How beautiful his sinlessness will be when you perceive it!
-ACIM-T-25: V: 5:4

My heart breaks a little bit when I see someone struggling with their own version of sinfulness. I also want to judge and condemn this person  for his "sin" because I personally feel violated and frustrated by his choices.   I know though that what my ego judges him to be in those moments I slip away from my realization of Self and essence identity, is nothing in comparison to how he judges himself ...even if he does not realize that yet because of all his  perceived brokenness.

Sigh!!! Our house got broken into while we were gone and some valuable items ( that did not belong to me) were stolen.  We knew immediately when we were told, which was while we were away, who the individual was. (Well we didn't know...strongly suspected with evidence to back up our suspicions...but who ever truly "knows" anything?  Innocent until proven guilty, right?)

I was so angry at first...I still get angry but the anger does not last long before compassion takes over.  I feel bad for him. Though there may be no socially sanctioned consequence for this action, the consequences of his  past actions and choices are about to slap him across the face. He is now like a frightened child waiting for his daddy to come home from work to punish him.  This daddy is the penal system and the daddy comes home today. He has run away to hide under the bed but he knows like we all know, Daddy will find him. There is no escaping the punishment this time.

It is just so sad to see people get so lost, to mentally stray  so far away from their own pure and perfect Self that they allow ego's need for immediate gratification to take them into some pretty dark places where others get hurt.  Yes there needs to be social sanctions, legal repercussions and consequences for hurting others...but do we as a social whole...have to judge him as a "sinner"? What do we get from doing that?

We get a sense of self righteousness, a bit of a reprieve as our own "sinfulness" gets diminished somewhat in comparison to his. We get an outlet for our own hate and anger (that we all have people as long as we are not truly Self realized).  And our sense of "me" becomes stronger, doesn't it, when we have a target for blame, and judgment?  In some weird way we like to be victims.  It adds to our "story" doesn't it?

Yet...we are no better , no worse than the individual about to be punished.  We are all capable of all he has done and more...as long as ego calls the shots.

I am going to try to put down my judgment here, to put away my need to add drama to my story, and I am going to try to look beyond the broken, festering ego this person wears and see what is truly  there.  We are not what our bodies do.  We are not what we think and feel.  We are not the choices we make.  We are so much more than that. He is so much more than that

Beneath the ego and the crazy monkey minds that can take us to many strange places is a perfect and pure essence.  If we could see it in all others, regardless of what they may do, would they not strive to be better ?  Would we not be better off to see sinlessness rather than sin?

I share this only because it brings a profound question to the healing mind.

All is well in my world.

Essence Identity: What Uses What?

The essence of you is [a part of ]the essence of the universe.
-Eckhart Tolle

So we are so much more than this that we can perceive with our senses and describe, explain or even understand with our minds? 

We are minds in bodies; formless in form; invisible in the visible; spirit in matter; timeless in some concept of "time"; changeless in the changing ; eternal in the temporary and we are in this world but not of it?

Our true identity then is the essence beneath every "thing"?

In the short video clip listed below, a question is asked, "How do we use our essence identity to make better choices?"  Eckhart Tolle quickly replies with this truth:  We don't use essence identity; essence identity uses us.

We got it so very mixed up. We ...as this pathetic little me...walk around this planet thinking we are using everything and have a right to. It doesn't work out so well for us so we decide to search and seek for something deeper...for the purpose of using it to make these pathetic little me better.

How can the pathetic self use the Divine Self?  How can illusion use truth? How can bodies use minds? Form use the formless? The visible use the invisible? Matter use spirit? An illusion of  time use the truth of timelessness? The ever changing use that which is incapable of change? The temporary use the eternal?

It can't... can it?

Our essence identity...that which we truly are cannot be used.  It uses this form we are in, our minds, our bodies, and this world we are in to do what it does...shine.  It is always there...always present because it is presence. It just is!  And once we realize presence...it will use this limited form of us  to shine through onto the world.

We are the formless presence beneath form...so the body doesn't run the show.  We, (as our true selves: Essence Identity) are not used by  the body ...presence uses the body.  We are not used by our minds...presence uses the mind. We are not used by this concept of time, or change...presence  uses that.  We are not used by the world...presence creates and uses the world to do what we are here to do...shine.

