Choosing What Is - Ivan Granger Commentary

I vow to choose what is...

You would think the unavoidable nature of "what is" makes a
statement like this meaningless, but the human mind is not
entirely sane.  It often chooses fantasy and imaginings,
shoulds and coulds, possibilities and even impossibilities over
what is.  Very few of us truly dwell in reality.  Rarely do we
fully experience the moments of our lives.

What is it that we are straining for as we constantly lean away
from "what is"?  What do we think is missing that we need?  We
don't need someone else's life.  We don't need a perfect marriage,
better finances, or a better place in society.  We don't even need
to be a saint living in the mountains.  What's missing is ourselves.
What we really need is to stand in our own shoes, to be utterly
ourselves.  We need that missing ingredient - being present.
We need to live, with honesty and an open heart, the life that
already moves through us.

[.....]

The power of a practice like Zen is that it defines the human 
journey, not as escape, but as coming home, of settling into
ourselves and being present with the present.  It challenges us
to actually live the moment that continuously arrives and
passes and renews itself.

By making this journey to "what is," we finally meet ourselves
and learn what this amazing thing is that we call life, with all
its rich, joyful, painful, and transitory beauty.

Excerpt from a commentary by Ivan Granger
on a poem of vows by Hogen Bays
you can read the full poem and commentary here

~

Personal Note:  As some of you know, I'm being challenged to
 accept and be present to "what is"in my daily life experiences.
My ability to accept what is fluctuates from day to day.

~

Swirls with Craypas Oils
done with fingers
Mystic Meandering
2011

 

Radical Honesty - Jeff Foster

You don't have to be okay with anything.  It's not about the
me-person being okay.  It's that everything is already embraced
by Life ItSelf.  It is a cosmic okayness that goes beyond "I'm okay"
and "I'm not okay."  We are totally free to respond to life experiences
in authentic, honest, human ways.  We are free not to like our
experiences, and on a deeper level to experience a total, all-
encompassing okayness with the entire situation.  Underneath
everything is a cosmic okayness.  It's not about telling yourself
that you're okay when you are not.  It's not about pretending to be
okay, trying to be spiritual, trying to be peaceful.
You don't have to be anything other than you are in the moment.
It's about radical honesty. It's about seeing reality as it is,
acknowledging it, and discovering that the situation is fully
admitted into life - already.  There is simply life, in all its
mystery, wonder, and timeless simplicity.  And in this
recognition the illusion of separation between us and life
falls away, and we are no longer at odds with life
as it is...

Jeff Foster

From - The Deepest Acceptance

~

This moment in time and space is an eggshell,
personal identity is a sheath.
The breath of God is breathing through it...

Remember the deep root of your being.
Give yourself to the one who already owns
your breath and your moments.

Rumi

~

Photo from the Internet