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

 

Aligning with What Is - Eckhart Tolle on Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti spoke and traveled almost continuously all
over the world for more than fifty years attempting to convey 
through words - which are content - that which is beyond words,
beyond content.  At one of his talks in the later part of his life, he
surprised his audience by saying, "Do you want to know my secret?"
Everyone became very alert.  Many people in the audience had
 been coming to listen to him for twenty or thirty years and still
failed to grasp the essence of his teaching.  Finally, after all these
years, the master would give them the key to understanding.
"This is my secret," he said.  "I don't mind what happens."  He
did not elaborate, and so I suspect most of his audience were
even more perplexed than before.  The implications of this
simple statement, however, are profound.

When I don't mind what happens, what does that imply?  It 
implies that internally I am in alignment with what happens.
"What happens" of course, refers to the suchness of this moment,
which already is as it is.  It refers to content, the form that this
moment - the only moment there ever is - takes.  To be in
alignment with what is means to be in a relationship of
inner nonresistance with what happens. It means not to label
 it mentally as good or bad, but to let it be.  Does this mean you
 can no longer take action to bring about change in your life?  On
 the contrary.  When the basis for your actions is inner alignment
 with the present moment, your actions become empowered by
 the intelligence of Life itself.

Eckhart Tolle on J. Krishnamurti

From Simon Bartholome

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo Mystic Meandering

 

Hope - Frank Ostaseski

Hope is a subtle, sometimes unconscious attitude of the heart
and mind that is essential in this human life.  Experts differ
on whether hope is an emotion, a belief, a conscious choice,
or all three.  I think of hope as an innate quality of being, as
open, active trust in life that refuses to quit.

When hope is misunderstood, it can plunge us into delusion
and become a hindrance to facing the facts of life.  To discern
the real value of hope, we must draw a line between hope and
expectation.  Hope is an optimizing force and moves us and all
of life toward harmony.  It is an abiding state of being, a hidden
wellspring within us.  This version of hope is a basic human
need.

Yet our usual kind of hope is little more than wishful thinking.
It's frequently tied to an an almost childlike belief, sometimes
even blind faith, that an external agency or authority will bring
about what we desire.  Driven by our preference for a different
 set of conditions, this conventional view of hope is a rejection
of what is present for us in the here and now.

Ordinary hope disguised as expectation is fixated on specific
outcomes.  This hope gets conflated with the desire for a
certain future result.  Attaching our happiness to a specific
future result causes us all sorts of suffering..... attachment to
outcome posing as hope interferes with our ability to be present
to our experience of life as it is unfolding.

Mature hope takes us inside ourselves and toward finding the 
good in the experience.  Mature hope requires both a clear
intention and a simultaneous letting go.  This hope is not
dependent on outcome.  The hope is in the potential for our
awakened [or skillful] response, not in things turning out
a particular way - and we are no longer trapped by our
conventional view of hope.  We leave room for surprise.
The energizing quality of mature hope helps us to remain
open to the possibility that while life may not turn out the 
way we first thought, opportunities we never imagined may
also arise.

Frank Ostaseski
Buddhist Teacher

from: The Five Invitations