Path of Maturation

     We have an intuitive sense of what's really going on, but to help maintain the momentum of life, we keep this from every-day conscious awareness. 

     “The person who can freely acknowledge that life is full of difficulties can be free, because they are acknowledging the nature of life - that it can't be much else.” Shunryu Suzuki

     Our conscious mind (left brain) is concerned primarily with survival. The left brain, home of the egoic self, pretends that we have far greater control over the environment & our life, than we actually do. Exaggeration of a normal, healthy sense of agency ("illusion of control") is most clearly seen in young men who take crazy risks with the assumption that they'll be just fine.
     Another delusion our left brain holds is that of our own normality. We readily notice others' faults, idiosyncrasies, and strangeness, but hold (idealized versions of) ourselves as models of perfection, or at least what's proper & normal.
     Interestingly, as we become increasingly self-aware through years of meditation practice, we see with increasing clarity how we truly are. This is very, very humbling. So much so, that we're filled with love & gratitude towards all those who patiently tolerated our (to put it gently) eccentricity over the years. When we now see our own "eccentric" traits & behaviors in others, instead of being harshly critical (projecting or externalizing) as in the past, we're far more apt to warmly recognize common human steps on the long, slow road to growing up.
     Seeing things more objectively or realistically (allo- & ecocentrically, rather than egocentrically), is the work of the "right brain". An improved left-right brain balance may occur gradually as we age, but aging definitely does not guarantee maturation. Regular meditation practice does tend to accelerate our human psychosocialspiritual maturation process.

     

 

How You Look is What You See

If I had to summarize the entirety
of most people’s
lives in a few words,
it would be endless resistance to what is.
As we resist, we are in constant motion
trying to adjust,
and yet we still remain unhappy about what is.

If I had to summarize the entirety of an enlightened
person’s life in a few words,
it would be complete acceptance of what is.
As we accept what is, our minds are relaxed
and composed
while the world changes rapidly around us.           Haemin Sunim

        Haemin Sunim. "The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down." Tricycle, Spring 2017.

     “The ‘night sea journey’ is the journey into the parts of ourselves that are split off, disavowed, unknown, unwanted, cast out, and exiled to the various subterranean worlds of consciousness…. The goal of this journey is to reunite us with ourselves. Such a homecoming can be surprisingly painful, even brutal. In order to undertake it, we must first agree to exile nothing.”       Stephen Cope

     We struggle greatly with dukkha, and it's no wonder. Dukkha is so obvious to our "left brain" - the aspect of our intelligence on which we rely almost entirely. 

     But when we finally give up trying to avoid, accept (this side of) reality, and zoom in for a close look with our "right brain" - our whole being, then all of reality becomes apparent.