With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Last night was troubling. For the last three years we have lived without television and now we have one sitting in our living room. I found myself watching it.
So many words. Such silliness. Mindless laughter over stupid behavior. Violence framed as the pinnacle of drama. The pictures of people happy over the illness of a person are disturbing. Fundamentalism in whatever arena is disturbing. Pat Robertson is disturbing. The people who seek counsel from him are disturbing.
Yesterday on our drive to Mexico, we listened variously to CNN, Fox, and the BBC on our XM Satellite Radio. Interesting the dramatic difference between the American stations and the BBC. We are fortunate, I think, to have access to the BBC. And to PBS and to NPR.
Still, the silence of the Refuge is so appealing. Few words. No phosphorescent dots on a screen reflecting or distilling a violent, obsessed world, always attempting to sell through misery and our perverse need to see it.
Thank goodness for the process nature of things. Change is one thing I count on to relieve my suffering.
Be well
4 comments:
Sir:
You seem struck by the shallowness of our multimedia-addicted society. I am not surprised. I enjoyed your post and I often enjoy your posts to the Penguin Runners group. Your perceptions are more enlightened than those of the perceived. I'll bet you will look back at your last three years and miss them a great deal. Now I have sort of a thought-gift for you, probably far from original but still cute in its own way: A stone plunges into a pond, rippling its pristine surface as it drops to the bottom. Who is more disturbed, the pond or the stone? The pond returns to its contemplation of the mirrored sky, but what of the stone? It means nothing, really. It is just a bit of prose for you...
--John Vezina, Devon, Alberta, Canada
Hello John,
Thank you for your comment. I am sure I'll get back to the runner list soon. And thank you for the gift. When all things are as they are, what is disturbed? Good teaching. Ripples, falling, pond, stone: just words. The action is just what it is. When we come to a point of attaining this point, we are free srom "disturbance."
Be well,
My intent is not to turn this into a huge discussion, but I believe a lot of people think things are NOT as they should be. They are waiting for something or someone to ring the bell, or they try really hard to ring the bell themselves. It drives them crazy to contemplate a silent bell. As for me, uncertainty follows me as tenaciously as my own shadow in a world of sunlight. Whenever I start thinking I know anything, or when I become comfortable with my world view, the shadow whispers in its cold cruel voice, "Fool! I am still here!" At the risk of destroying its beauty, it is important for me to be clear about the above metaphor. My own shadow represents uncertainty and ignorance; the sunlight represents enlightenment. I am saying that there is always a shadow even though I may walk in the light from time to time. If I walk in darkness, the shadow disappears and I am not aware of my own ignorance...wow! Maybe I'll just shut up now...I promise I won't go on and on about it...:)
--John Vezina, Devon, Alberta, Canada
Hello John, Yes. We agree, actually, most things are not 'as they should be' in the sense that there is a great deal of suffering in the world caused by greed, anger and delusion. Our work is to change this by relieving suffering wherever we see it. We do this without acrimony, however, without 'ripples.' We see as need and we met it as we can.
That shadow you speak of is a good thing. It is your conscience in the form of a mindfulness bell. We should each heed such bells when they sound. All of us would like to do more; there is such great need. In this, a long view with faith in a world of process that is unceasing and relentless helps. I have faith in the processes of life. Be well.
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