When I'm lying,
To myself or others,
I'm withholding the truth --
Which means that I must know
What the truth is.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
HONESTY AND DISTANCE
We create varying amounts of distance,
Spatial and emotional,
Between our self and others;
As much distance as we need to feel comfortable.
Similarly we create varying amounts of distance
Between our self and feelings we have trouble handling.
So far, so good.
It's understandable.
But then we lie about the distancing
And/or the real reasons for it
And pretend we're right over there beside them.
Why would we bother to do that?
What are we afraid of?
What is it about telling the truth
That we couldn't live with ourselves
If we just out and did it?
Even although withholding the truth
Is insulting the person being distanced,
By creating him/her/me as "unable" to handle the truth.
Spatial and emotional,
Between our self and others;
As much distance as we need to feel comfortable.
Similarly we create varying amounts of distance
Between our self and feelings we have trouble handling.
So far, so good.
It's understandable.
But then we lie about the distancing
And/or the real reasons for it
And pretend we're right over there beside them.
Why would we bother to do that?
What are we afraid of?
What is it about telling the truth
That we couldn't live with ourselves
If we just out and did it?
Even although withholding the truth
Is insulting the person being distanced,
By creating him/her/me as "unable" to handle the truth.
ACKNOWLEDGING
Acknowledging cannot happen
While I am either agreeing or disagreeing.
Acknowledging is surrendering to the total Is-ness of the matter.
While I am either agreeing or disagreeing.
Acknowledging is surrendering to the total Is-ness of the matter.
OBEDIENCE & SURRENDER
OBEDIENCE
Both Obedience and Disobedience
Are vastly overrated qualities.
Any dumb jerk can be obedient --
A primitive, knee-jerk survival reaction
To please and go along in order to get along,
With someone we've given away our power to.
Any dumb jerk can be disobedient --
A primitive, knee-jerk reaction
To resist and dis-please
Someone we've given away our power to.
Disobedience is a vain attempt to feel what we already are --
Free.
It never works.
By disobeying, we demand release
From whatever we're resisting
By tying ourselves to it.
Blind obedience to general rules will always be problematical
Because each situation is unique,
Both in itself and within the surrounding circumstances at the time.
(We cannot step in the same river twice)
If obedience or disobedience is ever a question,
It will be about who and/or what we are being obedient or disobedient TO......
Individuals, self-held rules, values, concepts, beliefs, opinions and superstitions
That manipulate, dominate and control us.
Obedience and disobedience are also about an internal policeman called The Inner Critic/Judge
And his close colleague, Guilt --
The carnal coppers each of us has created for our selves
To drive us crazy.
"I was only following instructions....."
Obeisance is a refuge
Of those who have lost touch
With their one-ness with all that is,
With their in-tuition,
Their own internal guidance systems,
With their senses of empathy and appropriateness
And their sensitivity to the sovereign rights of others.
"I haven't broken any laws..."
Blind obedience to anyone or anything
Is an abrogation of personal responsibility.
Obedience is for Victims --
Underdogs.
("Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir -- [sotto voce] -- I'll get you for this, sir.")
Underdogs in one environment
Become Topdogs in another.
Beware.
When an Underdog becomes a Topdog,
It becomes a worse Topdog than the previous incumbent.
In any environment where power over others is traded,
Whether it's across the floor of parliament, around a committee table, over the startline at a street drag race, or around the lounge room after a family funeral,
Underdogs and Topdogs warily jostle and jockey one another for position,
Like stray dogs on a Bangkok backstreet.
Obedience is the orig-anal, primitive Political Correctness.
SURRENDER
When we Surrender
We get to see more clearly What-Is;
We're freer to engage more creatively with What-Is,
Just as it is.
There is no selling out
To obedience or disobedience,
To kowtowing or resistance.
In Surrender
We pass on our egos' glossy promise of Control
For the greater reality of Mastery.
Surrender is only possible
When the CEO of your life
Comes back from the world's longest lunch-hour,
Busts Ego back to the mailroom
And picks up responsibility once more.
Both Obedience and Disobedience
Are vastly overrated qualities.
Any dumb jerk can be obedient --
A primitive, knee-jerk survival reaction
To please and go along in order to get along,
With someone we've given away our power to.
Any dumb jerk can be disobedient --
A primitive, knee-jerk reaction
To resist and dis-please
Someone we've given away our power to.
Disobedience is a vain attempt to feel what we already are --
Free.
It never works.
By disobeying, we demand release
From whatever we're resisting
By tying ourselves to it.
Ruthless Rules of Reality
Whatever we resist, persists.
We become what we resist.
Blind obedience to general rules will always be problematical
Because each situation is unique,
Both in itself and within the surrounding circumstances at the time.
(We cannot step in the same river twice)
If obedience or disobedience is ever a question,
It will be about who and/or what we are being obedient or disobedient TO......
Individuals, self-held rules, values, concepts, beliefs, opinions and superstitions
That manipulate, dominate and control us.
Obedience and disobedience are also about an internal policeman called The Inner Critic/Judge
And his close colleague, Guilt --
The carnal coppers each of us has created for our selves
To drive us crazy.
"I was only following instructions....."
Obeisance is a refuge
Of those who have lost touch
With their one-ness with all that is,
With their in-tuition,
Their own internal guidance systems,
With their senses of empathy and appropriateness
And their sensitivity to the sovereign rights of others.
"I haven't broken any laws..."
Blind obedience to anyone or anything
Is an abrogation of personal responsibility.
Obedience is for Victims --
Underdogs.
("Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir -- [sotto voce] -- I'll get you for this, sir.")
Underdogs in one environment
Become Topdogs in another.
Beware.
When an Underdog becomes a Topdog,
It becomes a worse Topdog than the previous incumbent.
In any environment where power over others is traded,
Whether it's across the floor of parliament, around a committee table, over the startline at a street drag race, or around the lounge room after a family funeral,
Underdogs and Topdogs warily jostle and jockey one another for position,
Like stray dogs on a Bangkok backstreet.
Obedience is the orig-anal, primitive Political Correctness.
SURRENDER
When we Surrender
We get to see more clearly What-Is;
We're freer to engage more creatively with What-Is,
Just as it is.
There is no selling out
To obedience or disobedience,
To kowtowing or resistance.
In Surrender
We pass on our egos' glossy promise of Control
For the greater reality of Mastery.
Surrender is only possible
When the CEO of your life
Comes back from the world's longest lunch-hour,
Busts Ego back to the mailroom
And picks up responsibility once more.
RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility arises from a ground being
Of Spontaneity.
At the heart of successful Responsibility
Is our ability to respond freely to whatever,
Rather than kneejerk-react.
Without response-ability --
The power to see ourself as Cause in the matter
And as the author of our experience --
We are just robotic machines,
Variously intelligent
And profoundly stupid.
We are completely at the mercy of the tides of fortune
And the whims of anyone who pushes our emotional buttons...
We are Victims.
Responsibility requires intelligently honest self-knowing, an eager willingness to be accountable, and the welcome interplay of intuition.
Responsibility is the passcard to Integrity.
Of Spontaneity.
At the heart of successful Responsibility
Is our ability to respond freely to whatever,
Rather than kneejerk-react.
Without response-ability --
The power to see ourself as Cause in the matter
And as the author of our experience --
We are just robotic machines,
Variously intelligent
And profoundly stupid.
We are completely at the mercy of the tides of fortune
And the whims of anyone who pushes our emotional buttons...
We are Victims.
Responsibility requires intelligently honest self-knowing, an eager willingness to be accountable, and the welcome interplay of intuition.
Responsibility is the passcard to Integrity.
MEDITATION
Meditation is witnessing ---
Uninvolved ---
Within and without ---
Watching the thoughts and feelings that flow and ebb through
Watching existence expanding, contracting and curving in on itself,
Watching the heart and its embracements,
Watching the mind in its machinations,
Watching every selfish world rotating
Each on its own axis,
Witnessing the knee-jerk reactions
Of our negative egos
And feeling-memories
(For what is feeling, other than memory?)
Watching ..... Without getting caught up.
And when we do get caught up,
Watching that, too, with detached interest.
Adopting the perspective of an allowing Witnesser
Helps create emotional distance from whatever is being witnessed.
You are less involved.
With distance, identification lessens,
Suffering lessens.
The witnesser is no longer in the thrall
Of that which is being witnessed.
As we cease to identify with the thoughts and feelings that flow through us
We become less neurotically reactive
And more responsive......
More centred.
Our ability to respond rather than react
Lies at the the core of Response-ability.
Uninvolved ---
Within and without ---
Watching the thoughts and feelings that flow and ebb through
Watching existence expanding, contracting and curving in on itself,
Watching the heart and its embracements,
Watching the mind in its machinations,
Watching every selfish world rotating
Each on its own axis,
Witnessing the knee-jerk reactions
Of our negative egos
And feeling-memories
(For what is feeling, other than memory?)
Watching ..... Without getting caught up.
And when we do get caught up,
Watching that, too, with detached interest.
Adopting the perspective of an allowing Witnesser
Helps create emotional distance from whatever is being witnessed.
You are less involved.
With distance, identification lessens,
Suffering lessens.
The witnesser is no longer in the thrall
Of that which is being witnessed.
As we cease to identify with the thoughts and feelings that flow through us
We become less neurotically reactive
And more responsive......
More centred.
Our ability to respond rather than react
Lies at the the core of Response-ability.
ASSERTION -v- AGRESSION
Assertion sets boundaries
And delineates one's rights.
Agression crosses boundaries
And violates another's rights.
And delineates one's rights.
Agression crosses boundaries
And violates another's rights.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Right from the moment I was born
I was crammed full of "answers".
Mum & Dad gave me all their Answers,
Long before I ever got to formulate my questions ---
"Who am I?" "Where do I come from?" "Why am I here?" "Where am I going to?" "What's best for me to do while I'm here?"
That's not their fault; that's the way the game of being human was set up
Long before they had a chance to have any say in it.
While this setup may not be ideal,
It reflects a truth that I didn't get until my fifth decade --
This back-to-front set-up phase is also practical:
At least until we reach a stage
Where we can responsibly think and feel for ourselves.
"Answers-first" gives us a way of surviving and growing
Until we can discard our trainer wheels
And chart our own course.
A problem arises when we don't make that transition.
It seems to be this way for all of us.
Giving answers to life questions, asked and unasked, is what parents do:
It's part of their contribution to setting the game up for us.
The trick in good parenting is setting up the rules of the various games that are played concurrently --
Family, state, spiritual and cultural --
Teaching us how to creatively join in the play
And, as we mature,
How to find and express our individuality, satisfaction and freedom
Within the games.
Where I came unstuck with my Mum & Dad was
I asked questions they were quite sure I shouldn't be asking,
And to which they didn't have answers that sounded plausible, even to them.
That generated Confusion and Anger,
For them and for me.
Another problem with their unasked-for answers,
(And this they had in common with all parents)
Was that the ready-made answers they rolled off the training line
Weren't even theirs;
They had inherited them from their forbears.
Now, it you've ever played the game of Chinese Whisper,
You'll know how limited and unreliable is the process of communicating by passing information verbally from one to another.TT
Yet children unquestioningly go along with what they're taught in word, thought, attitude, mood and deed by their "betters" as if it were "gospel".
I'm damned if I know why but, after a certain point, I just couldn't do that.
It made life very rough and rocky,
Especially with a father whose granite-set motto was
"I am right, and you are wrong."
T
Eventually I raked up enough nerve to tentatively ask some of my own questions,
But I asked them of others, not of myself.
So I launched into marriage and parenthood
Full of shaky answers, values, ideas, concepts, opinions and beliefs --
Most of them umpteenth-hand-me-downs
From people who were just as lost as I was.
I hadn't a clue about any difference between what I believed, and what I knew.
I was so full of "shoulds" rammed into me by parents, relatives, teachers, preachers and, later, self-help gurus
About how I ought to be thinking and feeling
That there was no room in consciousness for real, actual thinking and feeling.
I was following instructions -- "Fake it until you make it."
Unfortunately much of my "knowledge" was at odds with my own experience,
But that remained unchallenged
Because I didn't yet either trust the validity of the trickle of real experience that was leaking through the defences,
Or had I ever met the "me" that was having the experience.
Looking back on it,
It's little wonder that my world and the reality I was living in
Had become so dysfunctional.
I felt like I was trapped in an off-beat orchestra
Where everyone was trying to play someone else's instrument,
To someone else's rhythm
And someone else's music,
Where none of the players were really listening to each other,
Where no-one was hearing their own music,
And no-one was even aware of a conductor.
It was a right cacophony!
Here was I, looking for The Answer,
While my head was full of synthetic answers
For which I hadn't yet formed authentic questions.
The experiences I was having were the answers
To questions I hadn't more than the vaguest notion of.
