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#2553 - Monday, August 14, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
If we are facing in the
right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
— Buddhist saying
Rumi the poet was a scholar also.
But Shams, his friend, was an angel.
By which I don't mean anything patient or sweet.
When I read how he took Rumi's books and threw them
into the duck pond,
I shouted for joy. Time to live now,
Shams meant.
I see him, turning away
casually toward the road, Rumi following, the books
floating and sinking among the screeching ducks,
oh, beautiful book-eating pond!
— Mary Oliver
Gill Eardley on
Allspirit
Hankering after the
unknowable
You want me to tell you what reality is. Can the indescribable be
put into words? Can you measure something immeasurable? Can you
catch the wind in your fist? If you do, is that the wind? If you
measure that which is immeasurable, is that the real? If you
formulate it, is it the real? Surely not, for the moment you
describe something which is indescribable, it ceases to be the
real. The moment you translate the unknowable into the known, it
ceases to be the unknowable. Yet that is what we are hankering
after. All the time we want to know, because then we shall be
able to continue, then we shall be able, we think, to capture
ultimate happiness, permanency. We want to know because we are
not happy, because we are striving miserably, because we are worn
out, degraded. Yet instead of realizing the simple fact - that we
are degraded, that we are dull, weary, in turmoil - we want to
move away from what is the known into the unknown, which again
becomes the known and therefore we can never find the real.
Book of Life - August 11th J Krishnamurti.org
photos by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/islands/summer_night.htm
Without understanding
the nature of these two truths-the conventional and the
ultimate-it is difficult to fully appreciate the distinction
between appearance and reality, that is, the discrepancy we
experience between our perception and the way things really are.
Without a deep understanding of this fact, we won't be in a
position to get at the root of our fundamental ignorance.
— Practicing Wisdom, The Dalai Lama
~ ~ ~
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always
assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins
because he had achieved so much--the wheel, New York,
wars and so on--while all the dolphins had ever done
was muck about in the water having a good time. But
conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they
were far more intelligent than man--for precisely the
same reasons."
— Douglas Adams, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
The Art of Not Being
Offended
by Jodi Shams Prinzivalli
There is an ancient and well-kept secret to happiness and
well-being
that the Great Ones rarely talk about but frequently utilize, and
is
one which is fundamental to good mental health. This secret is
called
The Fine Art of Not Being Offended. In order to truly be a master
of
this art, one must be able to see that every statement, action
and
reaction of another human being is the sum result of their total
life
experience to date. In other words, the majority of people in our
world say and do what they do from their own set of fears,
conclusions, defenses and attempts to survive. Most of it, even
when
aimed directly at us, has nothing to do with us. It usually has
more
to do with all the other times and in particular the first few
times
that this person experienced a similar situation, usually when
they
were young. Yes, this is psychodynamic. But let's face it, we
live in
a world where psychodynamics are what make the world go around.
An individual who wishes
to live successfully in the world as a
spiritual person really needs to understand the psychology is as
spiritual as prayer. In fact, the word psychology literally
means,
the study of the soul. Those of us who are either ignorant of
this
fact or who believe this is not true often tend to have
unnecessary
suffering where there could be joy.
All of that said, almost NOTHING is personal. Nothing. Even with
our
closest loved ones and beloved partners and children and friends.
We
are all swimming in the projections and filters of each other's
life
experiences and often we are just the stand-ins, the chess pieces
of
life to which our loved ones have their own built-in reactions.
This
is not to dehumanize life or take the intimacy out of our
relationships, but mainly for us to know that almost every time
we
get offended, we are actually just in a misunderstanding. The
true
embodiment of this idea actually allows for more intimacy and
less
suffering throughout all of our relationships. When we know that
we
are the one who happens to be standing in the right place at the
right psychodynamic time for someone to say or do what they are
doing, we don't have to take life personally. If it isn't us, it
will
likely be someone else. This frees us to be a little more
detached to
the reactions of people around us. How often do we react to a
statement of another by being offended rather than seeing that
the
other might actually be hurting? In fact, every time we get
offended,
it is actually an opportunity to extend kindness to one who may
be
suffering - even if they themselves do not appear that way on the
surface. All anger, all acting out, all harshness, all criticism,
is
in truth a form of suffering. When we provide it no velcro for it
to
stick, something changes in the world. We do not even have to say
a
thing. In fact, it is usually better not to say a thing. People
who
are suffering are usually not keen on the fact of someone
pointing it
out. We do not have to be our loved one's therapist. We need only
understand the situation and move on. In the least, we ourselves
experience less suffering and at best, we have the chance to make
the
world a better place.
This is also not to be confused with allowing ourselves to be
hurt,
neglected or taken advantage of. True compassion does not allow
harm
to ourselves either. But when we know that nothing is personal, a
magical thing also happens. All the seeming abusers of the world
start to leave our lives. Once we are conscious, so-called abuse
can
only happen if we believe what the other is saying. When we know
nothing is personal, we also do not end up feeling abused. We can
say, "Thank you for sharing," and carry on. We are not
hooked by what
another says, does or believes, we can take the world a little
less
seriously. And if necessary, we can just walk away without
creating
more misery for ourselves.
The great challenge of our world is to live a life of contentment
regardless of what other people do, say, think or believe. The
fine
art of not being offended is one of many options for being a
practical mystic. Yet I suspect it is the task of a lifetime. It
certainly is for me.
posted
by Gill Eardley on Allspirit
Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity--but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our "biography," our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards. . . It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are? Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn't that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?
— Sogyal Rinpoche, The
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
All Is Grace a photo essay by Alan Larus
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/islands/all_is_grace.htm