But the "we" I speak of here is not the little "me" we have come to know through over identification with body, mind and the physical world... as self.  It is not this story we created. It is not a separate little entity trying to find peace and enlightenment in a busy chaotic world. It is beyond all that.  It is beyond body.  It is beyond mind.  It is beyond this world as we perceive it.

And at the same time...it is it.  It flows through and wraps itself  so gracefully, so perfectly around all of it.

We just need to be present.  We do not need to use anything. We just need to fall back into the stillness of our own essence identity and allow ourselves to be used by it.  The little "me"  may never use it.  We can, however,  be vehicles for this amazing light to shine through, while realizing we are that light.

All is well.

Eckhart Tolle (2019) How can we use our essence identity to make better choices? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtkyDZFQvCw

In Essence, You Are...

The answer is, who you are cannot be defined through thinking or mental labels or definitions, because it is beyond that. It is the very sense of being that is there  when you become conscious of the present moment. In essence, you and what we call the present moment, at the deepest level, are one.
-Eckhart Tolle (https://www.quotetab.com/eckhart-tolle-quotes-about-essence#jEbU6x8Beva9A3Bi.97)

Self-Realization

Our own Self-realization is the greatest service we can render the world.
-Ramani Marharshi (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/self-realization)

So the best thing we can offer the world is our own realization of Self which in a sense is enlightenment, waking up and finally becoming aware. 

What is Self -realization?

Yet what is this thing we call self realization or awareness of Self?  We can't seek it or ever get "there".  We can't define it with words or concepts?  We can't understand it with the mind?

WTF (front door)?

How are we going to realize Self when we don't even "know" what  Self-realization  is?

The Mind that Wants an Answer

Ahhh!  But it is the mind that poses that question.  It is the mind that wonders what it is. It is the  mind that occasionally slips beneath ego's veil for just a second to attempt to curiously peek at the this "consciousness thing." It is the mind that needs to seek, attain and then  describe and explain awareness.  Isn't it?

It is also the mind that personalizes everything, the mind that needs to create images and stories about who we are.  It creates an idea of self  in lieu of knowing Self. That idea of self is wrapped in "I" and "me" and "mine".  It is wrapped in a need to do, achieve, attain, cling, defend and attack for anything it perceives as belonging to the "my story"... including awareness.  It is the mind that has to narrate, explain and conceptualize our living. It is the mind that has to conceptualize self.

Yet by conceptualizing self it fails to realize Self.  The self it explains is not the Self we need to live in order to serve the world. Anything that can be explained by the mind is not truly realized.

A name that can be named is not a lasting name. (translation of Tao Te Ching by P.J. McLaggan, 1898....http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/tao-te-ching.htm.)

The self we think we are is not the Self we are.  We are so much more than that story we use to define and explain our limited versions of "me".

So what do we do to become Self - realized?

We get beyond the mind.  We put away our need to explain and use concepts to understand.  We accept that this thing we may call enlightenment  cannot be explained...it cannot be sought after...it cannot be found somewhere in the future.  It just is.  So we simply open up and allow  this "isness" which is simply the here and now to be.

We recognize the mind and what the mind does.  We understand its 'crazy' nature. We do not try to stop the thinking or necessarily control it.  We just look beneath it to what is there. We sit in stillness and silence with it,  knowing that we cannot narrate our way through what we may find.  It is beyond words, beyond explanations and the limited ability of the mind to understand.

Self is here where it always was and always will be.  It isn't going anywhere. All we can do is live it, experience it, feel it and be it...We simply be what we always were and will always be.  The mind can't take us there but we can be here.

That is self-realization.

All is well.

You are not suppose to love yourself until you do.

                                                                       Byron Katie

Wherever you are at right here, right now is exactly where you are supposed to be. What ever you are experiencing at this very moment is perfect because it simply is.

Stop resisting it!  Stop beating yourself up for it! Stop "shoulding" yourself to death. 

If you are not the person you want to be...don't sweat it!  You are what you are and that is all that matters.  The next moment may be different but until you accept who you are "now" there will be no evolution.

If you are not feeling as happy and confident as you want to feel...don't let it get to you.  You are feeling the way you feel.  It is what it is....right "now".  Allow whatever you feel to just be...it will pass.  But right now it is simply is.  Don't block it...let it pass.