I was into my 50's before I got a handle on this stuff
And set out to discover my questions --
The questions for which I already had my answers,
And questions that could kick-start my life
Into a direction that would work better for me.
Answers that relate to conscious questions we're standing in
Ring with truth.
They resonate with our first-hand experience.
They become part of our knowing.
Knowledge gained from others
Can be formulated into a question
And tested in the light of ensuing experience
To see if they ring true for ourselves.
But until then any "truths" adopted from others
Remain just "maybe's", opinions, ideas or beliefs --
False klnowledge --
Until they're tested in personal experience.
Then they have juice.
If you're reading thus far,
It's high time, if you haven't already done so,
For you to wean yourself off being force-fed;
Time to take responsibility for yourself,
Push the trainer wheels to one side,
Ask your own questions
And walk the path of your own truth unfolding.
To accomplish this,
You don't need to reject or isolate yourself from anyone or anything.
There's no need to make yourself "right" and another "wrong".
In fact, that might be detrimental.
On the contrary,
You could grow like a young sapling,
Separate
And under the shade and protection of older trees.
There are no free lunches on this journey,
No cheap, short-cut solutions,
No cheat-sheets at the back of someone else's textbook book to look up
For a quick answer.
By all means, listen to and read about the experiences of others --
You'll always get new ideas and possibilities
To try for yourself.
Life is a do-it-to-yourself game.
The only knowing for "me"
Is what I dis-cover within and through myself;
Anything else is rumour, hearsay and superstition.
That applies, by the way, to this and anything else I write.
This is my stuff, and I'm not even attached to it.
For you, it is nothing more than hearsay,
Until you test it in your own experience.
Neither you nor I can see with somebody else's eyes;
We cannot hear with somebody else's ears.
We cannot feel through another's heart;
I cannot think through your mind.
We're not supposed to!
We cannot know truth anywhere
Save in our own awareful experience.
In the past, I have allowed myself
And, in some instances, even begged to be conditioned by others who seem to have "The Answer".
I was so out of it then,
I didn't realise I was wanting, yet again,
For others to go responsible for me --
To tell me what to do.
The wise ones said "No. Here's a mud-map from when I did the trip. Find out for yourself. If you want to, let me know how you're going."
That was true empathy and support.
Similarly, I will not go responsible for you.
I give you a map and some notes,
But it's up to you to find your way.
If you really insist you cannot do it on your own,
That is your choice.
I know differently,
But it's not my job to disagree with you, prove you wrong and change your mind for you.
You'd never be able to thank me for it anyway
And you would be right to resent me for it.
Anything someone else gives you can be taken away from you.
Anything you give to your self, is yours,
And you will never need from another.
Other people's truths are like the Sower's Seed
That fell on stony ground.
It may take root and flourish for a while,
But eventually it will fall prey
To the heat of the summer sun
And the ravages of birds and insects.
Answers you get for yourself, from your experience
Are YOUR answers,
And no-one can take them away from you.
Stand in your own questions,
And be available for the answers that come in experience.
Here's a question for you to stand in -----
When I ask that question right now, here's some of what pops for me ---
What your life is about depends on the questions you ask of your self.
Experience is the universe's lesson.
The answers and the learning you get
Are up to you.
I was crammed full of "answers".
Mum & Dad gave me all their Answers,
Long before I ever got to formulate my questions ---
"Who am I?" "Where do I come from?" "Why am I here?" "Where am I going to?" "What's best for me to do while I'm here?"
That's not their fault; that's the way the game of being human was set up
Long before they had a chance to have any say in it.
While this setup may not be ideal,
It reflects a truth that I didn't get until my fifth decade --
We already have The Answer;
Our only problem is
We've forgotten what The Question was.
This back-to-front set-up phase is also practical:
At least until we reach a stage
Where we can responsibly think and feel for ourselves.
"Answers-first" gives us a way of surviving and growing
Until we can discard our trainer wheels
And chart our own course.
A problem arises when we don't make that transition.
It seems to be this way for all of us.
Giving answers to life questions, asked and unasked, is what parents do:
It's part of their contribution to setting the game up for us.
The trick in good parenting is setting up the rules of the various games that are played concurrently --
Family, state, spiritual and cultural --
Teaching us how to creatively join in the play
And, as we mature,
How to find and express our individuality, satisfaction and freedom
Within the games.
Where I came unstuck with my Mum & Dad was
I asked questions they were quite sure I shouldn't be asking,
And to which they didn't have answers that sounded plausible, even to them.
That generated Confusion and Anger,
For them and for me.
Another problem with their unasked-for answers,
(And this they had in common with all parents)
Was that the ready-made answers they rolled off the training line
Weren't even theirs;
They had inherited them from their forbears.
Now, it you've ever played the game of Chinese Whisper,
You'll know how limited and unreliable is the process of communicating by passing information verbally from one to another.TT
Yet children unquestioningly go along with what they're taught in word, thought, attitude, mood and deed by their "betters" as if it were "gospel".
I'm damned if I know why but, after a certain point, I just couldn't do that.
It made life very rough and rocky,
Especially with a father whose granite-set motto was
"I am right, and you are wrong."
T
Eventually I raked up enough nerve to tentatively ask some of my own questions,
But I asked them of others, not of myself.
So I launched into marriage and parenthood
Full of shaky answers, values, ideas, concepts, opinions and beliefs --
Most of them umpteenth-hand-me-downs
From people who were just as lost as I was.
I hadn't a clue about any difference between what I believed, and what I knew.
I was so full of "shoulds" rammed into me by parents, relatives, teachers, preachers and, later, self-help gurus
About how I ought to be thinking and feeling
That there was no room in consciousness for real, actual thinking and feeling.
I was following instructions -- "Fake it until you make it."
Unfortunately much of my "knowledge" was at odds with my own experience,
But that remained unchallenged
Because I didn't yet either trust the validity of the trickle of real experience that was leaking through the defences,
Or had I ever met the "me" that was having the experience.
Looking back on it,
It's little wonder that my world and the reality I was living in
Had become so dysfunctional.
I felt like I was trapped in an off-beat orchestra
Where everyone was trying to play someone else's instrument,
To someone else's rhythm
And someone else's music,
Where none of the players were really listening to each other,
Where no-one was hearing their own music,
And no-one was even aware of a conductor.
It was a right cacophony!
Here was I, looking for The Answer,
While my head was full of synthetic answers
For which I hadn't yet formed authentic questions.
The experiences I was having were the answers
To questions I hadn't more than the vaguest notion of.
