by Carlyse Smyth

Sometimes in our study, we find a story, an image that speaks to us about the essence of our own personal experience of a Safety Energy Lock.  A story revealing an aspect of the energy of Self.  This is one such story, told as I remember it …

In a small village in Japan there lived a boy who started school for the first time with the other children of the village.  He was doing well, getting on with the teacher and all the other children until one day the teacher began to teach the class about numbers. 

 She began with the number 1.  The teacher explained the number 1 and was ready to move on to the next number, when the young boy raised his hand and said “I do not understand. What is 1?”  The teacher explained again, and again, and still the boy did not understand.  Finally the teacher called in his parents and told them that the class needed to move on, and that the boy should stay home until he could master the meaning of the number 1. 

 The boy stayed home and played.  He amused himself with many outdoor games, and running in the fields.  He was quite naturally inquisitive and observed all he saw around him.  One day the boy came to his parents and said “I am ready to go back to school, I understand now”.

 When he appeared in the class the teacher called him to the front of the room and asked “Do you now understand the meaning of the number 1?”  The boy turned to the blackboard, and with full awareness and complete understanding he wrote on the board, the number 1. 

 In that moment, the earth shook; the building trembled, then rocked.  When the children rushed to the window and looked outside, they saw that old structures had collapsed, the river flowing through the village had altered its course and the whole world had changed. 

 Such is the power of One.

 Over the years as I contemplate my notes, I have returned to this story again and again.  I am always intrigued by my many responses to hearing it once more.  Each time it is as if a different aspect of the vibration of one is revealed to me.

To learn about “1” the child returns to “playing” in the natural world.  From my dictionary – Play:  the spontaneous activity of children; free or unimpeded motion; scope or opportunity for action; to be engaged in; to take part in; have fun; relax.

I am reminded of other connections/saying I have heard…

…”Be the observer”…

In the playing, the observer is not disconnected from the observed; the boy is not unconnected from the world around him.  Through his activity he “takes part in the world”.  It is his own awareness of the oneness with the world that helps him to understand – What is “one”?

 “Change myself and the whole world – all situations, relationships with others – hurts, guilts, and even aches and pains – changes.  Forget to focus on: 1. Comparing, competing; 2. Judging (being judged), labelling (being labelled); 3. Trying to understand. Trying to find out WHY.  Keep on SMILING.  Drop the shoulders and exhale.” (Mary Burmeister’s Self-Help Book 3 – page 14)

Is this not what the child does at play in the natural world?  No “trying to understand”, simply being the observer who smiles in wonder at the richness of the world around.   No comparing, no competing, no judging, no labelling of self or others – these are aspects of self that the child in the story brings together with his own curiosity as he explores the world.  We see the power of one as revealed to one who plays – having FUN.

“One” contains the underlying principle of unity.  Unity may be a condition of harmony that we experience as internal calm, tranquillity.  This relaxation informs the quality of our engagement within and without.  This relaxed Unity is found in play, so evident when we are having FUN.  Yes, there is the abundant vibrant energy of play that surfaces, and at the same time, underneath lies an ocean of tranquillity.  From this place of unity movement arises without effort – “free and unimpeded motion”.  Like the child of the story, can we give ourselves permission for play, for spontaneity to be a part of our daily activity?

We have been given the Safety Energy Lock 1 sequence to help facilitate the experience of the vibration of “one” through the entire being.  What happens when I allow myself to play, to have FUN with this sequence?

Each SEL may be seen as an expression arising from the Trinity energy of the 6th Depth.   SEL 1 is the named the Prime Mover, the original or most effective force in any undertaking or work.  There is no need for me to “do” anything.  Simply allow the Breath to BE Breath Essence. Allow “1” to BE the effective power of the big “B” Breath that IT IS.  In my awakening awareness to the essence of Prime Mover, I may see a new “opportunity for action”, just as the child in the story sees being at home as an opportunity for conscious play.

In Jiro Murai’s sequence to release tension, as my hand connects with SEL 1, I also explore the area of SEL 2.  This SEL area of “Balance Harmony, BE the Smile.” (Mary Burmeister’s Self-Help Book 2).      I delight that in this first step the balance and harmony of the vibration “2” returns to “oneness”.   In the exploration of these two areas, I find myself asking – Do I trust my wisdom? – the wisdom of 2?  In my own life, do I accept in myself the learning that grows from within?  The child in the story gives space for this process each day as he plays. He  provides space for the wisdom that easefully remembers to Smile, remembers to enjoy the playing.

And now the vibration of SEL 5 joins in the play-time.  SEL 5 that “Erases FEAR – false evidences appearing real – to discover: KNOW MYSELF IT IS.” (SH BK 2)  Can I let go of my fears?  Can I hear the story with a pure mind? No fears, no judgements?  Do I hear it with a gentle mind?  Or do I leap ahead in my fear and create a “disaster” story?  Do I fall into old patterns of fear – the fear that results in judging the teacher when the teacher does not find a way to reach the child?

The boy is starting something new – his first year at school.  Consider that beginning anew may be hard.  In order to start anew we go through the space of No-thing.  Fear may arise naturally as the old reaches its culmination, coming to its own ending; it dissolves into No-Thing.   In the story of numbers is it possible this transition is harmonised by the SEL 1 Flow?  As the old structures in the story dissolve into no-thing, we are holding SEL 5 – releasing fear, so that we can see the new river flowing through the life of our own village.  The waters filled with uncertainty and infinite possibilities.

The hand now comes to land at SEL 7 – “Reality is simple.  Have no preferences. BE the no: (attitudes) Worry, FEAR, Anger, Sadness, Trying-to” (SH BK 2)

This is the vibration of victory (7) together with the vibration that connects the extreme height with the extreme depth (1).  This may facilitate the moment when spirit fully descends into matter all the way down into the big toe.  The Breath Essence completing the exhale to connect with the inhale so that we may rise up again.   The child who did not understand and had to leave school now returns – rises again – into a new understanding.  This vibration resonates together with the prime mover – that “Prime Mover, whose source of movement is within its own spirit.”  Perhaps, the spirit of the boy (heaven) connecting through his own joyful direct experiences of life (earth) to savour the victory of conscious understanding (man)?

The vibration of “7” may connect us to both the 7th Depth light and as a harmonising number – to the highest vibration of the 5th Depth, our spiritual inheritance.  I wonder without label or judging – Can this “one”-self rest in the light of 7th Depth free from all efforting?

And as the sequence comes to a close – the vibration of “1” invites me to begin again.  It leaves me with an invitation – come play again anytime – for in its knowing it can take us to the infinite heights and the profound depths of All.

And so I begin this cycle of holding SEL’s again – each cycle moving deeper within to experience the Smile – harmony rising from the core of unity – unstoppable as the vibration fills every cell of my being.  Such is the Power of One.