Sunday, 6 November 2011
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Is That So?
One of the most powerful teachers in my life is Eckhart Tolle. The application of his teachings have had a profound effect on my life.
Within his book, "The New Earth", Eckhart shares the following story:
The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was a well respected Zen Master and many people came to see him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbour became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scholding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master.
The angry parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All he replied was, "Is that so?"
News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him any more. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. "You are the father, so you look after him." The Master took loving care of the child. A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop.
In great distress they went to see Hakuin to apologise and ask for forgiveness. "We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father." "Is that so?" is all he would say as he handed the baby over to them.
The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: "Is that so?" He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him, there is only this moment and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody's victim. He is so completely as one with what happens that what happens has no power over him any more. Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness.
The baby is looked after with loving care. Bad turns into good through the power of non-resistance. Always responding to what the present moment requires, he lets go of the baby when it is time to do so.
Imagine briefly how the ego would have reacted during the various stages of the unfolding of these events.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
The Box
A beautiful soul said to me today, “Don’t put me in a box.”
The exact meaning of what she said to me at the time, as she
understood it, was not explained. It
does not need to be explained however.
Whatever the meaning intended at that time, gives rise to a pointer to a
simple truth. They were wise words of
advice.
What is it to be put anything in a box? A box of course is a structure and when you
place something inside that structure, you will stick a label on it mentally
and/or physically, so that your mind (and this is what the mind loves to do)
can quickly say, “Oh, this is such and such” and then it can quickly move onto
the next thing without giving much attention to what is inside. As a simple example, you might place a
beautiful vase into a box, close it, seal it up and then put a label onto the
box: “Vase”. To the mind, that is that. It is a vase.
It will not pay any attention to the object itself; which may be
something of great beauty and when close attention is paid to it, far more than
the labelled box can signify. It is a “vase”
however, says the mind. The mind only
sees the label and not what it is that has been labelled.
In truth, this is what the mind does to everything. It puts everything into boxes and labels them. It does not matter what it is. It could be a possession or it could even be a
plant or a person. “Oh, that there is
Frank,” the mind says. It does not have
to see the person that it has labelled Frank anymore. It has a label and, most often, it will look
right passed the person altogether. Like anything placed into a box, Frank is now
confined by the structures the mind has made.
It limits who Frank really is to judgements and subsequent labels that the
mind has applied to him, be they ultimately true or not. These judgements that have help make these labels of course are created only
from a single viewpoint and not the totality.
They will therefore always be limited.
What is to live without the mind’s need for labels? If you stop and truly look at something or
someone, without the need to judge them as this or that, you will begin to see
and understand that labels are a drastic simplification of something far more profound
and not the ultimate truth at all. If
you look at a tree, what is it that you see?
Rather than simply looking at it and stating “Oh, that’s a tree”, spend
a moment longer looking at it and suspend your pre-conceived judgements of it. What colours do you see? What are the textures? Are these not just more labels? Really look at it without "thinking" about it. How does it feel to look upon what you are
seeing, beyond the label? Is it more
than just a “tree” now?
Try looking passed the labels your mind gives to the people
that you meet, be they a loved one, somebody close or a total stranger. Watch how quickly the mind will say, “Oh,
that is such and such”. “That person is
really tall” or “That person looks very poor”.
These are just labels and they can never tell you who someone really is. You will find that, rather than just seeing
the labels, you will see much more. You
will start to become aware of the feelings or energy fields of everything your
senses come into being with.
When you stop placing things or people into boxes, you will
realise how limiting the structures of the mind are. By seeing through the boxes in your mind, you
will also stop limiting everything that you see. You will no longer expect
someone to be this way or that but allow them to be who they really are, there
in that moment. You will no longer
dismiss the true beauty of who they really are and place them “under your bed
to be forgotten about”.
Stop placing anyone or anything into a box and you will
experience how wonderful everything in life really is. Set them free from the labelled boxes your
mind has put them in. And by so doing, you
shall also set yourself free and see the true beauty of what is.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Preview - Life's Too Short
If you have seen the Oscar nominated film Willow, back in the late eighties, you will recognise the star (Warwick Davis) of this forthcoming comedy, written by the fantastic Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
The official website is linked below for more clips from the show, due to air in the UK on 10 November 2011 on BBC 2 (and HBO in the US during 2012):
Monday, 10 October 2011
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
The YouTube footage below says something about the man behind the name, Steve Jobs. An inspiring talk, with his advice about living life. And what an example of that he left for us all. A highly recommended watch.
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