If you are behaving in ways you vowed you would never behave...don't cringe and crawl away from Self in shame.  Face it!  Accept it! Though you will make better choices in the next moment...know that it is perfect as it is right now. Regardless of what you do because you are not what you do. How beautiful his[and your] sinlessness will be when you perceive it! ACIM:25:V:5:5

It is all perfect. This is it....because it is!  That is all you need to know! 

All is well!

Enlightened...Here and Now

Enlightenment is just a spiritual concept, just one more thing to seek in a future that never comes.
Byron Katie from Loving What Is, (Three Rivers Press; 2002)  page 395.

You are not supposed to be enlightened until you are. 

You are not supposed to be there until you are there.

In fact you are not supposed to be anywhere but here until you are there.  And when you are there... you are here.

How is that for a mind twister?

I write and write and write about enlightenment...about waking up ...of someday reaching that state where the tendency to fall back to sleep is gone.  I keep saying..."I am not there yet." "I want to get there."

I use these words only because that is what the ego mind understands.  Past, present and future and time are "concepts" the mind created and understands.  But they are just "concepts"...ideas, words and thoughts in our heads. They are not things that can be "experienced" and therefore not real, not truth.

In actuality there is no getting there because there is no "there''.  When a future projection is reached in our minds...we are "here"... not "there." The there is not something we can ever hold, feel or experience because it is just a concept. The future is a concept only...a story. 

All we can truly experience is the present moment we are in.  Everything else is just an idea. Therefore the only place we can live is here and now.

Enlightenment is just a concept...like the "there". It is the carrot at the end of a stick propelling us forward in our desire to reach it...but we can never reach it as long as it is held before us.  Enlightenment is a state in the "there" that we seek.  When we seek in the "there" we are not experiencing the "here"...and here is the only place we can be awake....because here is all there is.

The only place to be awake is here and now.  We need to stop with our doing, our striving, our looking and searching...if we really want to be awake. Right here...right now...we wake up.

Wherever you are at is exactly where you are supposed to be.  This is your awakening...not some elusive dream ahead of you.  Right here, right now is where you are  and that is exactly where you are supposed to be.  Wake up here.

People talk about self-realization. and this is it!  Can you just breathe in and out happily?  Who cares about enlightenment when you're happy right now?  Just enlighten yourself to this moment.
Katie, page 306

You are a student of yourself

The advice you have been giving your family and friends turns out to be for you to live, not us. You become the wise teacher as you become the student of yourself. It stops mattering if anyone else hears you because you're listening.  You are the wisdom you offer us, breathing and walking and effortlessly moving on, as you make your business deal, buy your groceries, or do the dishes.
Byron Katie from Loving what Is (2002), page 310.

Hmmm! How is that for profound? 

I so often wonder why I write here; why I come here every morning for a small unseen audience.  I wonder why I do what I do...why I teach or offer advice the way I do to readers that I will likely never know.  Who am I to teach anything when I have so very much to learn?

Then it dawns on me...that I don't do it for you necessarily...I do it for me.  I teach to learn and I learn to teach. I am not attached to the outcome of you learning something from me...of you hearing me. (No offense.)

I realize that I hear me.  I learn from me and my entries here.  Some part of me that is growing and evolving within my core is teaching "all" of me what I so need to know. If I live that than I become a teacher incidentally only.

Ego is not in charge here.(Obviously by some of the poetry I put up :)) This wise teacher within ....is.  Every time I write something, I am learning, growing, expanding from it...even if it doesn't make a lick of sense to someone else.

I have been "giving advice" by offering what I am learning to my loved ones as well.  Every time I shared I would become more in sync with what I was saying...even if these loved ones thought I was crazier than a bag of hammers.

I was surprised yesterday to see how after so much resistance to my shared observations and learning, that certain others said to me, "Oh my God!  I get it now...I know what you meant.  I see why you think like that.  It all makes so much sense to me." People learned from me only after I learned from me.

So that means you are your greatest teacher too!  Are you listening to you?

All is well in my world.

Under an Indiana Sky
 

why can't you hear it...

the beautiful symphony of sound

being played just for you

under this perfect Indiana sky?

 

close your eyes

and listen to the music

that lies like white noise

beneath  your hard working bodies

and  your busy minds.

 

get beyond your toil,

 your  thinking,

and feel the vibration of Life

buzzing in the branches

of the majestic  trees

that stand so protectively around you

 

 

rest  your sleepy heads back

and breathe in 

the chords of living

that are so eloquently strummed

by  the instruments of cicadas

as the  katydids and crickets

 sing in perfect unison

 

hear the wind

whistling so sweetly

 through the

happy tussled heads of corn

that dance and sway

in the endless fields behind you

 

rest in this

like you so deserve to do

 as your envious eastern cousins
hold their breath in awe.

