The reality is that, despite our best efforts, life can be challenging sometimes, and we can fall short and not fully measure up. Thus, some way of starting over is an essential practice. The mind likes to have ideas about things and people, and they are often ideas of perfection, which is probably not possible in this world. This can makes it harder to be at ease with vulnerability or have patience with a world that has ups and downs
We’d so much rather be kind, generous, loving and wise all the time – not to mention calm and peaceful – [but…] our major task as persons of the Way is to accept our human-ness...which includes greed, anger, ignorance and all the other emotions, thoughts and behaviors that we’d rather not feel, think or do.
How to cope with this paradox? It’s very simple, really, although not easy…we rely on the practice of vow and repentance. We vow to do our best, and then, when we make our inevitable mistakes, we repent. We recognize that we have done harm, and then we vow again to have as big a view as possible under the circumstances, so that maybe the next time….and on and on, endlessly, forever. This practice is not something we can learn and complete…it’s a lifetime’s worth of, as we sometimes say, 9 times fall down, 10 times get up. Or, an infinite number of times fall down, and an infinite number of times, plus one, get up.
Melissa Myozen Blacker, on her Blog Firefly Hall
photo brian snelson
