First a story, "On Happiness: The Story of Two Cats"
A big cat saw a little cat chasing its tail and asked, “Why are you chasing your tail so?” Said the kitten “I have learned that the best thing for a cat is happiness and that happiness is in my tail. Therefore I am chasing it and when I catch it, I shall have happiness.”
Said the old cat “My child, I too have paid attention to the problems of the universe. I too have judged that happiness is in my tail. But I have noticed that whenever I chase it, it runs away from me, but when I go about my business, it just seems to come after me wherever I go.” - adapted from The Practice and Philosophy of Decision making: A Seven Step Spiritual Guide, by Neerja Raman
This past Saturday, a disgruntled woman shares at the end of the all-day meditation retreat, "I was thoroughly bored. I'm not sure what I even got out of today. I wanted to be out riding my bike -- doing anything else."
"I hate writing!" I shout to my housemate on the way upstairs to slouch in front of my laptop Monday morning. I love blogging. I couldn't blog yesterday because I was too busy revising. Blogging is generative. New raw fresh material. Zip off first draft, hit publish. What liberation! Not so with professional writing. An infinite loop of revise, revise, revise...
I'd gotten all the critique back (thanks a million Todd, Lisa, Jory). Uhhh, it's time again. Revise, revise, revise. Drudge, drudge, drudge.
Is it coincidence this past Sunday, my friend Tom who has lived and studied in Japan shares wisdom from the Zen-inspired Japanese psychotherapies Morita and Naikan? The gist is that we spend so much time embroiled with complaining, resisting, loathing and waiting for motivation to strike us, that what needs to get done languishes...undone.
Honestly, I'm ashamed to admit, that if you add up the chunks of time I spent stomping around about how much I thoroughly detest the revising process of writing, I'd say I drained at least two weeks of energy over the last few months. Two weeks of my life - poof, gone.
The West is always getting ready to live. - Chinese proverb
We are incessently judging. Now this moment is definitely bad, ugly - that moment is good. This interesting, that boring. This one is meaningful, that one worthless. Labeling more than experiencing.
Distinguishing between profane and sacred
Their vexations flourish. - from Xin Ming, by 7th century Chan Buddhist master Niutou Farong
It's as if we walking around with a "I'd Rather Be...." bumper sticker perpetually attached to our forehead. I'd Rather Be...anywhere but right here right now.
American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron shares that the pith, short instruction for all meditation is: Stay....stay....just stay. In the process of staying, we notice our inherent restlessness. Over time we become "flexible and confident, [someone] who doesn't become upset when situations are unpredictable and insecure." We don't run away in fear but emanate a resolutely steadfast presence.
There is a lot of talk about Asia as a force for the future. The opening tale of two cats is from an HP Labs director raised in India and inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. I've shared snippets from her book before. There's a marketing case story I use in the never-ending essay of a small business lodging operator in Thailand. From a previous post I've shared:
[They] had the brightest newest paint and most distinctive logo splashed on their long-tail boat when I compared it amongst their competing neighbors. Phen, one of the owners, carefully pencilled in all the lettering on the Christmas Eve Party sign outlining the entire menu and details with the utmost care and attention. When new guests checked in she warmly invited them to the party (at an extra cost, by the way). I'm not sure I've conveyed in mere words the warmth this travel operator and her staff exuded - and it was by no means simply a sales gimmick.
The task is not to find the lovable object, but to find the object before you lovable. - Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love
In Asia, the ancient Japanese tea ceremony symbolically raises the most mundane of daily activities into high art (er, ordinary art), an exercise in mindfulness:
The least is to be raised to the greatest, the ordinary has to be
raised to the extraordinary, the earth has to be made heaven. They have to be bridged, no gap should be left. Zen says both the ordinary and extraordinary, both the earth and heaven are real, but they are not two. Bridge them - so tea becomes prayer, so the most profane thing becomes the most sacred. It is a symbol. - Art of Tea, by Osho
If I have learned one thing from the tsunami experience it's the fragility of life.
Revising my essay - yes, that's a symbol too. Yesterday was the first revision process where I decided not to stew but rather stay. I learned we can chose to bring love, attention, presence to anything and everything we do and thereby imbue each moment of our lives with sacredness.
Sounds a little like wanting something to have been written, rather than undergoing the actual process of writing. I read that bit in an author's bio, I wish I could recall where.
A play is well rehearsed, the lines are perfect. Life is a rehearsal, an improvisation, not a finished play. That is where the stress comes from.
Best,
Niti
Posted by: Niti | May 17, 2005 at 05:52 PM