Just because we may seem like strangers doesn’t actually mean that we are strangers. Just because it may seem like we're alone and in a hole by ourselves, doesn't mean that we actually are. Just because we might be experiencing anxiety and worry overwhelmed by the minds doubts, thinking we are facing our challenges by ourselves doesn't mean that is true.
That’s just the mind, doing what it does... talking smack, making McCrappy meals... serving them cold, trying to super-size them in our heart and mind... trying to get us to pull our own plug on happiness.
It does that a lot because it has nothing better to do really. It's a never ending chaos, melodrama, and crisis creator; just trying to get a glimpse of itself, reflected through our suffering.
The survival aspect of mind, known as the ID is primitive... its designed to be naturally negative... it's a born skeptic that's oddly effective in getting us to do what it wants. For that reason the mind doesn't have an incentive to change, other than to try and add to its menu that it's always advertising and marketing to us, to lure us into its establishment of greed, hatred, and delusion... its personal trifecta. It's a hall of mirrors, that can disorient is to our authentic nature.
We're powerless that the mind offers and sell McCrappy meals 24/7. But we're not so powerless as to have to buy them... consume them... and make ourselves progressively ill... unmanageable... and disconnected from our eternal, internal beauty.
Authentic meditative practice... genuine yoga practice... embodied and engaged Twelve Step recovery... are systematic structured frameworks that can help us to change the relationship with the mind... to help see it for what it actually is... which in turn naturally allows us to experience limitless freedom... not from pain per se' but without the suffering, which is the story the mind creates about our pain. It's extremely important to share in this practice with others, because it's so easy to be blinded by the minds bullshit.
If we want to be happy, we're going to have to stop doing things that make us unhappy... which is usually some version of procrastinating on our work, parroting what the ID tells us to say... oftentimes some version of, "I'll get to it later," that doesn't seem to easily materialize.
The invitation is to stop buying and supersizing McCrappy meals of thought. Please do not say too late. Please train the heart and mind. We could be so much happy in This Way of practice.
一We Are the Practice Itself
Calligraphy Note:
不孤單 | Būkōtan | We are none of us alone.