The Zen of Not Knowing

     "Beginner’s mind is Zen practice in action. It is the mind that is innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgments and prejudices. Beginner’s mind is just present to explore and observe and see 'things as they are.' I think of beginner’s mind as the mind that faces life like a small child, full of curiosity and wonder and amazement. 'I wonder what this is? I wonder what that is? I wonder what this means?' Without approaching things with a fixed point of view or a prior judgment, just asking 'What is it?'"
       Zenkei Blanche Hartman. "Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart." Shambhala, 2015. 

Photograph by David A. Lovas

Difficulties - Wonderlands in Disguise!

     We all have the capacity to experience, embody & stabilize a qualitatively different aspect of our consciousness when we intentionally not react to desire eg scratching an itchy nose, or otherwise moving to get more comfortable, but instead respond with curiosity, closely observing what happens to that desire. This is a key component of meditation practice and evolution of consciousness.

     "... the human species possesses – has within its physical being – the capacity for a mode of conscious awareness that is qualitatively different from our ordinary form of consciousness.

      … getting caught up in our desires … we create suffering. … the mind says, 'I want something, I’ve got to have something.' So … as we buy into different forms of desire, we create the causes of dissatisfaction. … 

     'If you learn to watch desire, see it come and see it go, then that's the way to not create the causes of suffering. That's the basic engine of insight and liberation, seeing that desire arises and passes away and realizing that you don't have to be swept up in it.'

     Later, while sitting in meditation and feeling hungry, Ajahn Amaro noticed that he really wanted to have some pineapple. So he returned his attention to breathing, and noticed that his mind got caught up with something else. Then he "suddenly realized 'Oh, I’ve forgotten about the pineapple.' What hit him was that, Ah, I didn’t get the pineapple, and nothing is missing. That was a huge 'Aha!’ experience. … That’s it! All you’ve got to do is stay with this (practice) and it will be the way out."
       Richard P. Boyle. “Realizing Awakened Consciousness. Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind.” Columbia University Press, NY, 2015. 

    Other perspectives: http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2017/02/01/Difficulties---Objects-of-Meditation
     and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2015/08/desire-craving-clinging-suffering.html

Frida Kahlo

Spiritual Flexibility

        "Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
         Say not, 'I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.'
         For the soul walks upon all paths.
         The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
         The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals."
                                                                                              Kahlil Gibran
 
       Streep P ed. Spiritual Illuminations. Meditations for Inner Growth. Viking Studio Books, NY, 1992.

Owl Sculpture at Tattingstone Inn, Wolfville, NS