Dale-Lyn August 2019

Calm Abiding

Calm abiding is predominantly stabilizing meditation, in which the mind is kept on a single object...since the mind that is scattered to external objects is relatively powerless, the mind needs to be concentrated in order to be powerful.
-Dalai Lama


I'm back!!! I have so missed coming here everyday but I suppose the break did us all good.

Had a great trip! Met some beautiful people and seen many different things. 

And as we were driving along the many miles/kilometers  we drove along...I was able to bring my mind back again and again to the moment, to the scenery, to the feel of my body in the seat.  I really enjoyed the trip more because we could do that.

Though there was no one single object to settle on...there was so much to see in the beautiful landscape...I did find myself abiding calmly in the here and now of Life....in the moment  (Even when the traffic got real crazy!!!)  I could bring myself back out of thinking and into being in the moment.

Hoping that is getting easier for you to do as well.


It is all good.

Everyone cannot renounce the world and meditate in the mountains.  This is not practical.
Dalai Lama


We all can't go off to the mountains no matter how uncomfortable this transition can  be.  Settle in to the  discomfort, accept it, embrace it and know that like all things it doesn't last forever. We will get there.

Going away for a week...(and no...not to the mountains lol) ...may or may not be able to write but I will try.

All is well

I didn't hear a click with that one. lol. Nor did I expect to after thirty minutes of writing and spending most of that thirty finding words that rhyme with the  last word of the line above it lol.  (That is the trouble with rhyme schemes....unless one is an expert at the craft...which I am not...rhyming can become the priority over meter, rhythm and poetic description.  The poem can lose a lot of its flow if one is not careful.)

The message, however, was inspired and meant to be placed upon the page.  There was truth to that...including the fact that I feel so darned vulnerable and confused especially in social situations.  Without my roles and this false sense of "me" I really do not know how to maneuver around the crowds and the circumstances in front of me.  It is a little nerve wracking. And , at the same time, it is all okay. I am finding what I truly need and want.

All good.

Off the Stage

I stand here shivering, alone  and at the brink of tears,
my flimsy defenses crumbling under all my many  fears.
I look about the world  ahead and feel so very much afraid.
I glimpse  back at ego's world and wish that I had staid.

I don't know what to do here without my heavy shield
of pretend, of illusion, of images of me that were never real.
Part of me longs to slip back into the dream state of illusion;
to put my "me" mask back on and hide somewhere in that delusion.

I long for armour. Though exhausting, painful and heavy to carry....
it seemed to   protect me from something that I could never bury
beneath the many layers of make belief ego put into my mind
in hope that truth would be something I would never find.

Yet determined to be heard, Truth called out to me in the way it always does,
 with a soft  whisper, a compelling  song, a warm and happy buzz.
But   I didn't listen, so content was I, to strut for glory upon the stage.
Lost in my role of "heroine", of "villain" and of "victim" , I ignored Life's only sage.

So  Truth  called out again,  removing from me the things I thought were "mine":
 props, applause, and the starring role by which my character was defined.
As the curtains close behind me and the costumes of dream  carried away,
I stand naked and exposed as the person, not the actor, to the light of day.

Here I am with weepy eyes and trembling limbs, looking out at all of you
who sit in chairs of judgment, watching, and  doing what people do.
And  you become my mirror.  I see my reflection in your eyes.
I am you.  You are me. There is no more need for our habit of disguise.

Suddenly I see how lost  I was, how asleep I was, for so very long
in my ego's need for your approval and its desperate need to belong.
 I put away my script and story, my  roles and my crazy thinking mind
and I step off the stage into the peace  Truth was wanting us to find.

Dale-Lyn August 2019

Great poems end with a click of a well made box.
William Butler Yeats (Well it is debated if he said that exactly like that :))

Hmmm! Sometimes I hear a click...and many times I don't. 

The word "great" in writing is a very subjective thing and it doesn't mean that what was created was"publishable" or loved by the masses.  I believe it is more about resonating a certain truth...telling a story about what is "real" beyond the obvious.....touching a core inside, even if that thing touched is only inside the writer itself.  It touches the core of humanity ...somehow....reminding us of who we are.

