Can’t get away!

Well, then, I have an extraordinary number of teachers! The funny thing is that I’ve noticed the “number” fluctuates daily, even when I’m among the same people. Which inescapably means that the being-driven-to-crazy-ness is a quality within myself, not within the other people.

Huh ………..

So, really then, how many teachers do I have?? Just the one, I guess ……… the one I carry around with me. The one I cannot escape ……. might as well learn.

Weekly Wake-Ups, from Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo

This awesome artist is keeping an ancient art form alive. She learned how to make the silk thangkas of Tibetan tradition ……… & you can have a digital one for your very own each week!! Visit her website, www.threadsofawakening.com,  to learn more, & to sign up for your Weekly Wake-Up ……….. Namaste!

Threads of Awakening Weekly Wake-Up

Related articles

• Tibetan Thangka Mandala (gedungsongo.wordpress.com)

What do I do until then??

When I first began my determined efforts at Waking Up, & liberating my inherent Awakened Self, I would get so discouraged, & I sometimes still do. The goal is so far away, being Buddha ……….. it will take lifetimes of effort, or what seems like the efforts of many lives. But I know one thing for sure: somehow it means Love.

Long and Winding Road (Photo credit: itmpa)

Now, there are Teachings galore, giving guidance toward training one’s mind, toward changing one’s ways of being so that the clouded Buddha self can begin to shine. The Dharma is rich & varied, & presented in many ways, so that all personalities, & all levels of growth can find it useful. But the Teachings don’t tell each of us how to live love in our personal lives; we have to figure the particulars out ourselves. And with the goal so distant, I asked: Wah! What am I supposed to do in the meantime?!? If I’m not yet that Buddha-to-be, or — more accurately: manifesting the Buddha-that-I-am — what do I do with myself until then??

inquisitive pidgeon (Photo credit: JunCTionS)

I seriously want to know, for I don’t want to waste any more time. (Well, let’s be honest here: I don’t want to waste all of my time, but I’m likely to waste some of it, lol). Here I am though in what is probably just the middle of a very long life, & the old ways of being don’t satisfy anymore. I mean, those ways & days of just pleasing myself, just doing what an external authority imposes upon me, just going through life haphazardly …….. they are not enough. I want to make a difference, yet I am so small, certainly no hero, nor savior. I think the grand gestures that some can accomplish are beyond what I can do; at least it feels that way now. But it does feel right to live love, somehow.

Portrait of Buddha, in teaching posture (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wondering what Living Love means, I asked these questions in my dreams, in my prayers, in my meditations, asking & fretting because my long-time habit is to be easily discouraged, & to give up. I queried: How do I DO this? How can my frail efforts add up enough to be progress toward my Buddha Goal? How would I be worthy of it until I can reach it?? And one day, suddenly I knew! I knew the answer to my question: “What do I do until I’m Enlightened??” Make the world more bearable for someone else.

And this is what I believe Living Love IS. It is bringing some relief to another’s suffering, lightening their load, helping them be a little happier. Small efforts? Maybe. Worthy efforts? Oh, for sure, because here’s what I realize as I write this (ding! ding! ding!): No matter what the effort is, or how small, if it is loving, if it is an act of love, then it is Living Love, & there’s no waste in that.

Related articles

• She-who-would-choose-to-wake-up (mindmindful.wordpress.com)
• Samsara and nirvana (jampasmandala.wordpress.com)

She-who-would-choose-to-wake-up

I’m reposting this, just because it is one of my very favorite posts. AND because it’s little lesson is always a good one for ME, lol.

 

So, yesterday, I’m walking with Theo, the dog — we are out for our afternoon “constitutional”. I’ve let him off the leash, as we are in the park area of the city’s vast soccer & softball field complex, & also near the woods along the river. No one else is around, except the happily twittering birds. She-who-would-fly-kites-in-paradise ……………

Then ……. we both heard it:

My mind, My enemy

English: a piece of the rubik’s tangle puzzle Deutsch: Ein Puzzleteil von Rubik’s Tangle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My mind is one of my best assets – I certainly cannot rely upon my looks, ha! And my mind is also my greatest enemy.  This sometimes makes me wish for a mind-exchange program – 3 days in your head, 3 days in mine – or a checkout system at the Library of Brains ……..  I just want to borrow someone else’s mind now & then.

What I susPECT would happen, though, is that I’d be very happy to get my own back.  MY untamed, byzantine wilderness is at least a familiar one, & I can find my way through it much of the time.  I don’t get lost in it quite as often as I used to do.

This familiarity is also, of course, a large part of why my mind is my enemy. My habitual mental & emotional habits catch me up, causing me to buy into my anger, impatience, sense of insult, etc.  This pleases my ego very much! It is veryvery happy for me to be under the influence of such distracting feelings & thoughts, which allows it free rein to run my life, drawing those things/people/situations which feed it & make it feel so ***All Powerful***.

ANGER!! (Photo credit: Za3tOoOr!)

Examining those things/people/situations as they arise really pisses my ego off, insecure & puny entity that it is. But examine them I must – when I see that anger flaring these days, I can more often prevent myself from flying into the fire; I can sometimes even see the damage I’m able to avoid by doing so! Compared to all the damage I’ve done with anger in the past, all the wounds, all the suffering for myself & others - ay yi! – this is small in action, but grand in effect —> I am learning to end the cycle of creating suffering which creates suffering which creates suffering ……. on & on, round & round.

I credit Pema Chodron‘s teachings on shenpa for much of my “success”.  ‘Shenpa’ is the Tibetan word for this:  your knee-jerk reactions, & watching your stuff as it arises, catching it when you can, not buying into its storyline, not spinning off into IT, & instead staying present with What Really Is.  More on this later……….

As the Buddha said:

With our minds we create the world.

So, hey! I am beginning to create a better world……………. whew!

Related articles

• Pema Chödrön (alanavr.wordpress.com)

The nature of things

All composed things are like a dream, a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightening. That is how to meditate on them, that is how to observe them.

Gautama Buddha @ Home (Photo credit: Merlijn Hoek)

This is from one of the Buddha‘s teachings, known as the Diamond Sutra. By ‘composed’ I think he means that all things are connected, in that they don’t spontaneously arise; things come from other things. That is, something led to the creation of each thing.

And I think this verse is telling us that all things come & go, they are ephemeral, you can’t really hold onto them. Glorious, sure, but not something to cling, even if you want to.

Just my semi-educated guess, haha ………………