Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
LIFE LIVED MORE DEEPLY - One More Feeble Attempt To Wrap Words Around It
Life Lived More Deeply is not a discipline or a path or a teaching or a paradigm. It is an experience.
It is not an experience which can be developed or created or controlled. It is a gift. We cannot even intentionally cultivate gratitude for this experience. When we do observe gratitude for the experience, that too is a gift. “Just thank the thanking when it comes.”
Key to this Life Lived More Deeply experience is a melting away of the experience of separation. We “drop down into” the flow of life and know – if only for a moment – that we are nothing other than Life, which is everything. We, in that moment, let go of trying to do or be anything. We trust – trust Life, trust the moment, trust our life.
Any attempt to hold on to this experience or to “do” it more often will only increase the hold of the ego – the part of us that thinks it is the doer, that attempts to run our lives.
We will know that the experience of Live Lived More Deeply is taking root in us when we observe ourselves letting go of all dichotomies – good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, me vs. them.
Even the classic spiritual dichotomy of love vs. fear begins to be exposed as adversarial. “Love is good and fear is bad.” From the perspective of the unitive experience, fear is no less valuable than love. It is all part of the dance, part of the unfolding of our humanity, part of our connection with the rest of humanity and even the rest of the animal kingdom.
If, as A Course in Miracles says, fear is the core emotion underlying all other unpleasant feelings, then we get really curious about and loving towards this experience of fear in all its forms. Life Lived More Deeply would suggest that it is counterproductive to follow any program which pits love against fear, which attempts to uproot fear and replace it with love.
If there is one spiritual “practice” that has relevance to the unfolding of Life Lived More Deeply, it would be the ancient Buddhist practice of tonglen, popularized recently by Pema Chodron. In this practice, rather than “breathe in the good, breathe out the bad” as the New Agers would recommend, we breathe in whatever pain we are feeling – drink it in deeply, feel it as fully as we can, pay attention to all its nuances. We then breathe out a wish for our healing from this painful state. The next, crucial step in this practice is to breathe in that painful feeling for all our suffering brothers and sisters who are experiencing this same kind of pain – most of whom have nowhere near our resources for coping with it – then breathe out a wish for their healing also, not just our own.
But Life Lived More Deeply would encourage that we not even “practice” tonglen. To attempt to “develop” this practice will again only reinforce the idea that “I” am some separate thing, capable of “doing” things, of steering the boat. From this perspective, we notice the tonglen experience when it is happening – including when we are reading about it, listening to a CD about it, or hearing a teacher describe it or take us through it. We are grateful for this experience as it is happening and notice how it may melt our struggle against the painful emotion. Observing it fully and being grateful for it may open the space in us for it to return. But when we crave even this experience of tonglen we get back on the wheel of attachment. And when we start to create a program around it – even the intention to repeat the tonglen practice – the ego digs in deeper. If, tomorrow, we notice ourselves sit in a chair and go back to the tonglen experience, this may be beautiful – and gratitude is a wonderful response to seeing this shining, free moment unfold. When we think that we in any way did it, we wander back into the woods.
It is not an experience which can be developed or created or controlled. It is a gift. We cannot even intentionally cultivate gratitude for this experience. When we do observe gratitude for the experience, that too is a gift. “Just thank the thanking when it comes.”
Key to this Life Lived More Deeply experience is a melting away of the experience of separation. We “drop down into” the flow of life and know – if only for a moment – that we are nothing other than Life, which is everything. We, in that moment, let go of trying to do or be anything. We trust – trust Life, trust the moment, trust our life.
Any attempt to hold on to this experience or to “do” it more often will only increase the hold of the ego – the part of us that thinks it is the doer, that attempts to run our lives.
We will know that the experience of Live Lived More Deeply is taking root in us when we observe ourselves letting go of all dichotomies – good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, me vs. them.
Even the classic spiritual dichotomy of love vs. fear begins to be exposed as adversarial. “Love is good and fear is bad.” From the perspective of the unitive experience, fear is no less valuable than love. It is all part of the dance, part of the unfolding of our humanity, part of our connection with the rest of humanity and even the rest of the animal kingdom.
If, as A Course in Miracles says, fear is the core emotion underlying all other unpleasant feelings, then we get really curious about and loving towards this experience of fear in all its forms. Life Lived More Deeply would suggest that it is counterproductive to follow any program which pits love against fear, which attempts to uproot fear and replace it with love.
