
It seems like we are in for turmultuous times. Can our practice support us in some way? Qualities we treasure, like openness and lightness, or even compassion, might seem hard to conjure up when politically the success of brutal self-interest seems to be evident (writing this the day after Trump was sworn into office).
How can we be with what is presenting, this very moment, with lightness – even if what is presenting (inner or outer worlds) seems anything but light?
Lightness is not about denying that inner or outer worlds present us with difficulties at times – and there is no need to deny it. The Buddha taught about dukkha, and he did not recommend to ‘lighten up’ in the face of it. That would be artificial. He did say however that dukkha will only cease when we cease clinging – this is an invitation to get familiar with clinging, and look closely, how and when we engage in it. Often clinging disguises itself, but maybe we can try to spot its favourite disguise today…? Clinging always means that we have reified something: there is a thing that I like or dislike, and I am also a thing, that is going to deal with it. Welcome to solidity!
"Openness actually starts to emerge when you see how you close down. … When you don’t close down and shut off, then insight begins to come. … The way I understand it is that we rob ourselves of being in the present by always thinking that the payoff will happen in the future. The only place ever to work is right now. We work with the present situation rather than a hypothetical possibility of what could be. I like any teaching that encourages us to be with ourselves and our situation as it is without looking for alternatives. The source of all wakefulness, the source of all kindness and compassion, the source of all wisdom, is in each second of time. Anything that has us looking ahead is missing the point.
Life is such a stunner. It’s always humbling you and showing you how little you know, how little you understand."*
Maybe we can use the opportunity to notice how we do not just passively observe what is going on in the world, but continuously fit it into our own categories of understanding: we refer back to what we think is right or wrong, and through that the perception of me and them hardens. And with it, stress, outrage and despair. It seems,, we need those certainties, especially in tumultuous times, so we can experience ourselves as more concrete, sure of who we are, and that we are on the right side.
An image that came to me is that it is all like oil on water: fascinating colours, always shifting with the movement of the waves. Sort of hanging together for a bit but without substance or depth.
Seeing it like that, we can learn to see that our take on something is just one amongst many. And that the fight of who is right is not really going anywhere. We can notice how our sense of self continually emerges afresh, within, and together with each situation – and so it is not solid, but very thin – like oil on water. The invitation is just to look, notice exactly: just this! … and not dig deep for meaning, making an it, sorting it into familiar categories… We can continue to practice seeing this self co-arise with the outer world, and in particular pay attention to the pulsation between
the specific, precise, it & I (this matters! let me tell you why!) – and observe, who arises as ‘I’ here.
the panoramic, dispersed, not engaged with something in particular – moments of
openness, maybe uncertainty: when we are with all, spread out – who arises as ‘I’ here?
'Dissolving the significance of all the impermanent events of samsara seems to me to be central in this time of mad leaders…focusing on the illusory ness of events and the fact that we have no need to make a big story out of these bright ungraspable moments….sound and fury signifying nothing….' (James Low)
I hope we can support each other in releasing, into each moment.
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e.g: Comtemplative Clowning (May, Portugal) - early bird price until end of February
Stillness & Movement (June, Holland)
Der Tanz der Elemente (September, Deutschland)
*Pema Chödrön, talking to bell hooks on cultivating openness when life falls apart https://awaken.com/2020/12/pema-chodron-bell-hooks-on-cultivating-openness-when-life-falls-apart/
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