#656 Suffering - Results Guaranteed

     “We can guarantee ourselves suffering when we cling to a desire for things to be different than they are. We can practically define suffering by saying that it is clinging to that desire. 
      Things are not different than they are. They are as they are.

      Wanting things to change is not the same as putting out the effort and determination to bring about change.”

        The author and his wife barely survived a fiery plane crash, and underwent a long, painful period of rehabilitation for extensive burns and other injuries. He wrote the book “Through the Flames” chronicling their journey. 
       Allan Lokos “The Miraculous Body” Shambhala Sun, May 2015.

studio11photography.blogspot.com

#614 Clarity & Noise

     Gradually each of us learns to clearly distinguish direct perception of what is real from habitual, self-centered mind-noise.
     Releasing the superfluous, and open heart-mindedly following what is true is inevitable. May we not waste precious time.
 

#547 Where Am I Now?

     As we gradually mature as human beings, we become increasingly aware of where we are - moment-by-moment - in two major dimensions, AND progressively, intentionally shift from the former to the more conscious, evolved latter:

          • am I pretending that I & everything else will last forever OR consciously aware that everything is in a constant state of change & flux?

          • am I being selfish OR appropriately nurturing our People, our Creatures, our Home?

       Mindfulness training promotes the above fundamental shift to a more evolved "operating system".

Perspective

#510 Embracing or Enabling?

     We get many clues about which operating system (OS) is operating in us at any given time.
     The fearful / hurt child operating system is emotionally labile, up & down according to security & pleasure (or vice versa) for the self-centered child. In this OS, we're constantly chasing after, or running from something, assuming our (inner child's) happiness hinges entirely on the success or failure of our frantic striving. Not enough time or crushing boredom; anxiety about lacking or emptiness pervade.
     The wise adult / grandparent operating system is equanimous, open-hearted, generous, and equally concerned about the welfare of others (allocentric), own inner child (self-compassion), & the environment (ecocentric). A profound sense of ease, connection, completeness, gratitude, stillness, and timelessness pervades.
     It's a very common mistake to compulsively attempt to satisfy our inner fearful child's appetites, but most of this is dysfunctional enabling. The more we're preoccupied by these appetites or our desire to satisfy them, the more power we give the immature inner child over our adult lives. It's very much like fantasizing about, & repeatedly obtaining alcohol when one's an alcoholic. Yes the wanting is there, BUT there's a vast universe at hand that is happily independent of ethanol & our addictive craving. To the degree that we can open our mind-heart to this vast reality, and can hold our hurt inner child in safety & unconditional love, the power & relevance of the craving fades.
     Consciously recognizing the fearful child effects, embracing without pandering to the inner child, and instead, opening up to the present moment, opening our mind-heart to what's appropriate right now, we steadily become more & more stabilized in our mature wise way of being. 

Jonathan Shapiro   www.dpreview.com

#509 Letting Go of Friction & Noise

     We have automatic, conditioned reactions to many life events. Some reactions are avoidant or aversive - we try to keep unpleasant, difficult or otherwise threatening things away physically, away from our heart / emotions (via armoring) or at the very least away from our consciousness (via suppression, repression). We reflexively erect pretend boundaries or barriers between ourselves and challenging reality.
     Our other reactions involve grasping or clinging - we automatically chase after, try to catch & permanently hang onto things we want or think we must have. 
     Grasping arises from instinctive fearful neediness, avoidant behavior arises from instinctive fearful aversion. Both are fear-based & self-centered. Both are primitive instincts we share with animals, right down to single-cell organisms. This echo from our collective & personal evolutionary past expressed through our fearful inner child can be sufficiently powerful as to dominate our life OR at the very least, add a great deal of undesirable friction or noise.
     Enabling (in the negative, psychological sense - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling) our inner child predictably drains us of energy, and predictably leads to suffering. As we gradually become aware of this repetitive, dysfunctional pattern, we become motivated to find a better way to live - more & more like the inner wise grandparent.
     Mindfulness practice is all about intentionally, gently but persistently, shifting (evolving) our level of consciousness ("operating system") from fearful child to wise adult.