I was into my 50's before I got a handle on this stuff
And set out to discover my questions --
The questions for which I already had my answers,
And questions that could kick-start my life
Into a direction that would work better for me.
Answers that relate to conscious questions we're standing in
Ring with truth.
They resonate with our first-hand experience.
They become part of our knowing.
Knowledge gained from others
Can be formulated into a question
And tested in the light of ensuing experience
To see if they ring true for ourselves.
But until then any "truths" adopted from others
Remain just "maybe's", opinions, ideas or beliefs --
False klnowledge --
Until they're tested in personal experience.
Then they have juice.
If you're reading thus far,
It's high time, if you haven't already done so,
For you to wean yourself off being force-fed;
Time to take responsibility for yourself,
Push the trainer wheels to one side,
Ask your own questions
And walk the path of your own truth unfolding.
To accomplish this,
You don't need to reject or isolate yourself from anyone or anything.
There's no need to make yourself "right" and another "wrong".
In fact, that might be detrimental.
On the contrary,
You could grow like a young sapling,
Separate
And under the shade and protection of older trees.
There are no free lunches on this journey,
No cheap, short-cut solutions,
No cheat-sheets at the back of someone else's textbook book to look up
For a quick answer.
By all means, listen to and read about the experiences of others --
You'll always get new ideas and possibilities
To try for yourself.
Life is a do-it-to-yourself game.
The only knowing for "me"
Is what I dis-cover within and through myself;
Anything else is rumour, hearsay and superstition.
That applies, by the way, to this and anything else I write.
This is my stuff, and I'm not even attached to it.
For you, it is nothing more than hearsay,
Until you test it in your own experience.
Neither you nor I can see with somebody else's eyes;
We cannot hear with somebody else's ears.
We cannot feel through another's heart;
I cannot think through your mind.
We're not supposed to!
We cannot know truth anywhere
Save in our own awareful experience.
In the past, I have allowed myself
And, in some instances, even begged to be conditioned by others who seem to have "The Answer".
I was so out of it then,
I didn't realise I was wanting, yet again,
For others to go responsible for me --
To tell me what to do.
The wise ones said "No. Here's a mud-map from when I did the trip. Find out for yourself. If you want to, let me know how you're going."
That was true empathy and support.
Similarly, I will not go responsible for you.
I give you a map and some notes,
But it's up to you to find your way.
If you really insist you cannot do it on your own,
That is your choice.
I know differently,
But it's not my job to disagree with you, prove you wrong and change your mind for you.
You'd never be able to thank me for it anyway
And you would be right to resent me for it.
Anything someone else gives you can be taken away from you.
Anything you give to your self, is yours,
And you will never need from another.
Other people's truths are like the Sower's Seed
That fell on stony ground.
It may take root and flourish for a while,
But eventually it will fall prey
To the heat of the summer sun
And the ravages of birds and insects.
Answers you get for yourself, from your experience
Are YOUR answers,
And no-one can take them away from you.
Stand in your own questions,
And be available for the answers that come in experience.
Here's a question for you to stand in -----
If "Me" is the Answer --
What might the Questions have been?
- What does it feel like to be writing, not knowing if anyone's going to read this stuff? [It feels like "me"]
- What does it feel like to be a father? Grandfather? Uncle? [It feels like "me"]
- What does it feel like to be the product of Bill and Eira Barkla? (Note: My brother and sister will have differing answers to that question)
- What does it feel like to be a responsible, allowing, caring, courageous, playful adventurer?
- What does it feel like to be an open, innocent, intelligent explorer?
- What does it feel like to be a phoney, deluded, head-fucking bore?
- What does it feel like to be an irresponsible danger?
- What does it feel like to have an Operating Principle that says I have to feel Grief and Hurt to gain Validation and Honour?
- What is honesty/dishonesty, and what does it feel like, from both sides?
- What is integrity/disintegrity?
- What is wisdom/stupidity?
What your life is about depends on the questions you ask of your self.
Experience is the universe's lesson.
The answers and the learning you get
Are up to you.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
NECESSITY
Almost by default,
We regard Necessity as an impost
Rather than an opportunity.
That's our first mistake.
Our second mistake is to use "necessity" as an excuse, or code word
To avoid personal responsibility for choices we've made.
Stand in this for a while........at least until you get it........
We regard Necessity as an impost
Rather than an opportunity.
That's our first mistake.
Our second mistake is to use "necessity" as an excuse, or code word
To avoid personal responsibility for choices we've made.
Stand in this for a while........at least until you get it........
Necessity,
Engaged with
IS Freedom.
Engaged with
IS Freedom.
Hint:- To see it, you'll have to get a bit closer than just thinking about it.
LIFELONG LEARNING
In chronological order......
Learning to crawl.
Learning to walk.
Learning to talk
(We already knew how to communicate).
Learning to think for ourselves,
Remembering to feel.
Learning to get self-honest.
Learning to surrender.
Discovering how to live
Without a "How-to" book of rules.
Learning to crawl.
Learning to walk.
Learning to talk
(We already knew how to communicate).
Learning to think for ourselves,
Remembering to feel.
Learning to get self-honest.
Learning to surrender.
Discovering how to live
Without a "How-to" book of rules.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
"Love and marriage, love and marriage
Go together like a horse and carriage".
Yes, well, there's more than one good reason that song is no longer on the hit parade!
Love is light,
Lighter than air,
Lighter than thought,
Lighter than feeling.
Love is not a feeling, or a thought....
Love is the atmosphere in which all thought and feeling
(Including the ones we call "love")
Draw breath.
It is the stuff that love contains that gets heavy;
That stuff includes the romantic thoughts and feelings we mistake for "love". The stuff includes relationship and marriage.
What is Love?
Love is..........
Period.
Love manifests itself as anything you add after "Love is....."
Relationshit and marriage are man-made
In the image of our own egos.
Love is like a refreshing breeze on a warm summer day
But when man encounters Love in his room
He/she suddenly wants to close all the doors and windows
And trap it inside
For himself.
Trapped into relationships and marriages.
The breeze stagnates and grows stale.
Please don't misunderstand me --
Neither relationships nor marriages are wrong;
They seem to be a worthy part of being human.
I love relationships; I get off on them!
They are Love manifested.
And so are relationshits and divorces.
Love is so much more than just its appearances.
Try this experiment....
Hold your hands cupped until a gently running tap.
Notice how some water stays for a while in your cupped hands,
And some just over-flows on by.
Even the water that stays moves on
Making way for more water. Yes?
