Thank you for this deep reflection Mike. To me, it speaks of the power of faith, in which I am admittedly lacking, both in myself and others who depend on me or with whom I interact daily. This was a great start to my day.
You have much more faith than you know. You stick with Quaker practice, even when you doubt it and/or yourself. That is enough.
I follow the historical Palestinian Jew whom we call Jesus, even though I no longer call myself a Christian. That is because I can "read between the lines" of the gospel stories to see that he walked this same sort of pilgrimage and helped many of his contemporaries to do the same.
Just as my virtual Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön does. Pema tells a story about herself:
KEEP STANDING UP
I REMEMBER my first interview with my teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche very well because I was hesitant to talk to him about what was really the problem in my life. Instead, I wasted the whole interview chattering. Every once in a while he said, "How’s your meditation?” and I said, "Oh, fine," and then just chattered on. When it was almost over I blurted out, in the last half-second, "I’m having this terrible time and I’m full of anger."
Rinpoche walked me toward the door and said, "Well, what that feels like is a big wave that comes along and knocks you down. You find yourself lying on the bottom of the ocean with your face in the sand, and even though all the sand is going up your nose and into your mouth and your eyes and ears, you stand up and you begin walking again. Then the next wave comes and knocks you down. The waves just keep coming, but each time you get knocked down, you stand up and keep walking. After a while, you’ll find that the waves appear to be getting smaller."
That’s how karma works. If you keep lying there, you’ll drown, but you don’t even have the privilege of dying. You just live with the sense of drowning all the time. So don’t get discouraged and think, "Well, I was feeling depressed and I was hiding under the covers, but then I got out of bed, I took a shower. How come I’m not living in a Walt Disney movie now? I thought I was going to turn into Snow White. How come I’m not living happily ever after?" The waves just keep coming and knocking you down, but you stand up again and with some sense of rousing yourself. As Rinpoche said, "After a while, you find that the waves seem to be getting smaller." That’s really what happens.
WOW! WOW! WOW! This is a deep and powerful message, Mike... I equate it to knowing and believing in ourselves... knowing that we can and will persevere despite the chaos and challenges we face. Self doubt and fear have no place. We will keep looking forward... thinking and taking the next step.... and the next... and the next... Thank you. -- Nancy (not Pelosi)
Thank you for this deep reflection Mike. To me, it speaks of the power of faith, in which I am admittedly lacking, both in myself and others who depend on me or with whom I interact daily. This was a great start to my day.
Thank you for this comment, Tom.
You have much more faith than you know. You stick with Quaker practice, even when you doubt it and/or yourself. That is enough.
I follow the historical Palestinian Jew whom we call Jesus, even though I no longer call myself a Christian. That is because I can "read between the lines" of the gospel stories to see that he walked this same sort of pilgrimage and helped many of his contemporaries to do the same.
Just as my virtual Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön does. Pema tells a story about herself:
KEEP STANDING UP
I REMEMBER my first interview with my teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche very well because I was hesitant to talk to him about what was really the problem in my life. Instead, I wasted the whole interview chattering. Every once in a while he said, "How’s your meditation?” and I said, "Oh, fine," and then just chattered on. When it was almost over I blurted out, in the last half-second, "I’m having this terrible time and I’m full of anger."
Rinpoche walked me toward the door and said, "Well, what that feels like is a big wave that comes along and knocks you down. You find yourself lying on the bottom of the ocean with your face in the sand, and even though all the sand is going up your nose and into your mouth and your eyes and ears, you stand up and you begin walking again. Then the next wave comes and knocks you down. The waves just keep coming, but each time you get knocked down, you stand up and keep walking. After a while, you’ll find that the waves appear to be getting smaller."
That’s how karma works. If you keep lying there, you’ll drown, but you don’t even have the privilege of dying. You just live with the sense of drowning all the time. So don’t get discouraged and think, "Well, I was feeling depressed and I was hiding under the covers, but then I got out of bed, I took a shower. How come I’m not living in a Walt Disney movie now? I thought I was going to turn into Snow White. How come I’m not living happily ever after?" The waves just keep coming and knocking you down, but you stand up again and with some sense of rousing yourself. As Rinpoche said, "After a while, you find that the waves seem to be getting smaller." That’s really what happens.
Blessèd be, Mike
WOW! WOW! WOW! This is a deep and powerful message, Mike... I equate it to knowing and believing in ourselves... knowing that we can and will persevere despite the chaos and challenges we face. Self doubt and fear have no place. We will keep looking forward... thinking and taking the next step.... and the next... and the next... Thank you. -- Nancy (not Pelosi)
Thanks very much, Nancy. I don't know that I've had a writing project change me so much before in the process of writing it.