I am not saying my poems are "great".  I am not saying my poems are "awful".  I am okay with "mediocre"...especially in the poetry.  I have learned not to judge them because I really, really do not think I have much to do with it at all. 

When it comes to poetry, I just sit with an urge and allow whatever is meant to come out... come out. It is not mine...so if it "sucks" according to others, I am okay with it.  I will feel "good" about it when I read it back after it was written and say, "Yes! that does speak a certain truth I was not completely aware of."  That's all.

So I do not put my poems up here, as imperfect as they are, to be critiqued or exalted...I put them up because this blog is about truth and so is poetry. I hear a click maybe that others will never hear and that is okay.

All is well

[Writing is]waiting on the edge of attention for a voice to appear...it is one continuous non-stop meditation.
Stephen Mitchell

Time, this morning

Good morning world

 

Good morning melody....
being swept so softly
across my awakening gray matter

Soothing,
coaching me to wake up
to beauty and life’s lovely
and simple offerings

Like laughter form a child
or the purring of a kitten
it makes me smile

And my day begins
with lips that tease of a light heart
as I sway back and forth

To the magic of your guitar

 

Good morning solitude
that wraps its arm around me
and leads me here to this

Quiet place
of soulful reflection and stillness

That sits me down
and perches on the end of my chair

Gesturing me forward
as I close my eyes and move my fingers

across the key board
in rhythm with the music
being played around me

and I play
my own music
in honour of you.

 

Good morning earth
that grows
and dances
and sings
outside my little window

Entertaining,
displaying,
 teaching
and healing me
in ways I can not yet understand

Stitching up the holes
in my heart
as I smile along to the life

That jumps and skips
out there …
pulling me into t
he emerging beauty

Telling me
I am a part of it…
that we are one

And I reach out to You

 

Dale-Lyn

 

Man...I wrote that awhile ago.  I  forget exactly when...though I do have my original somewhere.  I am afraid to find it because I am afraid it is going to show that I wrote it like ten years ago.   It always shocks me to see how much time I am missing. I  find that big gaps of time are slipping from me.  I think I wrote something like last year and find out it was years ago.  People say this is normal as you age...time seems to go by fast.

 

Time is not doing anything, is it,  because time is just something our minds have made up?  Does it really matter if I wrote it a year ago or maybe ten? The passage of time is just a belief I have that takes me from this morning and this now.

 

The only aspect of time that is eternal is now. ACIM-T-5:III:6:5

 

You have elected to be in time rather than eternity, and therefore believe you are in time. ACIM-T-5:VI:1:4

 

All is well.



Flashlight

In a sense we are enlightened from the very beginning, endowed with a completely good basic mind.
Dalai Lama

So we have a pretty good mind?  The problem, I suppose, is what we do with that good mind. 

I imagine being given a wonderful flashlight  by which we can see everything clearly.  We lift it up to the world around us and we see all that we are meant to see. We turn it inward and we  see even more.  Everything is so bright, so warm, so beautiful!

The Flashlight

This flashlight  is simply a tool  we have been given to make our  way through this world. It works perfectly at the time of issue!  We are  told if we hold it in the right way, if we clean it off when we are supposed to and if we take good care of it...it will serve us very well throughout our time here.  We will constantly be able to see the joy and beauty that exists around us. We will see all, including Self, as it  truly is.

Hmmm!  The problem is many of us have not followed those instructions and have not cared for our amazing flashlights. 

Lazy Hold

We get lazy and allow our arms to drop to the earth so we only see the "earth" or earthly things.   The effort to lift this light  up so it shines inside or up into the heavens becomes too much...so we happily focus on the bit of earth this lazy grasp provides. The amount of distance we can see ahead  and around us is very limited with this hold.  We tend to see only what is immediately around our bodies and we begin to believe that is all there is to this world, this Life.

Dim View

We also do not clean it off like we are supposed to...Most of our flashlights are covered with a thin or thick veil of worldly dust and grim so it does not shine brightly.  In fact , the view it provides becomes so dim  the world around us begins to look a bit dark and scary.  When we  do look at something with this dim light it is distorted and we cannot see clearly what it is. We are often so sure it is something that will harm us. 

We do what we can to protect ourselves from whatever lurks up ahead beyond our limited perspective. .  We look to something "out there" that  we can't see to save us. Ego, liking this dim view we have,  hides up in the shadows and it keeps calling out to us. It  keeps guiding us into something better that it promises is up ahead.  We follow blindly, never finding what it says we will find.