Now try to hang on to that water.
Clench you fists under the tap.
What happens to the water you had in your hands?
What happens to the water that falls onto your closed fists?
Let love go;
Let it flow.
Whatever stays with you,
Stays of its own willing accord.
Whatever flows on by
Was never yours in the first place.
"Because you're mine......."
Puh-leeeze!!
Love does not make anyone or anything your property.
If you harbour any notions of ownership or belonging,
That is not Love.
"....for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..."
Exodus 20:5
That's not God speaking; that's the froth of some storyteller's ego,
Picked up by a bunch of Levite priests around 500 BC looking for a monoply on worshiping rights.
To love is to let go.
We love in Freedom,
Or we do not love at all.
CONTEXT
Context is a state of Being.
When creating a Context for oneself
It's wise to use "being", rather than "doing" words --
e.g. "Watchfulness", rather than "Watchingness".
Adding the suffix "-ness" helps get the feel of it....
"Watchful" still has an air of "doing" about it,
While "watchfulness" is a space we can relax into.
Try the two for yourself now, one after the other.
Do it a couple of times,
And feel into the difference between the two.
A Context should not be stressful;
If it's stressing you, there's a Condition going on.
If that's happening, create a context to cradle the constricting condition.
Context has less influence on the kind of things that we do
Than on the WAY that we do.
Context is about the way we are Being.
Let's say, for example, that I am about to go on-air
To present a radio programme........
If I've had a stressful day and I'm feeling a bit on edge
And consequently I'm in a context of, say, "apprehensiveness"
My presentation is likely to be very different from the way it may be
If I'm in a context of, say, "empoweringness".
I'm coming from a different place;
Same music, same sponsor spots, same newsbreaks, but a subtly different show
With a different appeal and impact.....
Maybe even a different audience!
Another important thing I've found about Context ---
Something that may be useful in one context
May be less useful, or even harmful, in another context.
To cite an absurdly extreme example --
In a context state of "groundedness", given the skills I have,
Counselling might be a useful thing to do.
In a state of "confusedness", however, it might be a better idea to take a sickie and do something else
Because the static of confusion I'm coming from
Is going to confuse the communication.
And from the other side of the same fence, I'd rather not place my life in the hands of an airline pilot, a brain surgeon, or another driver on the freeway at a time when they're under the influence of a context of "furiousness". I've had my share of massages from people who've been running personal emotional stuff while they've been working on me --- not a good result: I've learned the hard way to trust my instincts and cancel the appointment.
Ways of being (eg. believingness, certainness, faithfulness, dependentness) that may have served us well in the past, do not retain their usefulness as life moves on. At some point, everything -- yes, everything -- comes up for review. Whether you heed the warnings or not is up to you. Mid-life crisis, for example, is a tsunami of previously unheeded warnings.
Take charge of your life.
Willingly re-examine everything you've ever assumed.
And don't just do a spring-clean
(That's when we "tidy-up"; we open up the drawers and cupboards,
and move our stuff around to a new location)
Be prepared to chuck anything that is no longer useful.
Give it away.
Get rid of it.
Travel light.
When creating a Context for oneself
It's wise to use "being", rather than "doing" words --
e.g. "Watchfulness", rather than "Watchingness".
Adding the suffix "-ness" helps get the feel of it....
"Watchful" still has an air of "doing" about it,
While "watchfulness" is a space we can relax into.
Try the two for yourself now, one after the other.
Do it a couple of times,
And feel into the difference between the two.
A Context should not be stressful;
If it's stressing you, there's a Condition going on.
If that's happening, create a context to cradle the constricting condition.
Context has less influence on the kind of things that we do
Than on the WAY that we do.
Context is about the way we are Being.
Let's say, for example, that I am about to go on-air
To present a radio programme........
If I've had a stressful day and I'm feeling a bit on edge
And consequently I'm in a context of, say, "apprehensiveness"
My presentation is likely to be very different from the way it may be
If I'm in a context of, say, "empoweringness".
I'm coming from a different place;
Same music, same sponsor spots, same newsbreaks, but a subtly different show
With a different appeal and impact.....
Maybe even a different audience!
Another important thing I've found about Context ---
Something that may be useful in one context
May be less useful, or even harmful, in another context.
To cite an absurdly extreme example --
In a context state of "groundedness", given the skills I have,
Counselling might be a useful thing to do.
In a state of "confusedness", however, it might be a better idea to take a sickie and do something else
Because the static of confusion I'm coming from
Is going to confuse the communication.
And from the other side of the same fence, I'd rather not place my life in the hands of an airline pilot, a brain surgeon, or another driver on the freeway at a time when they're under the influence of a context of "furiousness". I've had my share of massages from people who've been running personal emotional stuff while they've been working on me --- not a good result: I've learned the hard way to trust my instincts and cancel the appointment.
Ways of being (eg. believingness, certainness, faithfulness, dependentness) that may have served us well in the past, do not retain their usefulness as life moves on. At some point, everything -- yes, everything -- comes up for review. Whether you heed the warnings or not is up to you. Mid-life crisis, for example, is a tsunami of previously unheeded warnings.
Take charge of your life.
Willingly re-examine everything you've ever assumed.
And don't just do a spring-clean
(That's when we "tidy-up"; we open up the drawers and cupboards,
and move our stuff around to a new location)
Be prepared to chuck anything that is no longer useful.
Give it away.
Get rid of it.
Travel light.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
PITY
Self-Pity sucks.
It is a ploy to wangle love out of an "other".
It doesn't work --
The best a self-pitier can hope for in return
Is Pity.
Giving Pity to a self-pitier
Is as good as giving blood to Dracula.
Pity sucks, too.
Pity is the false love of do-gooders,
Wet and sticky.
Pity doesn't nourish, or bring happiness to either party.
The pitier feels -- I don't know -- somehow sanctified,
While the Pitied one goes on drowning in even more ooze.
Out of Self-Pity we finish up back in self-pity,
Wallowing in a reality
In which we can feel so sorry for ourselves
That surely some saviour will notice we're drowning
And come to rescue us.
Self-Pity, and its bastard half-sibling, Self-Importance
Are Class-A Ir-responsibility.
A giver of Pity should be treated with the utmost suspicion.
Pity is sentiment
Bestowed by someone "higher" upon some poor unfortunate "lower" being.
There's nothing noble about Pity.
There is nothing of one's self given away in Pity,
And the person pitied is created as dis-abled.
And if you think they can't pick up on that, you're dreadfully mistaken.
