Tethered or Untethered...?

By José Blanco
It has been a long time since I visited my writing journal...my blog. And yes, I have missed it. But!, life gets in the way: she (?) calls for, and wants - demands? - to be lived. Consequences are paid when one does not. Jumping headfirst into life feels like one is running all the time, not "present", acting (re-acting, really) on what is going on, or denying what is going on...split in two or more pieces. One - intends to and says that one - accepts life as is, and follows the "push-and-shove's" that come one's way, while deep down rebelling against the continual  "being-pushed-and-shoved".

Doormat, conformist experience...maybe?

Yes, one can get absorbed in "living life fully" and also inadvertently fall into the trap of living "mindlessly". Just going on the 'float', bumping into each rock along the rapids...indifferent, content and, surprise!, somewhat ugh!...miserable? Wishing things would be different? Waiting for change...this is not going to last...something is coming on...(like the West Side Story tune). One went to an extreme.

Of not being aware.

This author whose book I'm reading - munching, really - brought these ideas to 'mind'. That is, I can live life imposing, fitting my model of what life "should-be, has-to-be, better-be like, or, the way I need it to be", and if it isn't like that internal model of "my creation", it needs to be fixed on the spot, condemned, judged, deleted, thrown out, run-ned away from, dejected, counseled, influenced...aggggHhhh!...the million and one ways to run away from not accepting life as it is!...tiring...exhausting. Energy depletion time. Stomach warming stuff!

Then, one gets on the "change path", that is, change everything that is happening for it's not the "right thing". "Take the initiative. If it's to be, it's up to me. Lead." We judge what is happening...for it is not according to...(fill in the blank)...nor...(fill in the blank)...and we fill in here the sources of power we are latching-on to, and have latched-on to forever, in order to profess to others why they should not trespass the limits of our - my - safety zone. Or is it -  safety zoneS? Really, the limits of my cage. My solitary confinement space in which I feel safe. Only there, I do. By myself.  Safe at last. Safe.

But, I am safe only until the "penthouse dweller - that inner voice that's constantly "guiding", talking, judging, valuing, comparing, pushing, shaming, etc., - starts opening up and criticizing even that!, then it becomes...stewing time!

No. that doesn't work. Forget it. Let's let it go, or we'll get burned...bad.

The author writes: "There should be no cage. The soul is infinite. It is free to expand everywhere. It is free to experience all of life. This can only happen when one is willing to face reality without mental barriers".

..."experience all of life..." Really?

And...the author writes, a few paragraphs ahead, using the image of a very brave dog that is determined to be free: ..."sitting there, right at the place where the collar starts vibrating, and he is not backing off. Every minute he's stepping forward a little bit more in order to get used to the force field. ... Since it's just an artificial edge...(really?! - more on that later!), he can get through if he can learn to handle the discomfort. He just has to be ready, willing, and able to handle the discomfort. ... If he is willing to go beyond his comfort zone, he is free to come and go at will".

Hmmm.

And...the author writes: "Spirituality begins when you decide you'll never stop trying. ... it is the commitment to go beyond, no matter what it takes. ... going beyond yourself every minute of every day for the rest of your life. ... you are always at your limits. ... never back in your comfort zone."

"...Go beyond where you were a minute ago by handling what's happening now." ...

Oh oh. There comes in that word again: the "now". A hint-hint, by any chance?

And...the author writes: "...(the) comfort zone (the cage, previously!) is so expanded that it can easily fit the entire day, no matter what happens. The day unfolds and the mind does not say anything. You simply interact with the day with a peaceful, fully inspired heart. ... the mind doesn't complain. It all just passes through. ... You realize that you will always be fine. ... You end up loving your edges because they point your way to freedom. All you have to do is constantly relax and lean into them. ... That is what it means to go beyond".

Relax and lean into the discomfort of my edges...the mind will not complain...

I am uncomfortable right now...

Comments

Post a Comment

Share with me your thoughts, insights, reactions, your way of seeing it;. That is a real conversation. Thanks! ¡Gracias!

Popular posts...

People of Orphalese...Kahlil Gibran on Beauty

By José Blanco
Came across this reading today...again. I had come across it before, months ago, and wanted to use it for the book club of our neighborhood, for a Sunday gathering. It came up today as I was filing..."putting away papers". The last lines of the poem read: "People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror." Let's read that again: People of Orphalese,  beauty is life  - when life unveils her holy face.  ... But YOU are life, AND... YOU    are the veil. ... Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.  But  YOU     are eternity...AND, ... you are the Mirror!!!. Time to munch on that for a minute... It's curious: when I was a teenager, you know, at that age in which one spends time looking at oneself in the mirror: the hair, the way the clothes hung, the shirt fo...
Read more

DHARMA JOUSTS...disobey the dictates of your conditioning...!

By José Blanco
Image
Ana T. Forrest in her book, " Fierce Medicine " describes this concept vividly, and in a way which is so 'real life', and not 'plastic, or sweet, or philosophically 'doctoral and wise'...so it came across as an old friend, familiar, a good one to snuggle into. She writes: "...a dharma joust is a way of reframing a situation to challenge yourself, asking: What can I do differently, right  now, to disobey the dictates of whatever is trying to lead my life? It's resourceful problem  solving. Making the decision to do a dharma joust doesn't mean you have all the solutions; you're just stating your intent that you're going to find them. Doing dharma jousts with the aftermath of my abuse, my bulimia, my epilepsy, and my paralysis has taught me not to give up. Whatever set backs I face, I now know to joust with them instead of rolling over with my throat exposed and paws in the air." Later on she adds: "...the challenge becomes:...
Read more

Feeling listened to and understood changes our physiology...?

