Life is a party – convivo ergo sum – I party therefore I am.
Too often we set goals and intentions for the New Year without reflecting on what is being asked of us in this moment of time, without truly inviting the goal. We then just focus on the action in pursuit of its fruit, without looking at the field of action, the place in which we live and breathe. This setting is the place where we must reveal our hearts true desire. The Greek verb keleuein, to call, means to get something on the road, to get it under way. Heidegger explains, “this old word ‘to call’ means not so much a command, as a letting-reach… the same word in Sanskrit means something like ‘to invite’. We must first invite the intention by providing a good place for it to party.
Focusing on moving and improving forgets the place from which we invite this intention. Light assumes space.
Acknowledging that particular space in which we seek to become through our intention, helps things turn out the way in which we intended. This space is what needs attention, since it is what holds the intention. This means setting boundaries or limits, which are not limitations per se, but the borders in which this intention is revealed. Limits set us free by providing a space for being, where the intention can enter and over-flow with all that seeks to dance within.
In providing a space for beings to enter, we open ourselves to life’s calling. Preparing the ground for the invitation, to let life in. That is the basis from which life comes forth in its fullness, from whence the intention is revealed. Again, as Heidegger put it, Plato did not bring about Ideas, “the thinker only responded to what addressed itself to him.” The in-tent is a shelter for Being, where life can address itself to us, and we can respond. When we dwell in this heart space, we are in the setting of the intention, and must respond to its calling, what is called for.