People who pity often cop later resentment from the people they pity,
And wonder why.
Once or twice since my heart surgery,
I've been on the receiving end of someone's Pity.
I know it has been well-meant, but I've still felt abused,
And I emotionally withdraw from it.
My friends don't pity me, thank God;
They support me.
That's a very different thing.
When I find myself sinking in Pity for someone else's misfortune,
I find I'm reassuring myself that "I'm really a kind, caring person".
I'm pitying for my own self.
Why would I need that kind of reassurance?
Empathy is very different from Pity.
Empathy is Love invested;
There is evenness and engagement
One with the other.
If you can't avoid it in the moment,
Go ahead and pity your enemies,
But be aware;
Pity separates.
Never, ever pity your friends --
Love them;
Love unifies.
It is a ploy to wangle love out of an "other".
It doesn't work --
The best a self-pitier can hope for in return
Is Pity.
Giving Pity to a self-pitier
Is as good as giving blood to Dracula.
Pity sucks, too.
Pity is the false love of do-gooders,
Wet and sticky.
Pity doesn't nourish, or bring happiness to either party.
The pitier feels -- I don't know -- somehow sanctified,
While the Pitied one goes on drowning in even more ooze.
Out of Self-Pity we finish up back in self-pity,
Wallowing in a reality
In which we can feel so sorry for ourselves
That surely some saviour will notice we're drowning
And come to rescue us.
Self-Pity, and its bastard half-sibling, Self-Importance
Are Class-A Ir-responsibility.
A giver of Pity should be treated with the utmost suspicion.
Pity is sentiment
Bestowed by someone "higher" upon some poor unfortunate "lower" being.
There's nothing noble about Pity.
There is nothing of one's self given away in Pity,
And the person pitied is created as dis-abled.
And if you think they can't pick up on that, you're dreadfully mistaken.
People who pity often cop later resentment from the people they pity,
And wonder why.
Once or twice since my heart surgery,
I've been on the receiving end of someone's Pity.
I know it has been well-meant, but I've still felt abused,
And I emotionally withdraw from it.
My friends don't pity me, thank God;
They support me.
That's a very different thing.
When I find myself sinking in Pity for someone else's misfortune,
I find I'm reassuring myself that "I'm really a kind, caring person".
I'm pitying for my own self.
Why would I need that kind of reassurance?
Empathy is very different from Pity.
Empathy is Love invested;
There is evenness and engagement
One with the other.
If you can't avoid it in the moment,
Go ahead and pity your enemies,
But be aware;
Pity separates.
Never, ever pity your friends --
Love them;
Love unifies.
THE SEED UNSOWN
Did you hear the one about......
The seed that refused to leave the pod?
The baby who refused to leave the womb?
The 40-year-old who refused to leave kindergarten?
How many people do you know who've done 7 years of growing
And are just repeating that over and over again?
I know people like that, too;
In some ways, I'm one of them.
There are some things I do over and again,
Hoping that one day I'll get a different result.
The insanity of ego!
A seed that forgets its purpose
Refuses to drop to the ground and die
So that it might transform and grow into something far more beautiful
And flourish into its inherent destiny.
Dead seed is good only for chook food.
Our human mission, should we choose to accept it,
Is to find the right environment (starting from where we are is good),
Die to our seed-iness,
And be reborn.
I was once an observer at a protracted series of trials and hearings involving people I love dearly. Although it was a civil proceeding, I saw imprisonment all around; the litigants were all swathed in a protective coating of "rightness" that had become a prison of solitary confinement for each of them. Nobody won.
The seed that has come to love its seediness
Denies the possibility that it carries within its being;
It says "No" to life.
That is its "right".
Being human is being a seed
Whose purpose is to find the right soil,
(And if you're reading this, you've already found it!)
Cede its seed-ness,
Get on with the business of growing
And explore its potential. If you ain't growing, you're dying.
The seed that refused to leave the pod?
The baby who refused to leave the womb?
The 40-year-old who refused to leave kindergarten?
How many people do you know who've done 7 years of growing
And are just repeating that over and over again?
I know people like that, too;
In some ways, I'm one of them.
There are some things I do over and again,
Hoping that one day I'll get a different result.
The insanity of ego!
A seed that forgets its purpose
Refuses to drop to the ground and die
So that it might transform and grow into something far more beautiful
And flourish into its inherent destiny.
Dead seed is good only for chook food.
Our human mission, should we choose to accept it,
Is to find the right environment (starting from where we are is good),
Die to our seed-iness,
And be reborn.
I was once an observer at a protracted series of trials and hearings involving people I love dearly. Although it was a civil proceeding, I saw imprisonment all around; the litigants were all swathed in a protective coating of "rightness" that had become a prison of solitary confinement for each of them. Nobody won.
The seed that has come to love its seediness
Denies the possibility that it carries within its being;
It says "No" to life.
That is its "right".
Being human is being a seed
Whose purpose is to find the right soil,
(And if you're reading this, you've already found it!)
Cede its seed-ness,
Get on with the business of growing
And explore its potential. If you ain't growing, you're dying.
Monday, September 27, 2010
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
[Learned from observing a protracted civil court proceedings]
Guilt and Self-Pity
Go hand-in-hand to the altar
Of Self-Righteousness.
From Self-Righteousness,
Guilt goes on the offensive.
The viciousness of the assaults are directly proportional
To the depth of the Guilt they're covering up.
Guilt and Self-Pity
Go hand-in-hand to the altar
Of Self-Righteousness.
From Self-Righteousness,
Guilt goes on the offensive.
The viciousness of the assaults are directly proportional
To the depth of the Guilt they're covering up.
HERE NOW
Wanna get out of your mind?
Come here/now --
The only place mind cannot get to.
Be here/now,
For as long and as often as you wish.
Mind can only dwell on its own memories of what is past
Or its fantasies on what might yet come.
To be in Mind is to be walking around in a dream;
To be here Here and Now is to be wide awake.
When you catch yourself falling asleep
Into the dead past or the imagined future,
Simply bring yourself back to Here and Now.
Don't beat yourself up about it --
It may happen hundreds of times every day.
That's OK.
Simply come back.
There's no need to go off looking for what led you astray.
Every time we stop to ponder that which stops us
We're still stopped
In the past
Aren't we?
Come here/now --
The only place mind cannot get to.
Be here/now,
For as long and as often as you wish.
Mind can only dwell on its own memories of what is past
Or its fantasies on what might yet come.
To be in Mind is to be walking around in a dream;
To be here Here and Now is to be wide awake.
