Archive for February, 2010
Sunday Snapshot: Setbacks and Letting Go
Yesterday afternoon I interviewed Robert McDowell for the first in a series of interviews I’m doing with the Three Intentions teachers. It was a great interview, and it recorded well. We talked about his background and some of the inspirations that led him to what he’s doing today. And we also talked about setbacks and letting go.
I had suggested that letting go is really hard, and therefore courageous. And he countered that it takes a certain amount of presence, focus, and dedication. So perhaps more than being a courageous act in and of itself, it requires us to stay with where we are and notice what comes up.
And so not two hours had passed when I went home, sat at my home computer, and attempted to upload the software that came with this recording device I’d bought just over a year ago. I’d been using it on a work computer that died about a week ago, so I was installing it for the first time on a new computer. And within the first five minutes, things started not going my way. Things continued to not go my way until I hit so many buttons on the recorder that I first lost the display information and then hit the erase button and lost the whole interview.
I can remember a time in my life when an experience like this would have sent me into a funk that would have ruined my night. I was disappointed. I did allow my partner to comfort me and say that I’d tried and that it wasn’t my fault. But I also let it go. I remembered Robert’s words and I stopped. Instead of beating myself up and dwelling on how ridiculous it was to hit ERASE, I stayed present. I focused myself on the moment. At home with a comfortable evening ahead of me. I turned off the computer and watched a movie and went to bed early. And it was a good night.
My little setback is small in the scheme of things, clearly, but any moment of noting the way things could go down versus the way you choose for them to go down are practice moments for the big setbacks. We get to choose whether we let things go or to get caught in the sticky webs that keep us frustrated, angry, victimized, or whatever our preferred pattern might be.
What is something you’ve let go of lately?
Buddha Anger Poem
“Buddha Anger Poem” is a fine example of the poetry of admonitions. It is light on imagery and mystery and heavy on instruction. Its tone and pace are urgent, as if the anonymous poet were saying, There is no time to lose.
There seldom is. The poem’s subject is anger, an emotion I know well. Perhaps you do, too. The poem admonishes, but it also prescribes, pointing out the things we must do when we’re ready to lash out, throw something across the room, or just sit quietly seething, hating. Listen.
Give up anger; renounce pride; transcend all worldly attachments. No sufferings touch the person who is not attached to name and form, who calls nothing one’s own. Whoever restrains rising anger like a chariot gone astray, that one I call a real driver; others merely hold the reins.
Overcome anger by love; overcome wrong by good; overcome the miserly by generosity, and the liar by truth. Speak the truth; do not yield to anger; give even if asked for a little. These three steps lead you to the gods.
The wise who hurt no one, who always control their body, go to the unchangeable place, where, once they have gone, they suffer no more. Those who are always aware, who study day and night, who aspire for nirvana, their passions will come to an end.
This is an old saying, Atula, not just from today: ”They blame the person who is silent; they blame the person who talks much; they also blame the person who talks in moderation; there is no one on earth who is not blamed. “ There never was, nor ever will be, nor is there now anyone who is always blamed or anyone who is always praised.
But the one whom those who discriminate praise continually day after day as without fault, wise, rich in knowledge and virtue, who would dare to blame that person, who is like a gold coin from the Jambu river? That one is praised even by the gods, even by Brahma.
Be aware of bodily anger and control your body. Let go of the body’s wrongs and practice virtue with your body.
Be aware of the tongue’s anger and control your tongue. Let go of the tongue’s wrongs and practice virtue with your tongue.
Be aware of the mind’s anger and control your mind. Let go of the mind’s wrongs and practice virtue with your mind.
The wise who control their body, who control their tongue, the wise who control their mind are truly well controlled.
This is the path, the poem says, to balance of body, speech, and mind. It challenges repeatedly, Be aware! Do not be shortsighted. Do not blame others. Renounce pride and worldly attachments, and become “a real driver” (my favorite image here). Become “the wise who hurt no one.”
How would you counsel someone in a poem to give up one of the volatile emotions? Jealousy? Greed? Resentment? Try writing one or more.
Courage
Willingness, Courage, and Curiosity are the “primary colors” in the Life Artist color palette. They are the most essential contexts for living our lives with creative presence. When used together these colors make it possible for us to open up to new possibilities and experiences in our lives.
Courage is the color that is associated with Heart intelligence. It’s necessary for breaking out of old patterns and limiting beliefs. Once we’ve shifted our energy to one of Willingness, Courage is about risking the known for the unknown and taking that initial step toward change.
The Latin root for Courage is coeur, which speaks to the power our Hearts have to make meaning of the desires we have in our lives. When we take actions from our Heart intelligence, we cultivate deeper roots of authentic connection to our true self as well as to others.
After exploring the energy you most want to occupy in your life, ask yourself, What must I now have the courage to feel in relationship to this energy? What action might this feeling prompt me to take to honor this energy I desire?
Take a risk today that honors your Heart and demonstrates your willingness to live creatively and courageously.
***Courage is the second of nine posts covering the nine colors of the Life Artist Palette. To brush up on the colors, see the graphic from Willingness.
Small Light and Timeless Light
Everything is lighted. In the beginning, this is clear. In nature, we tip our face to the sun and our small light is renewed by the timeless light. Often, as we enter the realm of others, our small light serves as a lantern softening and illuminating everyone we look at; especially the dark ones who are blocked from their own light. Of course, we take turns being blocked and dark or open and lighted. This is the power of kindness, to return us to the light we carry. Yet sometimes along the way, no one knows exactly when or how, we can forget our own light and substitute the ones we illuminate as keepers of the light. Often without notice, we can stop opening our face to everything timeless; desperate to stay within our lover’s gaze. Now the inversion has taken place and we have entrusted our light to those who are dark and blocked, who more than evil just don’t know for the moment what to do with light. Why this happens to some of us and not others is a distraction; just as the origin of thirst is never quenching. The slip from opening our face to the light to chasing a dark one we think is holding the light is common. I have done it often in my life. And I have also been dark, unable to find my light. What’s most important is the honest touch that breaks the trance. And the risk to drop all thought, to close our want, and simply tip our face again in the light.
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