A Lack of Care

We also don't take care of this light, this tool that was meant to serve us.    It stops working the way it was meant to because we didn't maintain it.  It short wires at times or even burns out. It becomes temperamental and we become  afraid. we  will lose the little light it offers.  We put all of our energy into protecting and preserving this small amount of unpredictable light our flashlights now offer.  We in a sense...become slaves to it,  used by it,  instead of using it as the instrument it was meant to be.

The Mind is Our Flashlight

Hmm! Isn't that what we do with these minds? We don't point them in the right direction and become limited by our perceptions.  We allow our "mental modifications" to form a veil over them so everything becomes distorted.  Our views are distorted and limited and we become afraid.  We don't take care of them.  We are not careful with what we put in them filling them with junk that will harm them and they appear to short wire and burn out.  We become even more afraid of losing the bit of light they offer us. We allow our "monkey minds" to eventually run the show.

Not Too Late!

It's not too late.  We can  reclaim, clean up and recharge these minds.  We can make them the wonderful tools they are meant to be. We just need to  hold  them...gently... in stillness and quiet while we point them inward.  We just need to recognize the veil of ego over them and smoothly  wipe it off.  We just need to plug them back into the right charger...the right energy Source...the Source of all Life.

We need to see once again that our minds are simply tools meant to serve us and we need not become servants to them or to ego.

It's all good.

Making Decisions

Life will give you everything you need to go deeper.  A decision will be made. If you act, the worst that can happen is a story.  If you don't, the worst that can happen is a story.    It makes its own decisions-when to eat, when to sleep, when to act.  It just moves along on its own.  And it's very calm and entirely successful.
 Byron Katie( Loving What Is , page 196)

Hmmm! What do you think about that?  Do you think it is you or Life that makes all the decisions for you?

I believe that most of us believe that our lives are all about making decisions and that we are responsible for them.  Heck...that is what I teach...be responsible for your choices. Decisions are important, right?  We need to make decisions and we need to choose correctly?  Right?

Byron Katie, in Loving What Is, would ask "Is that true?  Do you know for sure that is true?" 

Do we really always have to make decisions?  Do we really have to choose?

"Have to" and "should" are words that would get worked to death through this "inquiry" she teaches. The point is...there is nothing we "should" do and there is nothing we "have" to do. So even the  decision to brush our teeth or not ...is something we don't have to make.  We do not have decide?  We just act or we don't.

Hmmm... according to Katie...we just have to brush our teeth or not brush our teeth without thinking about it.  The decision about brushing my teeth is not the problem.    The problem is the story we tell ourselves about it.

I may have this inner urge  to   brush my teeth.  That urge is not a problem in itself nor is a decision required.  I could simply follow that inner urge and go brush my teeth.  Yet, if I stopped and put my finger to my chin and said, "Hmmm! Do I really need to brush my teeth?  I just brushed them this morning. If I decide to brush them I will have to go all the way inside the house and into the bathroom.  That will take another five minutes and I am already late.  If I am late again, my boss is going to get so mad.  Things are crazy at the office and people are getting fired left and right. I can't afford to get fired!!" 

So I don't brush my teeth and go off to work.   Then on my way to work, I remember my last dentist appointment and the warning I received from the hygienist about a cavity that is starting.  I imagine the cavity growing...and me losing that tooth and  all my other teeth falling out of alignment with the removal of that tooth. I wonder what people will say and my lack of attractiveness. I fear I will never attract a mate and be alone for the rest of my life.

The decision to brush the teeth was not the problem. It was made...Life gave me an urge to brush them. I either acted or I didn't; I either brushed them or I didn't.  The problem arises not in the decision but in  the story we create around it...in the thinking about it .  We get lost in mind stuff rather than in  simply acting in the moment.  We get stressed out before we make the decision and stressed out after wards.  It is all so unnecessary. I could have simply responded to the urge(Life making a decision)  and brushed them. 

Life doesn't get hung up on decisions...it just does.  It just flows and goes along its merry old way inside these bodies we are in and these minds we are using.  No big deal. Whether or not we act on the decisions or urges it offers us, is none of its concern.  The only problem with it ...is what we create in our minds.

