The Ordinary Grows Ever More Extraordinary by Kathleen Sutherland

We’ve all heard the term “the extraordinary ordinary,” used to describe the ordinary waking state experienced by awakened mind. Before even experiencing this personally, we can comprehend it as a pointer. We know that everyday reality is quite strange. After all, where did all this “stuff” come from? Who or what am “I”?

After awakening, once we settle down from any peak spiritual experiences, we understand it more deeply. Life goes on, things are the same as before (“Chop wood, carry water”), but we behold the world with a certain sense of awe. We see the miraculous in every detail of our lives.

I figured I’d got it – I understood the extraordinary ordinary, and was pleased and grateful to be living in it. But I’ve been even more pleased and grateful lately to discover that it is not a static state. It continues to deepen. (I initially wrote just “pleased” and then remembered, be grateful, too! I don’t want to imply, especially to myself, that it’s a personal achievement. It is a pleasure, but it’s a gift, and not one received by the person, but which manifests in her absence).

So things grow ever stranger, in lovely and interesting ways. I notice how the flat light of these November Iowa days reveals the sharp delineations of the leaves on the sidewalk. I am amazed to have my husband in my life because I realized that our days are numbered. We only have now, and how precious it is to have this time together. Last week, for several days in a row, our cat appeared to me as a little black panther, with magical laser-beam eyes.

And my spiritual endeavors reap more than before. Meditation seems more blissful–even when it’s not. That’s the magic of the extraordinary ordinary: Things really can’t be bad and they can’t be ordinary, no matter how hard they try! Their true nature is always there. Sitting still with myself is always blissful, no matter what the character may feel. In the same way, reading spiritual books seems to reveal deeper truths. There’s been a little less character in the way to block the message. The one who tends to respond, “Yes, this is true, but still it has no effect on my mood or life, ” has quieted down. And then the truth seems quite clear and beautiful, as it always is.

It’s good to see that the ordinary can become ever more extraordinary, without ever straying from being ordinary. Peak experiences where the ordinary seems to be entirely swallowed up by the extraordinary can be wonderful and informative. But they tend to be few and far between, and might even cause us to overlook the extraordinary in the ordinary, which is so miraculously ever available, ready to greet us and enlighten any mind – any mind that has the mind to step aside.

Kathleen Sutherland is enrolled in The Living Method Continuing Student Program and is editor of ACN. She lives in Iowa.