Steve McCurry   stevemccurry.com

#412 Failing to Embrace Reality, We Miss Out on Miracles

     Most of us miss out on innumerable "ordinary miracles" each and every day. Why? Because we're in a self-absorbed trance, running from ghosts from our past, chasing after fantasies of future happiness, all the while ignoring the wonders of our one rare and precious life.

     We miss truly seeing our loved ones changing in real time, we miss nature's endlessly mysterious beauty, we miss even our own physical presence on this precious earth - life passes us by, yet sadly, most of us have never really lived. The stories below illustrate our propensity for sleepwalking through life:

     "New Yorkers who love a good bargain missed a golden opportunity Saturday, when the artist and provocateur Banksy, whose sly graffiti art adorns collectors' walls, opened a sidewalk kiosk in Central Park to sell his work for $60 apiece.
     His first sale came hours after opening, when a woman bought two canvases for her children. She negotiated a 50 percent discount on the pieces ...
     The offerings included small and large canvases, including a version of "Love Is in the Air." A limited edition of that work sold for $249,000 at auction this summer."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/14/234023611/collectible-art-at-street-prices-banksy-sells-pieces-for-60?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

     In January 2007, virtuoso Joshua Bell performed incognito, on a violin worth millions of dollars, at a metro station in Washington DC. This was an experiment organized by the Washington Post. His performance received very little interest from passersby.

#259 In-groups, Self-centeredness, Maturity & Wisdom

     "My country - right or wrong!" is a controversial position still held by some. Such "group think" attitudes allow the group to commit atrocities. To permit atrocities to happen, the majority of followers must at least fail to oppose, if not actively participate. Yet, as soon as a leadership falls, the previously silent majority starts to whimper: "We were only following orders"; "We didn't know these things were happening."
     A proportion of the population will ride along with anything that provides easy access to power, wealth and security - ethics and common decency be damned. Too self-centered and weak to care for anyone but themselves, short-term gain is their game. Such opportunists completely identify with whatever group holds power: country, ethnicity, political party, religion, profession, cult, tribe, gang, etc, and against outsiders. 

     Some of us will, instead, actively seek and increasingly grow in wisdom. To do so requires that we outgrow self-serving in-groups.
     Wisdom is “a developmental process involving self-transcendence. Self-transcendence refers to the ability to move beyond self-centered consciousness, and to see things as they are with clear awareness of human nature and human problems, and with a considerable measure of freedom from biological and social conditioning. This ability to move beyond a self-centered perspective is certainly an important component of wisdom. Consistent with this idea, … transcending the self is needed to move beyond ingrained, automatic ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, and to connect empathetically with the experiences of others.”

     Le TN, Levenson MR. Wisdom as self-transcendence: What's love (& individualism) got to do with it? Journal of Research in Personality 2005; 39(4): 443-457.

Carsten Krieger Photography   http://www.carstenkrieger.com/

#42 Practicality of heart-mind approach

     "meditation can augment economics courses, where professors often use experiential exercises to teach students about the role of competition in distributing limited resources. According to classical economics, individuals will try to maximize their own profits at the expense of their competitors. But ... if professors first have their students practice a loving-kindness meditation before beginning the exercise, students shift their conduct to consider the needs of others."
     Suttie J. The new science of mind. Shambhala Sun, March 2012. http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=114

     Self-centered, competitive, adversarial behaviour, though still openly encouraged and applauded in some sectors, in many ways resembles that of a cancer cell. Of course the cancer cell is unaware of, and unconcerned about the big picture. Homo sapiens sapiens should have significantly greater perspective, but for most of us, it's a challenge to maintain. Bernie Madoff is but one recent example of the impact of one individual's lack of wisdom - blindness to the big picture - on the rest of us. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff

     The way in which a single healthy cell relates to a healthy multicellular organism resonates with how Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa, etc related to the world.

     How does my right hand treat my left hand?

Photo: evanrassbcglobalnet    www.dpreview.com