And it doesn't matter if we are making decisions about brushing our teeth or getting married....about investing in the stock market or whether or not to continue with life saving measures.   Life just does and flows along.  Our stories are the problem...not decisions.  We really do not need to decide...Life will decide for us.   And we will hear it...if we are not so lost in our stories that we lose contact with it. From there we will act or not act...and it doesn't matter to life if we do or don't.  It just keeps chugging along.

That simple.  Hmmm...something to think about.

All is well in my world.


Byron Katie (2002) Loving What Is. New York: Three Rivers Press

Verse 64 of the Tao

Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Lao Tzu (according to Stephen Mitchell's translation)


I am going to go back to verse 64 of the Tao.  It seems to be speaking to me now though some Life circumstances. I will  compare Legge's translation with another's...maybe Stephen Mitchell (being that I am rereading his wife's book right now.  :)

Legge's translation:

64

That which is at rest is easily kept hold of; before a thing
has given indications of its presence, it is easy to take measures
against it; that which is brittle is easily broken; that which is very
small is easily dispersed. Action should be taken before a thing has
made its appearance; order should be secured before disorder has
begun.

The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the
tower of nine storeys rose from a (small) heap of earth; the journey
of a thousand li commenced with a single step.

He who acts (with an ulterior purpose) does harm; he who takes hold
of a thing (in the same way) loses his hold. The sage does not act
(so), and therefore does no harm; he does not lay hold (so), and
therefore does not lose his bold. (But) people in their conduct of
affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on the eve of
success. If they were careful at the end, as (they should be) at the
beginning, they would not so ruin them.

Therefore the sage desires what (other men) do not desire, and does
not prize things difficult to get; he learns what (other men) do not
learn, and turns back to what the multitude of men have passed by.
Thus he helps the natural development of all things, 

and does not dareto act (with an ulterior purpose of his own).

 

from: http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

 

 

 

Stephen Mitchell's Translation

 

64 
What is rooted is easy to nourish. 
What is recent is easy to correct. 
What is brittle is easy to break. 
What is small is easy to scatter.
Prevent trouble before it arises.
 Put things in order before they exist. 
The giant pine tree grows from a tiny sprout. 
The journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath your feet.
Rushing into action, you fail. 
Trying to grasp things, you lose them. 
Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action by letting things take their course. 
He remains as calm at the end as at the beginning. 
He has nothing, thus has nothing to lose. 
What he desires is non-desire; what he learns is to unlearn. 
He simply reminds people of who they have always been. 
He cares about nothing but the Tao. Thus he can care for all things.

 

from:  https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html#Kap64







 

 



The second translation is much easier to grasp but how will we ever know which one is most accurate unless we can read the original text and understand the language and cultural connotation it was written in? I can't do that...can you? This is an example of how translations differ and can imply different things unintentionally to readers. So though I spent the last few months reading Legge's translation I think I prefer the latter.  So much easier to understand. I will try to find the common ground between the two.

 

So what was Lao Tzu getting at, according to these translations?

 