If there is one spiritual “practice” that has relevance to the unfolding of Life Lived More Deeply, it would be the ancient Buddhist practice of tonglen, popularized recently by Pema Chodron. In this practice, rather than “breathe in the good, breathe out the bad” as the New Agers would recommend, we breathe in whatever pain we are feeling – drink it in deeply, feel it as fully as we can, pay attention to all its nuances. We then breathe out a wish for our healing from this painful state. The next, crucial step in this practice is to breathe in that painful feeling for all our suffering brothers and sisters who are experiencing this same kind of pain – most of whom have nowhere near our resources for coping with it – then breathe out a wish for their healing also, not just our own.
But Life Lived More Deeply would encourage that we not even “practice” tonglen. To attempt to “develop” this practice will again only reinforce the idea that “I” am some separate thing, capable of “doing” things, of steering the boat. From this perspective, we notice the tonglen experience when it is happening – including when we are reading about it, listening to a CD about it, or hearing a teacher describe it or take us through it. We are grateful for this experience as it is happening and notice how it may melt our struggle against the painful emotion. Observing it fully and being grateful for it may open the space in us for it to return. But when we crave even this experience of tonglen we get back on the wheel of attachment. And when we start to create a program around it – even the intention to repeat the tonglen practice – the ego digs in deeper. If, tomorrow, we notice ourselves sit in a chair and go back to the tonglen experience, this may be beautiful – and gratitude is a wonderful response to seeing this shining, free moment unfold. When we think that we in any way did it, we wander back into the woods.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Radical Integrity
We are neither human beings having a spiritual experience nor spiritual beings having a human experience. This contrast between spiritual and human is a false dichotomy and sets up all the other forms of dualism. When we understand this, we can more and more just drop into the fullness of our humanity. Some Native American groups call people they especially respect a “real human being”.
One of the great paradoxes of human life is that, while we are absolutely one with all of life, which is one big tapestry containing all of us, we still have our own sparkling individuality – and our path into oneness unfolds through our own uniqueness. Thus there are as many paths up the mountain as there are unique beings. Any “spiritual” or personal growth path can potentially open up for us another shining facet of being human. But no one path, discipline, teacher or holy book can adequately contain or express who we are. We are meant to learn what is there for us in this particular path and then move on – at least internally, even if we maintain our connection with that path (or church) as part of our spiritual community.
Integrity here refers not to ethics, but to integrating all the different elements of who we are – and “radical integrity” means an unqualified commitment to this unfolding, making it more important than any other purpose for our lives. To attempt to remain a student of a particular path or teacher – whether A Course in Miracles or gestalt therapy or Majo John Madden or Buddhism or Jesus – after we have learned what we were there for, will ultimately be confining and confusing.
(The Buddha said, “Doubt everything – find your own light.” I feel sure that he would have included Buddhism in this principle and that he no more intended to create a religion than did Jesus.)
We can be “inspired” by all these teachers, paths or religions – they can give us breath or wind beneath our sails – but they are not the boat. This we craft, bit by bit, as we discover our own path through this life.
One of the great paradoxes of human life is that, while we are absolutely one with all of life, which is one big tapestry containing all of us, we still have our own sparkling individuality – and our path into oneness unfolds through our own uniqueness. Thus there are as many paths up the mountain as there are unique beings. Any “spiritual” or personal growth path can potentially open up for us another shining facet of being human. But no one path, discipline, teacher or holy book can adequately contain or express who we are. We are meant to learn what is there for us in this particular path and then move on – at least internally, even if we maintain our connection with that path (or church) as part of our spiritual community.
Integrity here refers not to ethics, but to integrating all the different elements of who we are – and “radical integrity” means an unqualified commitment to this unfolding, making it more important than any other purpose for our lives. To attempt to remain a student of a particular path or teacher – whether A Course in Miracles or gestalt therapy or Majo John Madden or Buddhism or Jesus – after we have learned what we were there for, will ultimately be confining and confusing.
(The Buddha said, “Doubt everything – find your own light.” I feel sure that he would have included Buddhism in this principle and that he no more intended to create a religion than did Jesus.)
We can be “inspired” by all these teachers, paths or religions – they can give us breath or wind beneath our sails – but they are not the boat. This we craft, bit by bit, as we discover our own path through this life.
New age/old age - Quote for the day 11/16/07
"No matter how New Age you get, old age is still going to kick your butt."
(Some male singer/songwriter on World Cafe 10/07 - I can't find the quote)
(Some male singer/songwriter on World Cafe 10/07 - I can't find the quote)
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