When you catch yourself falling asleep
Into the dead past or the imagined future,
Simply bring yourself back to Here and Now.
Don't beat yourself up about it --
It may happen hundreds of times every day.
That's OK.
Simply come back.
There's no need to go off looking for what led you astray.
Every time we stop to ponder that which stops us
We're still stopped
In the past
Aren't we?
FROM INSIDE THE SIN-BIN
I was brought up in a sternly "Us -v- Them" protestant christian ethos. Sin was the ultimate pitfall and, from my view of my parents' words and attitudes, all human beings except they and their fellow-Christian friends seemed to be inescapably sunk in sin up to their eyeballs. Temptation to sin lurked behind every second tree and in every dark thought-corner. It seemed that feelings of any sort other than anger and guilt were "sinful", and then anger was only legally available to my parents, and guilt was to be entirely my province. And I needed plenty of it because I was - inside and out - such a bad and sinful person.
Any act or omission to act that violated THE moral rules was a sin. Murder, theft, lying, wanting to hit my sister, being Roman Catholic -- all carried the same weight of painful punishment and eternal damnation from a humourless divine entity who'd never heard of the Grey Scale. This all-seeing God even knew what I was thinking and feeling, so thoughts and feelings that I had no control over were enough to get me busted for all time. And once the deed was done, in thought or in deed, that was it. I was gone for all money -- for eternity. Just being awake and alive was a source of continual stress and anxiety.
The only remedy seemed to be to swathe myself in guilt until punishment brought an end to it. Asking for forgiveness was never offered as an option, except in church on Sunday, and that, frankly, didn't seem to help much. I got very good at holding my breath under-guilt for days on end, since God was often away working. I had to wait until he got home on Thursday. (Thursday has never been my favourite day).
A NEW SPIN ON "SIN"
"Sin" -- the word originates from at least two separate sources that I know of, neither of them having anything to do with "wrongdoing". In ancient middle-eastern languages, "sin" was a voiceless consonant corresponding to "sh-sh-sh". The Hebrew root word for "sin" meant literally "to miss" or "to be absent".
To the ancient Greeks, "sin" was an archery term describing the distance between where the arrow landed on a target and the bullseye -- the distance by which the archer "missed".
The only "sin" is "missing"......
Judging separates us from our awareness of Godness.
In a lather of separation every day
We go looking for "missing",
And we manage to find it
Everywhere.
Judgment separates us from our self,
In judgment we miss the what-is of it;
Judgment is "missing" in action....
Mis-understanding
Mis-interpreting
Mis-fortune
Mis-matching
Mis-conduct
Mis-behaving
Mis- Be/Have-ing.
In the Book of Exodus, we hear about a Wilderness of Sin. It was a real place, just off the slopes of Mt.Sinai, where the Children of Israel got lost after leaving their slavery stint in Egypt. They missed a turnoff somewhere and found themselves in a desert. The food they'd brought with them ran out and water was scarce. But they survived on mannah, quail and an unseasonal heavy nigjhtly dew that "miraculously" appeared after Moses had a quiet word to "I Am". But I, too digress.....
Sin is "missing".
There once was a wise man whose King thought so highly of that he gave the monk a begging bowl of pure gold.
One evening the monk was engaged in his meditations, when a robber brandishing a sword burst in upon him and demanded the bowl. Without looking up. the monk said "It is in my cupboard over there. You are welcome to it." The robber, perplexed, retrieved the famous bowl and was about to leave when his curiosity got the better of him. He stopped, turned to the wise man and said, "Are you not going to lecture me on the evils of stealing? I am the best thief in the land; stealing has made me very rich." The monk paused his devotions long enough to say "That's fine. Keep stealing then. But be aware of what you're doing. Just be aware."
The robber shook his head incredulously and left.
The following evening, the old monk was just preparing for bed when the same robber burst in upon him, furious. "You have ruined me!" he yelled. "This evening I managed to break into the King's treasure chamber. There before me lay the wealth of the nation. I reached out to fill my bag when I remembered your words -- 'be aware'. I froze. I could not move. I used to be the best thief in the land, and now you have ruined me. I can no longer steal!" The monk looked at him a moment and gently repeated -- "Just be aware."
Sin is missing awareness, absent-mindedness.
Sin is simply not possible when we are present and aware.
To miss is to simply "not be here",
Being and acting without being present for it.
The only necessary virtue
Is to be fully alert.
There is nothing that needs to be changed;
All we need is to be here, now.
Guilt and repentance are part of the Sin Cycle --
Commit > Feel guilty > Repent > Feel "good" > Commit > Guilt >.....
Within that cycle no progress is possible.
Effort is not what is needed;
No need to be more, better or different.
Just be aware, and things simply start to drop away
All of their own accord.
Anything that doesn't drop
Still has value for you -- become aware of that.
In awareness, some possibilities are no longer required;
In awareness, other possibilities arise to take their place.
Any act or omission to act that violated THE moral rules was a sin. Murder, theft, lying, wanting to hit my sister, being Roman Catholic -- all carried the same weight of painful punishment and eternal damnation from a humourless divine entity who'd never heard of the Grey Scale. This all-seeing God even knew what I was thinking and feeling, so thoughts and feelings that I had no control over were enough to get me busted for all time. And once the deed was done, in thought or in deed, that was it. I was gone for all money -- for eternity. Just being awake and alive was a source of continual stress and anxiety.
The only remedy seemed to be to swathe myself in guilt until punishment brought an end to it. Asking for forgiveness was never offered as an option, except in church on Sunday, and that, frankly, didn't seem to help much. I got very good at holding my breath under-guilt for days on end, since God was often away working. I had to wait until he got home on Thursday. (Thursday has never been my favourite day).
A NEW SPIN ON "SIN"
"Sin" -- the word originates from at least two separate sources that I know of, neither of them having anything to do with "wrongdoing". In ancient middle-eastern languages, "sin" was a voiceless consonant corresponding to "sh-sh-sh". The Hebrew root word for "sin" meant literally "to miss" or "to be absent".
To the ancient Greeks, "sin" was an archery term describing the distance between where the arrow landed on a target and the bullseye -- the distance by which the archer "missed".
The only "sin" is "missing"......
- Missing awareness
- Missing truth
- Missing joy
- Missing power
Judging separates us from our awareness of Godness.
In a lather of separation every day
We go looking for "missing",
And we manage to find it
Everywhere.
Judgment separates us from our self,
In judgment we miss the what-is of it;
Judgment is "missing" in action....
