The Passion and Art of Flying

How could I have seriously considered having a face-lift, cosmetic surgery, when what I have been trying to do for so long is research my spiritual path, follow an inner journey, find my values within, study the esoterics of astrology and teach others how to find and identify their own most precious self within, rather than without. There is a connection between the superficial surface appearance of things, including our bodies, and the way we project our issues onto others, or, with unawareness, see the world through the filter of our accumulated experience.

How insecure I must have felt in relation to what I thought he saw in me. This relationship is surely a lesson in getting to know and accept another part of myself. It is also to do with practising the release of the fear that comes with the apparent losing of oneself in the other. Dissolution. Redemption?

Rather than loss there is the potential for creating something new, a new energy; the sense of loss is transformational, transitional. How can we lose what was always perhaps non-existent, impermanent - the sense of 'I'? However, I did for a moment, almost lose my connection with my spiritual values.

This is the risk associated with relationship, but how can we lose that which we do not possess, but may only at times share with the other?

The lesson as always is spiritual. Self confidence comes from within with spiritual props not cosmetic ones.

What about the art of flying? Is there a spiritual lesson involved in becoming a good pilot? Is there a connection, somehow, between the mastering of flying skills and the mastering of relationship skills? Patience, time, dedication, and belief. Energy springs from the BELIEF in what one does, and by association, what one is.

Energy dissipates when we project power (energy) to another person, and in so doing, give it away. Our energy comes from the universal source of life with which we may connect regularly, healthily, through creative activities and in loving acts; to see loving energy in the 'other' will reflect it back.

But what is the meaning of flight, for one to take to the skies? It is perhaps at root, a reaching toward reunion with All That Is - even for those pilots who prefer the power and excitement to the artistry and religion of it. It is also to escape the bonds of form, to engage with that which is formless, to reject illusion, merge with eternity, transcend reality.

We do this in different ways: in the sea, with music, with numbers with words: there are many ways to the centre. Direct mystical experience with All That Is occurs for people in many different situations in life. I am wondering why I want to learn to fly an aircraft. It started because I wanted to transcend unpleasant experience. I wanted distraction, a lift. It worked; I did transcend it at the time. But do I want to continue? Do I still find that my current experience needs transcending? I think not. Shall I continue with it as a pastime, a hobby? Might there be further rewards the nature of which, at present, I am unaware?

"Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path.
No one wants their life thrown into chaos. That is why a lot of people keep that threat under control, and are somehow capable of sustaining a house or a structure that is already rotten. They are the engineers of the superseded.
Other people think exactly the opposite: they surrender themselves without a second thought, hoping to find in passion the solutions to all their problems. They make the other person responsible for their happiness and blame them for their possible unhappiness. They are either euphoric because something marvellous has happened or depressed because something unexpected has just ruined everything.
Keeping passion at bay or surrendering blindly to it - which of these two attitudes is the least destructive?"

'Eleven Minutes' - Paulo Coelho

I felt myself to be contained within his structure. If the walls around the fire are too confining the necessary air will not be able to keep the fire alight.

circa 2005