Sure, things are falling apart. Right. Everyone is more than a wee bit angry; tired; disgusted; stuffed with blame/guilt/stress. For sure. Even as we give thanks for what we've got in the West, we are out there, scrounging for more. Okay. It's true. We can admit it. We can beat our drums, our chests, our heads but the answer might be a lot less pain-inducing.
Lighten up.
With yourself. (Myself.) In our quest for answers. In our meditation practice. In our prayers. Even in our yearnings and our demands: be gentler. With ourselves. With everyone else. Seriously gentler.
In all regards and situations.
In our lives.
Amid the slogans I am exploring, the next suggestion is to, "Examine the nature of unborn awareness."Pema Chodron, Buddhist nun and sage, suggests this is to "pull the rug out" from under our immediate-fulfillment, entitled selves. (Well, maybe I've paraphrased a bit, but you can see where I'm going.) The moment we get self-satisfied, and all puffed-up with "Enlightenment Lite", or "figuring it out", (for some of us, that can come as early as reading one, thin, twenty-first century volume, on how to attain spiritual awakening...or attending one "life-changing put-it-on-the-credit-card self-help weekend")--it's precisely then that we have lost the point.
IT AIN'T ABOUT FIGURING ANYTHING OUT.
(O boy, this Buddhist stuff is tricky...)
It seems that the point is: the examination of everything, up close and personal.
Examine is the operative word. Including, the examination of the Examiner. (Whoa!)
Examination of the Examiner's smug assertions that, "I've figured it out", or, " Now I'm fixed!"
See, according to the Enlightened Masters and all the sages and saints who struggled with these ideas from time immemorial, basically, there's nothing to figure out. There's nothing to fix. There's just ...nothing.
Everything around us is ephemeral. Unreal. A shadow of a dream and the dreamer is part of the illusion. (Whoa, again!!)
The more it is examined, via our meditation, the more intense it becomes. However, it is not intensity, at all. It is illusory. It is passing memory. It is a paradox, and, as such, it can't be held down.
(So, why even study these lessons of light and shadow? Why even sit and meditate and breathe and ponder our entire existence, if everything comes to naught?)
Because, when we lose, not only the solid ground and the rug beneath our feet, but also THE NEED for that solidity, we are on our way to freedom. We are closer to the things that terrify us. Becoming closer and embracing "the monsters", we are promised that, we will no longer be ruled by that terror.
(Whoohoo!)
So, again, the paradox: we must lighten up. But we must take every detail into account and examine everything. (Terror is not real and should not be pushed away. Yet, it has a capacity to make us miserable and afraid. But the way through it, is to confront it, and finally, to make friends with it.)
How?
By sitting. Being silent. Breathing. Allowing everything we have experienced, and are made of, to come up, and then, letting it go. Lightly. Softly. Gently. (Blessing even the darkest shadows for what they hold and what we don't, yet, understand.) Accepting all of it, with the realization that we will never, fully understand, and that's okay. (As long as we practice compassion and kindness in the midst of this epiphany of insecurity.) It's just what it is.
We can live with it.
Lighten up.
With yourself. (Myself.) In our quest for answers. In our meditation practice. In our prayers. Even in our yearnings and our demands: be gentler. With ourselves. With everyone else. Seriously gentler.
In all regards and situations.
In our lives.
Amid the slogans I am exploring, the next suggestion is to, "Examine the nature of unborn awareness."Pema Chodron, Buddhist nun and sage, suggests this is to "pull the rug out" from under our immediate-fulfillment, entitled selves. (Well, maybe I've paraphrased a bit, but you can see where I'm going.) The moment we get self-satisfied, and all puffed-up with "Enlightenment Lite", or "figuring it out", (for some of us, that can come as early as reading one, thin, twenty-first century volume, on how to attain spiritual awakening...or attending one "life-changing put-it-on-the-credit-card self-help weekend")--it's precisely then that we have lost the point.
IT AIN'T ABOUT FIGURING ANYTHING OUT.
(O boy, this Buddhist stuff is tricky...)
It seems that the point is: the examination of everything, up close and personal.
Examine is the operative word. Including, the examination of the Examiner. (Whoa!)
Examination of the Examiner's smug assertions that, "I've figured it out", or, " Now I'm fixed!"
See, according to the Enlightened Masters and all the sages and saints who struggled with these ideas from time immemorial, basically, there's nothing to figure out. There's nothing to fix. There's just ...nothing.
Everything around us is ephemeral. Unreal. A shadow of a dream and the dreamer is part of the illusion. (Whoa, again!!)
The more it is examined, via our meditation, the more intense it becomes. However, it is not intensity, at all. It is illusory. It is passing memory. It is a paradox, and, as such, it can't be held down.
(So, why even study these lessons of light and shadow? Why even sit and meditate and breathe and ponder our entire existence, if everything comes to naught?)
Because, when we lose, not only the solid ground and the rug beneath our feet, but also THE NEED for that solidity, we are on our way to freedom. We are closer to the things that terrify us. Becoming closer and embracing "the monsters", we are promised that, we will no longer be ruled by that terror.
(Whoohoo!)
So, again, the paradox: we must lighten up. But we must take every detail into account and examine everything. (Terror is not real and should not be pushed away. Yet, it has a capacity to make us miserable and afraid. But the way through it, is to confront it, and finally, to make friends with it.)
How?
By sitting. Being silent. Breathing. Allowing everything we have experienced, and are made of, to come up, and then, letting it go. Lightly. Softly. Gently. (Blessing even the darkest shadows for what they hold and what we don't, yet, understand.) Accepting all of it, with the realization that we will never, fully understand, and that's okay. (As long as we practice compassion and kindness in the midst of this epiphany of insecurity.) It's just what it is.
We can live with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment