Monday, May 18, 2015

Loose yourself to find yourself

Everything will be taken from you on this path. Everything. It’s easier to let go than to hold.

Jac O’Keeffe

When have you felt more awake and receptive of Life's deviant disclosures?
... think about it for a moment.

Was it when you were on top of your game, getting everything you wanted, engaged in a series of new activities, rushing from one place to another, thinking ahead on your next goal, your next wanting, having a plan and putting all your hopes in it, OR

was it when everything you though you knew fell to pieces, and you were left with only one thing, emptiness. The idea of nothing and everything in one single possibility.

Think of the sadness and unbelievable feeling of not owning anything, not even your own Life.

It's desperate, it's too much to bear, it's... you probably can't even put into words the magnitude of lostness. But you don't disappear or smoke away. You stay. Alone and stunted, you stay. And the only thing you can actually hold on to keep yourself alive is Forgiveness...

When we forgive our foolish way of thinking that we know everything we need and embrace blissful ignorance, something changes in our sight. We no longer see others as others, but as part of the same stuff we're made off, and what we gave importance to, like status, like being heard, being seen, makes no sense to pursue anymore. What it makes sense is to give whatever we can still give, and share whatever can be shared. From that sadness of losing what we thought we had, we gain a constant appreciation for what is temporarily in our hands.

Buddhist monks begin each day with a chant of gratitude for the blessings of their life. Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to mother earth and father sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.

Jack Kornfield 

True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience.”





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