"working too hard"

setting up a new house is hard
"trying" to set up a new business
in a new place is hard

la, la

is that true?

seems like it

and so what?

One of life's great gifts
is
"hard" situations

anyone can be happy
in the
easy
time

so the secret seems
to be

how to be at
ease
somewhere inside

(like being in the sweet little moment)

while the outside
seems
"busy"
"hard"
"a pain in the ass"
"not fair"
and so
on

good

soul now

losing our soul
could be as
"simple" as
falling away
from now
and the
love
that always
floods out from
the
now

what will it profit a person

To ponder for tomorrow:

GOSPEL: Mark 8: 27 - 38

Mark 8:27 (NRSV) Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesare'a Philip'pi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" 28 And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Eli'jah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29 He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Go Slow, Joe

the rush to get something done
often loses us the potential
sweetness of what's here
right now

new phone # : 360-317-4773

As part of the week from now move to Orcas Island
I've gotten an Orcas compatible number:
360-317-4773

new life

To change we have to change.

Seems fair enough,
and yet
the human condition is like this:
wanting to change without changing anything

Oh well


And the sweet reverse:
the payment for transformation is to set some
inner non habitual action in motion


Good

the end of suffering

DAY TWENTY-THREE: THE END OF SUFFERING
The beginning of wisdom

In the fourth question of the Byron Katie work, we are asked to ask ourselves what life would be like, what we would be like, if we didn’t believe the big bad story. Or, we didn’t attach to the thought. Or, we didn’t hold onto our opinion. Or, we just looked at Reality without the requirements that our judgment/ story/ thought/ belief/ concept puts on it.

And this looking at the world without the story is not a requirement, as in, “Just let go,” or “Just drop it,” or “Just move on.” (That amazing little “just” again.)

No, this question is to give our minds something to do besides grind over and over with our conviction of being right.

Recall question #3: How do you react when you attach to the thought?

And add on question #4: Who or what are you when you don’t attach to the thought?

You and I and any of us always have this choice: to look at the world thought the lens of “should” and “shouldn’t”, which is pretty much what every judgment boils down to.

Or to look at the world as It Is.


So, for today and tomorrow, play with this. Feel the troubled statements and thoughts and feelings and opinions come up in you and do the contrast game: Who am I, and how do I feel, live and react when I believe the thought/ idea/ concept/ story/ belief/ opinion.

And who am I and how to I feel, live and react if the outer world were just the same (“just!”), and we had no demand that it be different with our thinking/ believing/ demanding/ opinioning/ story making.

The trick then is to find the thought, the should or shouldn’t behind any feeling of unhappiness, stress or unease.

And then to write down the sentence. Make it short. “So and so should like me more.” “X should be more interested in me.” “Y should treat other people better.” And so on. Then, if you want to do the first two questions first, the Is it true question and the Can I absolutely believe it’s true question, fine.

Otherwise hang out with the comparing game: this is my mind and life and state of being when I believe the statement.

And this is me and my mind and heart and life without believing the thought.

Have fun.

Don’t be good. You don’t have to drop the belief. Just keep noticing the difference, and as Katie says, the belief just might drop you.
(“Just”!)

Where's the Problem?

Here's a quote from the New Testament:
Mark, Chapter 7, verses 17, 15, and 16:


Then he called the crowd to him, again, and said to them,

"Hear me, all of you, and understand.

There is nothing, outside of a person, that
entering into that person,
can defile them.

But the things that come out
of a person,
these are what defile us all.

If anyone has ears to hear,
let him hear."



This is the glory and
the work
of life.

Someone comes along and says:

"You are a jerk."

So be it. That does not defile us.

We react
in the good old reactionary way,
and think, "What an awful person."
That defiles us.

We say back something mean or snippy to them.
That defiles us.

We gossip about them
to others.
That defiles us.


Or, to raise the stakes,
our sweet friend is tired,
or dealing with too many things,
or going into new and scary territory,
or feels they are being treated in ways
that before were really awful,
or they actually are being treated
not so wonderfully by wonderful us,

and in that trapped and awful feeling
they start
screaming at you.

So be it.
Welcome to What Is.
Welcome to the chance to Love What Is.

And their screaming doesn't defile us.

Our fury at them for being furious defiles us.

Our yelling back, or preaching or demanding they
instantly be "good," defiles us.

Our lack of curiosity and love about what's
underneath the big response defiles us.

Our condemning and/ or gossiping about them
defiles us.


There are lots of more ways we can
react
in the reactionary
mode
and all
these ways defile us.


The Work of Byron Katie
is of great use in
making the distinction between
the outer act and our inner suffering
from the outer act.

And so is this:
Coming back to the present,
being in our skeleton and gravity
and in air
and our breathing,
and noticing:
I am alive, right now.

And thinking:
how can I be of use
and happy,
right now?

Simple?

Yes.

Hard to pull off?

Yes.

Life changing?

Yes.

And today’s job/ task/ game/ delight/ wake up call:
find what in you is reactionary.
Watch all the times you are “upset”
and see how it isn’t about the other person,
it’s about your

identification
with your reaction

to the other person.


Be kind to yourself.

Be amused.

Be awake.


It’s lots of fun.
Seen as a game,
all the “challenges” of other people “not treating us well"
becomes the delight
of discovering
how we defile ourselves,

and, on the other side of this:
how sweet and
peaceful and
free
it feels
when we don’t go the reactionary route
but just
("just!")
settle into loving What Is.