When you allow for uncertainty, then you don’t always have to find solutions. You can live through a problem until it’s not a problem anymore. Instead of seeing things as problems, you see the life you are living. You can live your way into the answers. This is different from standing outside of your life and throwing stones at your problems from a safe distance.
John Tarrant, Why Play with Koans?
And the heart, unscrolled,
is comforted by such small things:
a cup of green tea rescues us,
grows deep and large,
a lake
Jane Hirshfield, Recalling a Sung Dynasty Landscape
chris gladis
There is great psychological wisdom in the ancient texts as to how to deal with the strong emotions stirred up by challenges we face every day. Being able to see, without making it a story about ourselves:
You shouldn’t chase after the past, and don’t place expectations on the future.
The past no longer is. The future has not yet come.
Whatever is present in life as it is in the very here and now
you clearly see, right there, right there.
Not taken in. You dwell in stability and freedom
That’s how you develop the heart.
The Buddha, Bhaddekaratta Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya No.131.
We do not have to have everything sorted out in our lives for them to be complete and us to be happy.
A lot of disappointed people have been left
standing on the street corner
waiting for the bus marked Perfection
Donald Kennedy
photo kai hendry
In Zen practice a koan is a phrase, a conversation, or a saying that a mediator reflects on in order to point to a way of being in the world. The phrase in held in mind – sometimes for months or years at a time – to unravel an openness in practitioners, allowing them to enter into inner regions beyond knowing.
I like keeping this one in mind, which is presented here in a commentary on a saying of Ummon, an 8th Century Zen Master. It challenges my normal commentary and takes me out of the thoughts I buy into every day. Maybe I already have everything I need right now:
Ummon introduced the subject by saying:
I do not ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about in fifteen days time? Come, say a word about this.
He himself replied for them: Every day is a good day.
Commentary by Suzuki : Today does not become yesterday, and Dōgen states that today does not become tomorrow.
Each day is its own past and future and has its own absolute value.
From a transcript of a talk by Suzuki-roshi, Thursday, November 1st, 1962
Advent is a season of waiting and preparation, but mainly in the sense of setting aside distractions and creating space to see what is important. However, what the commercial side of this holiday season often encourages is a state of anticipation and of lack, prompting us to think that something is going to be suddenly different when we get this thing or feeling. There is a danger in this, as we can fall into the trap of linking our happiness to some future moment. True contentment comes from working with our life as it as – from surrendering to what is – and not trying to escape from it.
Peace can only exist in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say “Wait until I finish this, then I’ll be free to live in peace”. What is “this”? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of debt? If you think that way peace will never come. There is always another “this” that will follow the present one. If you are not living in peace at this moment, you’ll never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now. Otherwise there is only hope for peace “some day.”
Thich Nhat Hahn, The Sun my Heart
photo sunoferat
