July 11, 2012
Reading list:
- Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico / E.L. Kolb; with a foreword by Owen Wister ; with 48 plates from photographs by the author and his brother.
- Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power / Steve Coll.
Remember something which may be elusive and confounding at times of attachment to outcomes:
Surrendering into the moment is far better than surrendering those things, circumstances and events which produce agitation in the mind.
A meditation follows:
Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison
Day 182
“We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.”
Lao-Tzu
“Aparigraha, or nonhoarding, is the art of appreciating emptiness in ones’ life, but before we can learn to appreciate emptiness, we must first learn to let go. On the mat we practice aparigraha by letting go of our expectations and letting go of the concerns of the day. I recently caught myself comparing a class I was taking to another class that I had found more fulfilling. I paused then and questioned my belief that the other class had somehow been more satisfying. I realized that the class I had found more fulfilling was one in which I had surrendered more deeply, one in which I had given a big sigh, let go of my day, and relaxed into the moment – with
no thought of how it should be, no repeated clock checks, just childlike compliance and present-
moment awareness. I had allowed that class to be fulfilling simply by letting go into it. I had to admit now that I was making a choice not to be fulfilled by the class I was in, that I was so full of my own expectations that I could not receive from the class I was taking. Aparigraha reminds us to always let go and never hold on. This letting go is the cultivation of emptiness in our lives. Into this emptiness, grace will come.”
Like Rolf suggests, perhaps we should try incorporating more aparigraha and appreciate more— the empty spaces in our lives, the non-happenings, the transitions.
Transitioning is at times a spot I find my self at— much like standing at a bus stop, waiting for the bus to come. It is a temporary lull in the velocities in which I travel, and by extension the rest of us here on the planet. Put this in context of the military- industrial complex or the current divisiveness of the politicos, political hacks and their sirens They are jockeying for position— best favorable position I might add. Correct? Transitioning seems by this analogy to be outcome focused?
Yes, correct again!
Gates proposes that there is deeper meaning— meaning with depth and weight, I believe. To relax into the moment just as it is and allow the jockeying of the mind to settle out the clamor of the world and the bellowing of the mind.
I find that when I look ahead past transitioning I find moments of stabilization. Stabilizing the moments, and remembering again that beginner’s mind seems to yak and holler as if it is the immature teenager, is worthwhile. Relaxing into the empty spaces and places seems to take time.
The calls to us to buy our way into pleasure leads to addicting efforts and the goal always is elusive. This surrendering into the moment/ empty spaces seems worthwhile compared.
At times I believe those places in Nature— those special places we all have in our mind’s eye— are the solace producing experiences which when immersed in- produce a change; for some profoundly.
