Really? Yes! Really!
“Really?” is the name of the character above. She is always surprised by the nature of existence. Always taken by surprise…and yet she is willing to put some effort into reading, studying, understanding & practicing what she understands. She hopes YOU will do the same for yourself.
We will start with two lessons:
Learn to Accept What Comes
Learn to Not Go Off Half-cocked
Lesson 1. Learn to Accept.
Some years ago now, there was a well-known mantra from the Eastern traditions. It was just two or three words which were repeated so often it became pas·sé. But I am going to suggest you return to one or all three of these mantras: let it go, let go, or go with the flow. Bring them back to life in your life. I reccomend them because they will help you adapt and accept what is rumbling in your mind.
Don’t make the mistake of having an attitude of blowing things off with an agitated attitude. Consider an image.
Go with the flow of the river
as a leaf rides on the surface of the water towards the sea -
to join the Great Ocean.
Lesson 2. Learn to Not Go Off Half-Cocked.
Do not act half-cocked. The half-cocked attitude is an attitude rooted in “what is in it for me?” It is the attitude largely based on wanting & getting something. It is what we call quid pro quo - something for somethng, one hand washes the other. This attitude is half-cocked.
What we need to practice is nothing in it for me. It is to act with dispassion of letting go of wanting prizes and praises. To do the work in front of you as an offering - a giving - not an act of getting something for what you do.
This lesson takes time to practice. For years students came here to this small spiritual place to get and not to give. Ask yourself how you act when you are with others.
Do you want praise?
Do you want to be waited on?
Do you want payment.
Are you wanting to have fun?
Do you measure life as something for something.
Do you live according to the dictum “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours!”
Do you measure what you give and what you get?
All of this type of living is based on the material, impermanent world. It is transactional.
This lesson takes time to learn to stop going at life to get something. It usually comes in stages.
Start with generosity without reward in small ways and keep going until you realize every action is an offering to the Immutable Light of existence. Just offer what you have to offer without reward without anything in it for you.
Just give.
More lessons will follow.
Remember, listen to the teachings, study them, make every effort to understand them and then, practice them. If you have questions, ask them.
Keep going. Don’t give up!
