Friday, February 01, 2013
Welcome to February
“Finally we realize there is no path, no way, no solution, because from the beginning our nature is the path right here and right now.” Joko Beck, Everyday Zen, p. 45.
Let me say this plainly we need no reward. Living on this life’s path with acceptance is complete fulfillment.
Each day I struggle with the concept of life’s reward. My thrashing about with this notion has its origins my childhood where the paradigm was to teach the young that if you work hard, if you keep your nose clean and if you give your best there will be a reward. Ain’t so.
As a result as I grow older I find it harder to say those things with the kind of sincerity to give them credence and believability to my children. I have watched too many people of dubious nature get rewarded for questionable if not criminal behavior. I have watched good people spit upon despite very high morals and very good work.
Were I to hold anger or resentment about what seem to be injustices in, the dark nature of those feelings would kill me. Some days I suspect my irritations at others and at myself have already planted the seeds to my doom and that the harvest will come due soon. Maybe that sense or belief that internalizing hurt and rage is unhealthy is why in my later years I am drawn to Buddhist meditation. I find comfort there although in reality I have not shed my Judeo-Christian upbringing. Acceptance and faith while living in the situations that are real right now and right here makes eminently more sense that praying for or counting on some grand cosmic justice to prevail.
To tie some recent themes together, I offer this paragraph. Iris Dement in her song My Life talks about making things better for awhile. She isn’t talking grand schemes, long term visions; she talks about bringing joy to her mother and her lover now when they need it. The writer in Matthew from yesterday’s post says don’t worry about tomorrow because you can’t add anything to your life by taking an agonizing long view. Cardiologists I think would say worry in actuality will take time away from you. Joko Beck says there is no path to follow that is better. There is no solution to life and life’s challenges and mysteries. There is no right way of living or being. Be here, be now and be aware.
Live in a way that matters in the here and now to those whom you can bring comfort to and don’t worry about what comes next.
1 comment:
Why turn to buddhism? You already have the book in which Jesus said:
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
You are seeking that which you have already found.
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