By José Blanco
Image
I came across the gift for today: the Universe is tremendous! Whenever one least expects it, boom!, a surprise, many of them a gift. (Others, not so...well, at first, "they" say.) When  I was growing up, I got scolded, and my sister and brother too, and with the scolding came the phrase..." Los niños hablan cuando las gallinas mean ", which goes to English somewhat like " Children speak when chicken 'pee ' ". Have you ever seen a "chicken pee "...? With what I now know, at this age, this was quite a heavy mandate...I hope I never used it with my children, and if I did, hopefully it was infrequently, and that it did not affect them...please God...! Forgive me, kids, if I did! Anyway, in that stream of thought, the reading today comes across like this: "Feeling listened to and understood changes our physiology; being able to articulate a complex feeling, and having our feelings recognized, lights up our limbic brain and creates a...
Read more

On reading...on agreeing...on the duty of dis-agreeing...!

By José Blanco
Image
One of the quotes that stood out for me was this one:  Maria Popova's recent newsletter had a section on the Greek Maimonides, and his teaching on reading and writing...an it contains a few lessons for me. And maybe for you too, reading this post. Maria's writing is at: https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/26/maimonides-guide-for-the-perplexed/ Graphic used by Maria Popova in "Brain Pickings" "But Maimonides argues that the responsibility to counter untruth lies equally in writer and reader, in media-maker and media-consumer — a sentiment triply timely today. In admonishing his reader against skimming and the unconsidered snap judgments it invariably seeds , he presents a timeless micro-manifesto for the intellectual responsibilities of all information-consumers in any medium: Do not read superficially, lest you do me an injury, and derive no benefit for yourself. You must study thoroughly and read continually… The reader must, moreover, b...
Read more
By José Blanco
Image
 I came across this prayer three days ago. Don't ask me how or where.  But I read it and it felt...soft, so good. Not asking as a to-do would, or a 'must', or a 'should': it just showed itself and asked nothing, no thing of me.  In that, it was a wonder. I knew immediately this was a 'keeper'. But, for what? No answer, of course. Dumb question. The author of the writing is Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and this was in the website of Polly Castor, https://pollycastor.com/2023/03/12/on-prayer-poem-by-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer/ Recognition to them both - thank you for this gift! So here it is:  “On Prayer”: Today prayer is the silence in the snow-deep meadow. It’s the gurgle of the ice-choked river that cannot be heard unless I am completely still. Today, prayer is not to, it’s not for, it’s something I am more than something I do. Prayer is even the sound of the logging trucks on the highway as they brake rounding the corner. It’s the rapid shush, shush, shush of...
Read more

Breathing, a Tetragrammaton (?) and God?

By José Blanco
Image
I am preparing the outline for a Yoga class and thinking of the breath-work to practice today, continuing the work done in the classes past. Breath-work is so neat! It is vital - what happens when it stops, for ever? - and it is so sweet, esp. when gasping after hard work, or a run, or a flight of stairs. In the Yoga world, it is part of the Yoga practice, intrinsically tide to everything else. And it is a gateway calming the incessant mind, and its plans, and its review of the past, and its fears, precautions, mandates...agggghhhhh!!! "Shut up please!", I sometimes "yell" to myself (nobody else hears it...!), for those voices consume energy: they are exhausting! Buy Yoga reminds me, reminds its practitioners, that thru the breath, we can calm the heart rate, and focus on the 'beats' and from there continue on to a soothing, calming moment in the daily routine and its "noise". So in writing the outline, and taking a break for some coffee, the...
Read more

2012 November, Elections

By José Blanco
Image
Whatever your, our, political preferences are, one thing is standing crisply clear for me, and maybe also for you. And that is, that these elections are, and will be, a historically critical moment in time in which the expression of the majority of this nation (including those that are allowed to vote and were able to make it to the polling booth despite an increasingly aggressive voter suppression barrage of legislation by rabid (R) lawmakers) will choose sides in the discussion of opposite beliefs: the capitalist, individualistic, exceptional-istic nation's "American dream", versus that of the continually expanding diverse sector which holds a growing awareness of its heretofore sound and safe society and who see it now splitting among the few "have's" and the many "have-nots", who view society as a life which is shared and mutually supportive of each other. Independently of the political preference of those that vote this November, the reality...
Read more

Yoga practice - good news!

By José Blanco
Image
Want to share with you some news which are super exciting for me. A neighbor - Philippe Lafont, CPT, has asked me to join him in a studio he is opening for his clientele, a clientele with whom he has worked for years now. He wants to have Yoga available for his students, several of whom have asked for it to be part of the new venue. This Saturday Philippe will be putting the final touches to the Studio, and on Sunday he will be hosting an "open house" for his clients, friends and friends-of-friends. He wants to introduce the new location of Fit for Life, and show his guests the capabilities available. He has asked that I be there with him and to bring flyers and cards to share with those interested in yoga, and as he says, " go from there "!. " Exciiii-teeen…ggg "! The studio is located at… 381 Atlanta Avenue, Studio B, Atlanta GA 30315. This is a link to google maps from Glenwood Green: http://goo.gl/maps/U6e0I It is on the far side of Grant Park, very sh...
Read more