but really presently here. It was a much different way to approach challenges that I have before and it created a lot of space. This was the first part of the lesson, that I had been filling space by travelling. The second part came today, after recognizing all the times this winter when I longed for the open road and did not indulge. This morning I created a space by traveling to an open area to spend some time here. My thoughts flowed into the creative space and it was exciting and joyful and gave me a huge boost from the funk I had been in. This time, travel created the space rather than filling it. I realized it is more about the how that the what. All these thoughts about what space is in our lives and how it is scary and how we try to fill it and how that keeps us stuck rather than open to new things came from that space, outside of my house, in what felt like an exploration and an adventure.
The Ayurvedic perspectives on all the elements is about balance. It is about being able to observe that which is and how what we do affects it. So where is there space in your life, how can you hold that space and allow quality to enter rather than quantity? And can we recognize more and more when we are tending toward filling the time with crap just so that it is no longer empty because we are uncomfortable with the unknown. What is the value of this space to you, and what is it costing you in becoming your potential future self by filling it unintentionally?