• It is much easier to grasp something, feed something and allow it to grow if it is rooted, grounded and stable.  That makes sense doesn't it?  If something like a young child is moving all around how would you even hold it, let alone nourish it?  Our minds are hard to control, feed when they are scattered and constantly moving (monkey minds).  If they are rooted and grounded and at rest...dealing with them will be so much easier.
• Before a "problem" becomes too big it should be fixed and dealt with.  We should be proactive rather than reactive.  We should deal with things "right away" and not let them build up into bigger issues.
• "That which is brittle is easily broken" and " What is brittle is easy to break"....so be mindful of the fragile, the "weaker" points within ourselves and others  and do not put unnecessary stress or weight  upon them.
•  What is small is easy to scatter...the less we have the easier it will be to spread in this world?  I am not sure if Lao Tzu is saying that it is best to keep things small so we can get rid of them easier or to reduce what we have so we have less problems to deal with in the long run?
• We should be proactive according to Mitchell's translation  and prevent trouble before trouble even arises...and Legge speaks of taking action  before a thing makes its appearance...same thing, I guess.
• Both say to put things in order but Legge says "before disorder has begun" and Mitchell says "before it exists".  We could be talking two different things here.  Legge is referring specifically to the prevention of disorder in the physical realm  and Mitchell may be speaking to the idea that we need to keep order in our minds so that disorder doesn't manifest into form around us.?
• All great and "wide trunked" trees come from the smallest sprout.  Large and great things grow from small things...Remember...we start small in order to be great. Legge adds that a large tower begins with the foundation of "a heap of earth."
• The famous line: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step which is more accurately expressed in Legge's translation can be compared to Mitchell's...starts from beneath your feet.  This could have a different type of meaning: It is necessary to be rooted to the earth before we move forward?  It is something greater than us that helps us to move forward...something beyond us ( heaven and earth) moves us?
• The next bit confuses me.  According to Legge's translation, Lao Tzu says that to act does harm...Legge adds in parenthesis...(meaning that it was his interpretation and not actually said by Lao Tzu) ...that action with ulterior motives is what causes harm.  Mitchell says that someone who rushes into action will fail.  Totally different meanings.  What I see is that maybe Lao Tzu was simply saying be careful about action...it is not always necessary and can do more harm than good.  
• He who takes hold of a thing, tries to grasp them and cling will lose them.  Again Legge refers to ulterior purpose which Legge doesn't.  Again...I simply see the spiritual principle of not striving and not clinging and non attachment reflected in this passage.
• Mitchell speaks of "forcing a project to completion" and states that doing so  will lead us to ruin what was almost ripe.  We cannot force things to be anything but what they are...nature, life, circumstance will grow, develop and evolve in their own time, own rate and  own way.  Struggling against this fact...and using force and control will only ruin and harm.
• The Master and the Sage then do not force or control...they do not act even or attempt to grasp and cling...they let things "be" as they are and in so doing they do not harm and they do not lose.
• People,  according to Legge's translation, are constantly "failing" and ruining what they set out to achieve before completion because they are not as careful at the end of their endeavor as they were at the beginning.  Maybe they are rushing to finish? Mitchell says that a successful master remains as calm at the end as he did in the beginning.
• The truly wise person is different from others...from most. He desires different things.  He does not desire material wealth and success.  He has nothing and therefore has nothing to lose. He does not seek after prizes that are difficult to get. What he desires is "non-desire," according to Mitchell...referring unintentionally  to the Buddhist teachings of non-desire?
• He learns what other men do not learn.  Mitchell explains that what he learns is to unlearn.  He steps away from learning "concepts" and puts aside old established learning to truly discover  what is real and important.
• He goes back to what most men overlook and pass by...the truth of who we really are. He reminds people of who they have always been.
• By doing this...he acts in the way of the Tao...of Spirit and of Self...and not for the motivations of the ego or little "me." The way is everything and by that spiritual vision he cares about everything and is able to truly help in the development of all things...in the evolution of consciousness maybe?

Well that is how I see it in my own life anyway.  All is well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Balanced and Skillful Approach to Life

A balanced and skillful approach to life, taking care to avoid extremes, becomes a very important factor in conducting one's everyday existence.
-Dalai Lama

Hmm!  Do you believe Life is serendipitous...presenting things that appear to be mere coincidence again and again for a greater reason we may never understand? 

 My days have been so weird lately...I go from getting a lot done in a day to doing absolutely nothing.  My surroundings at one moment seem to be very well controlled and completely chaotic the next. There seems to be extreme peace some moments ...followed by extreme stress.  I seem to be completely oblivious to anything but the happiness in others one day followed by becoming acutely aware of how "everyone" around me  seems to be depressed, anxious, addicted the next. Circumstances seem to be very much in my favour one week...and then  I seem to be punished by the universe the next.  Up and down I go from one extreme to the other.  It feels weird. So...I was pondering what my role in all this was and what "extreme" changes I may need to make yesterday.

I didn't get a chance because of that  to read my calendar's quote for yesterday.  So I read it this morning and thought, "Well isn't that serendipity?"

You see yesterday I felt  so compelled to do eight more verses of the Tao. As I was reading through them  I got a little hung up on Verse 59...see for yourself.  I wasn't sure if I got it?  Then today I read the above quote and am awed by the fact that the Dalai Lama's words coincide with Lao Tzu's at the exact time I am pondering this very thing in my own life.

I truly do not know how to live this life now that I am awakening.  I thought I knew how to do it before...I thought I had it all planned and mapped out for me and my loved ones...and now I haven't a clue.  I do know Life is going to do the changing for me...I just have to learn to walk between these extremes both mentally and physically. I don't need to make changes...I just need to change the way I think about what I see and believe to be true.  I got this!!!

All is well in my world.