A new month. We think we know where we are going.
Surely it is better to wait and see, moment by moment. Who knows where we will end up?
Whales follow
the whale-roads.
Geese, roads of magnetized air.
Yet how often
the heart
that set out for Peru
arrives in China,
Steering hard.
consulting the charts
the whole journey.
Jane Hirshfield, China
Here, Ajahn Sucitto, who gave a talk last evening in Geneva, sums up the whole of practice in an insightful way: Getting to know the mind, and the unskilful habits which lead to suffering:
We are all in this together
— wanting peace and harmony – but disappointing and irritating each other nonetheless.
‘It shouldn’t be this way, there shouldn’t be any suffering.’
But then isn’t understanding and letting go of suffering what it’s all about.
What else are we here for?
Ajahn Sucitto, Parami
Things arise – just let them come;
Things disappear – just let them go.
Create but do not possess
Act but don’t expect.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Our heart is often divided by doubt and our efforts go into what or how we should be, or into trying to prove ourselves. We need to dis-engage from this mind which produces narratives such as ‘I need to do more” and not hold on to notions of progress which require a perfect self-image:
Thomas Merton said the way we have structured our lives, we spend our whole life climbing up the ladder of supposed success, and when we get to the top of the ladder we realize it is leaning against the wrong wall — and there is nothing at the top. To get back to the place of inherent abundance, you have to let go of all of the false agendas, unreal goals, and passing self-images. It is all about letting go. The spiritual life is more about unlearning than learning, because the deepest you already knows.
Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go
Our minds are often very intent on knowing the outcome, on fixing things down into this or that:
Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.
Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.
Rumi, Story Water
Very stormy weather in Ireland this past week, continuing overnight with heavy rain. The Eastern tradition called the causes of emotional pain ‘worldly winds’: gusts of blame and loss, happiness and unhappiness. They blow through the heart and throw us off balance, making us feel that we never feel good enough where we are or how our life actually is:
Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble.
You yourself make the waves in your mind.
If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.
This mind is called big mind.
Shunryu Suzuki
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