Intertwined Interbeing

     “Our relationships and our beliefs about the world have a direct effect on the deep sensations in our body that link into emotion and perception.” Richard Freeman

       Stone M. The Inner Tradition of Yoga. A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner. Shambhala, Boston, 2008.

Photo: srcalva   www.dpreview.com

Openness - Having No Opinions

     To what extent can we drop the past, drop the future, and be completely open to the unfolding mystery of the present moment?
     "Only have no opinions" was one meditation master's single advice to his students. If you get rear-ended hard on the highway, what impact does your opinion or expectation of whiplash injury have on future symptoms? If you're sure you're going to have severe problems, isn't it almost certain to come true? If you're desperately hoping you won't have any problems, isn't there a part of you that thinks you will? Isn't the most accurate AND healthy attitude about how your back will be, quite simply: "I DON'T KNOW?"
     Why pollute the future? Can we learn to flow with the dynamic mysterious complex interactive process that is life?

Sprouts by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php

 

Me, alone against the world, or ...

     “When the division between myself and the rest of the world is driven by confusion and turmoil, this sharp differentiation hardens even further. My distinctiveness is frozen into an absolute aloneness. I feel abandoned, trapped in my body.

     Again, I need to stop. I may be able to start thawing this isolation by focusing on the complexity that I am. I may be able to ease the spasm of self-centeredness by realizing that I am not a fixed essence but an interactive cluster of processes.”

     Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

A "bluebell wood", Ireland

 

Leading from behind, like midwives, with open questions, turning phrases ...

     “true friends seek not to coerce us, even gently and reasonably, into believing what we are unsure of. These friends are like midwives, who draw forth what is waiting to be born. Their task is not to make themselves indispensable but redundant.”

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

Music of Silence II by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php

Confidence in Awakening

     “Self-confidence is not a form of arrogance. It is trust in our capacity to awaken. It is both the courage to face whatever life throws at us without losing equanimity, and the humility to treat every situation we encounter as one from which we can learn.”

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

January 1, 2013

Intention - Movement of the Mind - Each Moment we Train

     “‘Karma,’ (the Buddha) often said, ‘is intention’: ie a movement of the mind that occurs each time we come to understand how intentions lead to habitual patterns of behavior, which in turn affect the quality of our experience.”

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

     Whatever we repeatedly intend / think, say & do, we get better at. It's ALL training. Playing the piano, following "compulsions of craving", or letting go of self-concern - practice makes perfect. We custom-design our talents.

Wooden Bowls & Photo: P. Michael Lovas

How am I to live this short precious life?

     “What am I here for? Am I living in such a way that I can die without regrets? How much of what I do is compromise? Do I keep postponing what I ‘really’ want to do until conditions are more favorable?

     Asking such questions interrupts indulgence in the comforts of routine and shatters illusions about a cherished sense of self-importance. It forces me to seek again the impulse that moves me from the depths, and to turn aside from the shallows of habitual patterns. It requires that I examine my attachments to physical health, financial independence, loving friends. For they are easily lost; I cannot ultimately rely on them. Is there anything I can depend on?

     It might be that all I can trust in the end is my integrity to keep asking such questions as: Since death alone is certain and the time of death uncertain, what should I do? And then act on them.” 

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org