Mis-understanding
Mis-interpreting
Mis-fortune
Mis-matching
Mis-conduct
Mis-behaving
Mis- Be/Have-ing.
In the Book of Exodus, we hear about a Wilderness of Sin. It was a real place, just off the slopes of Mt.Sinai, where the Children of Israel got lost after leaving their slavery stint in Egypt. They missed a turnoff somewhere and found themselves in a desert. The food they'd brought with them ran out and water was scarce. But they survived on mannah, quail and an unseasonal heavy nigjhtly dew that "miraculously" appeared after Moses had a quiet word to "I Am". But I, too digress.....
Sin is "missing".
There once was a wise man whose King thought so highly of that he gave the monk a begging bowl of pure gold.
One evening the monk was engaged in his meditations, when a robber brandishing a sword burst in upon him and demanded the bowl. Without looking up. the monk said "It is in my cupboard over there. You are welcome to it." The robber, perplexed, retrieved the famous bowl and was about to leave when his curiosity got the better of him. He stopped, turned to the wise man and said, "Are you not going to lecture me on the evils of stealing? I am the best thief in the land; stealing has made me very rich." The monk paused his devotions long enough to say "That's fine. Keep stealing then. But be aware of what you're doing. Just be aware."
The robber shook his head incredulously and left.
The following evening, the old monk was just preparing for bed when the same robber burst in upon him, furious. "You have ruined me!" he yelled. "This evening I managed to break into the King's treasure chamber. There before me lay the wealth of the nation. I reached out to fill my bag when I remembered your words -- 'be aware'. I froze. I could not move. I used to be the best thief in the land, and now you have ruined me. I can no longer steal!" The monk looked at him a moment and gently repeated -- "Just be aware."
Sin is missing awareness, absent-mindedness.
Sin is simply not possible when we are present and aware.
To miss is to simply "not be here",
Being and acting without being present for it.
The only necessary virtue
Is to be fully alert.
There is nothing that needs to be changed;
All we need is to be here, now.
Guilt and repentance are part of the Sin Cycle --
Commit > Feel guilty > Repent > Feel "good" > Commit > Guilt >.....
Within that cycle no progress is possible.
Effort is not what is needed;
No need to be more, better or different.
Just be aware, and things simply start to drop away
All of their own accord.
Anything that doesn't drop
Still has value for you -- become aware of that.
In awareness, some possibilities are no longer required;
In awareness, other possibilities arise to take their place.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
SOLVING PROBLEMS
Problems are created by Mind
To keep us entertained.
Like politicians, priests, and their functionaries,
Mind generates problems to make sure we stay focussed in Mind
And maintain Mind as supreme arbiter and authority of our life.
If we didn't Mind, there would be no problem.
Any time we "don't mind", we say "No problem."
Problems exist only in the Mind.
Outside of Mind there are no problems.
For Mind to survive itself, it will continue to create problems for you
To ensure that you continue to rely on your Mind.
Just when things are going along well in your life,
Problems arise.
That's no accident.
Your mind got bored and fearful
Of how well you were getting along without it.
Mind's message to you is always --
"Thou shalt have no other gods but ME:
Without ME, you will not survive."
Because Problems exist only in Mind,
They can only be dealt with in Mind.
Because Mind is finite,
Problems are finite (good news!)
And solutions to problems are also finite,
Always leading to further problems (bad news!)
Whenever you're beset by problems,
Remember.......
You are not The Problem,
The problem is not who or what you are;
You are a person that has a problem.
Suffering ceases the moment you stop I-dentifying-with.
You are not the contents of a cup;
You are not even the cup;
Think of yourself as the quality of the space
That makes way for and defines the shape of the inside and the outside of the cup
And cradles it in existence.
(You are actually more than that, too, but that will do for now).
Mind, and its stuff, is not all there is.......
There is much, much, much more.
Create a place, a space, a Context in which to hold the problem,
(eg. workingness, enoughness, ease-ness) -----
Any Context -- it doesn't matter --
A way of being for your problem to be in .........
When you click into the Space,
You'll find that The Problem is no longer all that there is;
There is more.
Now you simply have a problem,
Without getting emotionally caught up in it.
Identifying with your problem is blinding and binding you.
The view from inside a problem
Is too limited to get you out of it.
Click into the space outside,
Wait until you are free of the emotion,
Then engage with the what-is of the whole situation.
Do whatever needs to be done
Learn whatever is there to be learned,
And let the problem resolve itself.
To keep us entertained.
Like politicians, priests, and their functionaries,
Mind generates problems to make sure we stay focussed in Mind
And maintain Mind as supreme arbiter and authority of our life.
If we didn't Mind, there would be no problem.
Any time we "don't mind", we say "No problem."
Problems exist only in the Mind.
Outside of Mind there are no problems.
You might find it handy to re-member that
Whenever you need to create some space around your problems.
There is space available, always......
Infinite space.
For Mind to survive itself, it will continue to create problems for you
To ensure that you continue to rely on your Mind.
Just when things are going along well in your life,
Problems arise.
That's no accident.
Your mind got bored and fearful
Of how well you were getting along without it.
Mind's message to you is always --
"Thou shalt have no other gods but ME:
Without ME, you will not survive."
Because Problems exist only in Mind,
They can only be dealt with in Mind.
Because Mind is finite,
Problems are finite (good news!)
And solutions to problems are also finite,
Always leading to further problems (bad news!)
Whenever you're beset by problems,
Remember.......
You are not The Problem,
The problem is not who or what you are;
You are a person that has a problem.
Suffering ceases the moment you stop I-dentifying-with.
You are not the contents of a cup;
You are not even the cup;
Think of yourself as the quality of the space
That makes way for and defines the shape of the inside and the outside of the cup
And cradles it in existence.
(You are actually more than that, too, but that will do for now).
Mind, and its stuff, is not all there is.......
There is much, much, much more.
Create a place, a space, a Context in which to hold the problem,
(eg. workingness, enoughness, ease-ness) -----
Any Context -- it doesn't matter --
A way of being for your problem to be in .........
When you click into the Space,
You'll find that The Problem is no longer all that there is;
There is more.
Now you simply have a problem,
Without getting emotionally caught up in it.
Identifying with your problem is blinding and binding you.
The view from inside a problem
Is too limited to get you out of it.
Click into the space outside,
Wait until you are free of the emotion,
Then engage with the what-is of the whole situation.
Do whatever needs to be done
Learn whatever is there to be learned,
And let the problem resolve itself.
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