More Learning from Buddhism

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.

Ram Dass

Wisdom in all Religions

I am going to get back to the lessons in A Course very soon.  Right  now I am being drawn to dharma talks....for some reason.   I am not a Buddhist, any more than I am a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian ( though Christianity will always be both a beautiful life enhancing conditioning in me, as well as something  I can no longer follow exclusively  without questioning )   but I absolutely love the teachings outlined by the Buddha ( as I do the teaching outlined by Christ). 

I guess, what I am trying to say, is I am not identifying with any one religion.  I am identifying with all.  Not for a second do I believe I am "Putting False Gods before me"  as I have been accused of doing.  In my understanding there is only One God...just so many different interpretations, terminologies and explanations. These teachings  are neither the same or different!!!

A Gentle and Practical Approach

Anyway, to me the Buddhists offer the best understanding into the nature of suffering and healing that I have heard...even beyond the psychological and scientific explanations that I have studied over the years. It is beautiful and amazing, not only in spiritual terms, but in practical!  The dharma seems to offer a beautiful marriage between the spiritual and physical.

So yeah I am drawn to those dharma talks...drawn to the all inclusive, non judgemental, practical, gentle and kindly approach Buddhism offers. I am a practitioner of these teachings yes...just as I am still a practitioner of many of the teachings I received growing up as a catholic, as I am a practitioner of the Hinduism that underlines the basis of Yoga.  I absolutely adore the Suffi poets and find great wisdom in their words.  I am amazed by the wisdom and reverence for the natural world seen in the traditions  of  the indigenous people around me.  I love science. I love philosophy.   I love literature.  I love what I gain from my own look inward.

I am just open

 I am just so open to explore wisdom in any form it comes in. If an explanation, a teaching, a description touches something inside me, I open farther.  I am just a seeker, and a practitioner.  I do not call myself a bodhisattva or a Sadhaka nor do I call myself a catholic.  I am just a seeker and a practitioner of that which resonates in my core.

Anyway, heard this little acronym today that helps us to be mindful, especially of our suffering. It was offered during a dharma talk from Deer Park.  Rabbits and Elephants Love Icecream. 

The R. stands for recognize. Notice what you are feeling, what is happening around you. what you are thinking.  What you are doing.

A stands for accept...which is a big one.  just allow whatever it is to simply be.  That doesn't mean it has to stay that way...but in this moment it is what is is.  Don't resist it.  don't deny it.  Don't push it away.  Just allow.

E stands for embrace.  So  we go beyond simply accepting teh circumstance, the feeling, the thoughts, the behaviour in us or someone else.  We embrace it.  We own it.  We pick it up and hold it gently.  This is the total opposite of resisting, and pushing away, isn't it?

L stands for look deeply...once we embrace it and soothe it...in a sense calm it down, we can begin to look closely at it.  Examine it to determine where it came from, what it means and what can be done about it...if anything. 

Then I stands for Insight...what have we learned from this, gained from this that we can take with us?

So simple, so lovely and so very wise.

All is well in my world.

Plum village   Earth Holder Retreat Orientation With Sr. Man Nghiem & Br. Nguyen Luc @ Deer Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8EaxBorhEU