Life is something I have no control over. It’s just something that happens, win or lose. Now, video games, I’ve got a chance! I focus all of my attention, and die a thousand times and keep coming back…just to get to the next level.I wonder what would happen if I focused on my life with the same intensity, and searched to find the magic sword? #findthemagic
We all have limitations. We all have fears. We all have doubts, at one time or another. We must be willing to see them, in order to overcome them. But the hardest perhaps, is to objectively observe our own mindset, our own beliefs. Rather, we will defend them, and often with vigor. It has been said that intelligence can be measured by one’s ability to entertain another thought or believe, without having to believe it. It may be true that…
We are taught since youth to do the right things, develop the right habits, and build a good life. As words are only as good as their interpretation, perhaps stating the formula for a successful life in this way does more harm than good, for maybe we are not building at all…Maybe life is more like sculpting; not an additive process at all, but a subtractive one, where unessential layers are peeled back, or chipped away- revealing what was hiding…
It’s a waste of time to try to fight darkness. In fact, fighting it strengthens it. This makes the darkness grow, and before you know it, you’ve become part of that darkness. The only way to end the madness is to silently seek the light. Seek that which resonates with your spirit, and energizes it, and make no apologies. Anyone who would tell you “You’re going the wrong way!” I might say “tell them to go to hell”, but you…
Many of us struggle, trying to find our path, feeling that if we don’t try hard enough, we might miss it. Stemming from my own insecurity, I often forget that I can’t fail at being me. For nine gestational months everything fell into place without my hand, without my guidance. Why would I think that the next chapter would be any different, and the more control I grasp for, the less control I have? Let go, lighten up.
Zen, like all self- knowledge, can be ambiguous. What does it mean?You can only know half of reality, at best. Consciousness can observe many things, but it can’t observe itself,because consciousness is the one looking. It can never see itself,because it’s the one looking. maybe it’s better just to look, listen, and hear, right nowwithout trying to make sense of it…because you’re handicappedcoming out of the gate.
There is no doubt that the world is a little chaotic,to say the least.It’s easy to bitch and complain about the state of politics,or the current health crisis.Just remember that it’s SUPPOSED to be that way;it’s a challenge to try to steal your attention, your focus,your Courage…but be still. Hold steady, though the wild winds blow-that’s how warriors are made, and not oneis without scars.
The debate as to whether the world is ordered, by some unknowable design (or designer), or a chaotic cause and effect has been raging for years. What would happen if we let go of our egoic need to “produce order” out of the chaotic mayhem, and instead, looked for and learned from the order that was there all along, and took up the task of finding the positive meaning, hidden in the Chaos? Our lives are not the sum total…
They live among us, these friends of mine but they may as well be from a forgotten era, a time where the work is hard, life is fragile, and the seasons brutal. Though most would perish, they revel in it, and an endless day alone in the wilderness in the dead of winter is if anything- too short. They remind me that the Laws of Nature have not been repealed.
In the mid 1500’s Hernán Cortés landed in the new world. Seeing that he was drastically out numbered, his men asked him what they should do…”burn the boats” he said. If you have a dream, set fire to your “plan b”.