Not trying to get somewhere

The physical universe is basically playful. There is no necessity for it whatsoever. It isn’t going anywhere. That is to say, it doesn’t have some destination that it ought to arrive at. It is best understood by the analogy with music. Because music, as an art form is essentially playful. We say, “You play the piano” You don’t work the piano.

Why? Music differs from say, travel. When you travel you are trying to get somewhere. In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of the composition. The point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales.…  Same way with dancing. You don’t aim at a particular spot in the room because that’s where you will arrive. The whole point of the dancing is the dance.

If we thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at that end, and the thing was to get to that thing at that end. Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you’re dead.

But we missed the point the whole way along.

It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.

Alan Watts

Happy where you are

 

If you know that  – fundamentally –

there is nothing to seek,

you have settled your affairs.

Rinzai Gigen, died 866

Just be yourself

When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.

That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.

Shunryū Suzuki, 1904 – 1971, Shikantaza: Living Fully In Each Moment

Turning up, despite our fears

 

Even in beautiful places, we all have to be with different kinds of limitations: we look for an ideal life, but even in nature not every fruit is perfect in shape or colour:

I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do

was to show up for my life

and not be ashamed.

Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year

Sunday Quote: Acceptance: this is how it is

The earth always accepts what the sky throws down.

African Proverb

The heart

File:The park bench (2669222928).jpg

The heart is quiet rather than noisy, intuitive rather than deductive,

lives entirely in the present moment and is at every moment accepting of reality as it is.

Moreover, the heart does not seek to distance itself from, or dominate anything or anyone by labeling. It accepts rather than rejects, finding similarity rather than alienation and likeness rather than difference.

Your heart knows no fear, it experiences no desire, and never finds the need to defend or justify itself. It is patient and undemanding. It nourishes our bodies in every moment.

Little wonder then, that the mind –  always impatient and very demanding – manages to dominant the heart so thoroughly.

Archimandrite Meletios Webber

photo rosino