Nothing to Cling To
I think my motivation for this article has been the last month or so, as I’ve noted the deteriorating political situation in most of the Middle East, and in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and even in the cliché laden US primaries. Not to sit up here in Canada and preach, as we’ve got our own dramas.
The other thing was the market fluxuations. I got to thinking about how the world seems to be shifting a bit, or a lot, and how interesting the times could be, for folk not well grounded in themselves.
I suspect that might include a pile of people, as depth is not a prized characteristic. Clinging, on the other hand, is. Here, in no particular order are 10 things we cling to-
The Complexity of Simplicity
Perhaps nothing is more important than truly grasping the paradoxical nature of reality. Most of us hate paradox—we want things to be simple, predictable, and emphatically, we want things to be the way we think they ought to be. Flying in the face of our little foot-stomping rants about how things ‘ought to be’ is ‘how things are.’ I call this side of the equation reality.
Zen for the Holidays - 10 Tips
“How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Nothing ups the ante for family drama better than ‘going Home for the Holidays.’ (You really need to see the movie…)
Typically, past dramas are minimized as people play the ‘this year it will be different’ game. People expect Normal Rockwell gatherings, when “those gathered ’round” more closely resemble the Bunkers.
There are ways to change the game, but only if you decide to end the old game, AND replace it with something Zen.
Celebrate Your Life
On killing the Buddha. - This means ‘being with’ myself as I am, without judgement. I am how I am. And as I go there, I realize that, if I do not cling to the idea that I will be this way ‘forever,’ how I am shifts as time goes by. If I do not invest in my ‘tale of woe,’ I pass through it… until the next time.
Letting go of techniques
You are conditioned to judge, and then to seek a ‘cure,’ as if you are separate from your judgement, and separate from what your are judging. What I’m working on communicating is that getting all of this involves seeing through duality to the underlying unity. But notice–seeing through something means that the thing is there, and you are now seeing through it.
You Can’t Win
It’s an odd one, how many people think that the reason something they are doing doesn’t work is that they aren’t trying hard enough. Or, they think that, with a little extra persuasion (from me, from their partner, from their doctor or some other authority figure,) the non-working thing will magically shift.
Maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t work because it’s the wrong approach!
Zen Based, Present Living
