When working with horses, it is beneficial to allow the horse time to ‘soak’ on what he or she has done (correctly, in response to a specific cue). Horses provide many clues that they ‘get it’. These include:

• Licking and ‘chewing’
  Young horses lick and open and close their mouths as a way to communicate to other horses something along the lines of “I am just a baby, still nursing and learning, please be patient with me.” When an adult horse does this, he or she is indicating submissiveness, perhaps asking us to be patient, and letting us know they are processing the information they just learned.
• Yawning
  A horse yawns when it is releasing tension and relaxing. One trainer suggested that a horse is letting the butterflies out of its system.
• Rolling the eyes, rapid blinking
  Often yawning is accompanied by a rolling of the eyes and rapid, or at least very obvious blinking.
• Softening
  The horse’s expression softens–the eyes, the forehead, the mouth, the ears–in fact, it’s entire body softens in response to its understanding.

When given the time to soak, to absorb what has been presented and learned, a horse is much more likely to maintain its understanding for a long time than it would if this time is not allowed, or is short-circuited before the learning has really sunk in.

So it appears to be with our realization of Truth. When we let realization ‘soak’ into our Being-ness, realization–Self Awareness–is less likely to be (easily) veiled again by the hypnotic trance of mind. This soak time need not be a big dramatic thing–it can be soft, quiet and very subtle. I liken it to the natural way a horse learns new things, and takes that learning into itself… claiming it, owning it, giving it a resting place within its very Being. All that is required is … allowing.

Existence with resistance is a living Hell. Agony and Ecstacy, two sides of the same coin. The intensity of acceptance in every moment is fire (to the egoic mind-made self).  Set ablaze, the ‘little me’ cannot survive this funeral pyre, and will scream and wail and moan and gnash its teeth… until its dissolution is totally complete. What rises from the ashes is a humbleness beyond comprehension. Indescribable joy. Compassion without end. A love that knows no bounds. And an ego so ethereal and light that it moves at the beck and call of Self with nary a thought, nor a moment’s hesitation.

God grant that I may be so consumed! That I may recognize… only, always:  Heaven… on Earth.