a full mind cannot be mindful.
the process of emptying the mind is a
necessity to re-open the blocked gates of perception.
it can be painful to do this.
there is a certain arrogance in acceptation:
i accept you can mean to say you cannot be better anyway.
it is the way of the detached mind dealing with trouble and it is often an illusionary,
loveless and avuncular way.
to embrace in spite of shortcomings is never arrogant
and has the ingredient of love and hope.
the minimum it needs is empathy, awareness of essence,
mindfulness and the right moment to do so.
i am afraid to talk of love.
to accept conditions we cannot change anyway is
easy when we know it: it makes more sense to embrace life
and it is an illusion of omnipotence to think anything will change
because we accept it .
it often looks a bit like a prisoner for life accepting his prison,
though only in the moment he will care for a lonely flower there or
music in electrical wires or a stone or a small insect
he is free from such acceptance of prison.
he has then embraced life.
not the prison.
and can still look for a way to escape these walls.
to accept not to see or to accept anyway what can be changed is laziness,
blindness, fearing the consequences of acting or just mere indifference and indolence.
to be healthy as defined by the WHO is an ideal for those who want to live forever, an illusion.
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
so, we have to come to terms with the fact that nobody at all is healthy this way,
and we have to leave the prospect of a right for an eternal healthy life thrown at us daily in so many advertisements.
to accept illness is never enough, though we don't have to like it we should try to embrace
it in us and in others, when we can life will be much richer.
and what is illness really? we can also talk about the illness of humanity on our planet or see it as a swarm of damaging viral beings better eradicated with strong chemicals.
to be free ..see the Declaration of Independence..."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
to be free..to pursue happiness, and all are created ...equal. all an illusion.
but the slaves were freed. equal...to the law, good.
still, the pursuit of happiness is leading to another kind of consumerism
attitude, the view that happiness is a right and not a grace.
everybody should be treated as potentially equal but not everybody is equal.
all are equal is a boring and unintelligent view of human diversity.
and when this is the tenor of modern democracy, then it is not astonishing to observe what can happen when a majority of "equals" could be in an illusionary rule of a country's welfare.
of our welfare.
we have to accept that we are not all equal and that this is good and rich in many ways
and that freedom is born in two ways, inside and in choice.
all else is big words. and in this way we can try to embrace a concept of freedom and others,
not seeing them as equal nor as higher nor as lower. each one has something to contribute,
and this is why we should sit and talk and try to understand and to receive and give insight.
when we can leave self for a little while and empty our mind to listen, we can communicate so much better and treat each other as equals taking home an enriched life and new possibilities and space:
out of not being equal.
in music the notation flows and jumps from one to another, none equal, some in dissonance,
some in harmony, some punctuating the flow together with pauses-and each is to be treated with the same care and full awareness and the right intonation.
freedom from pain, another illusion.
modern therapists come to see rather ' tolerable' pain.
everybody has pain but it is not always an illness to be treated, pain belongs to life.
we have to walk with it and can be happy when we just forget it at times.
depression, another word i came to be an enemy of in its all encompassing use
for each disorder of the mind and suffering of the soul and body.
it is society and with it doctors and psychologists defining "illness".
.
therapy in the way of psychiatric treatment or psychotherapy will not change
most so called depressions, a word in fashion like burn-out.
treatment with drugs with these is often dangerous and
in evidence-based research has not shown so much more effect
than trying without drugs.
therapy will not heal suffering and the experience of loss and of abuse,
states of feeling very low and despaired about a sudden severe illness,
the loss of a job and financial worries and troubles, the conflicts in
love and relationships, in families.
when we have in front of us quite explainable reactions in body and soul to
difficult circumstances, we should not use the word depression
as it classifies suffering as an illness which can be treated.
and suffering requires presence, not treatment.
and for the one suffering it may be just a stage of bardo
on way to a solution, an end or a beginning.
suffering is a gate. all is a gate.
when we could believe in the benefit of priests and prayer,
it would often be more helpful than chemicals. but we cannot.
I cannot.
here, people come to hospital , a prolonged stay, they don't know
how they will come out,
they cannot sleep, are in fear and suffer pain
and cannot explain their condition and nobody helps them to explain.
there is always a loss of movement and there is a general disorientation.
after a short time a psychiatrist will be called,
they are labeled depressive, then receive chemicals.
but they still have to live with fear and find a way to courage
and make sense out of their change in life.
all these big words, health, freedom, happiness, eternal beauty and a painless life give
unrealistic expectations and enforce a consumerism attitude lo life which can never be filled
and will create just as much unhappiness as a tractor in a forest. or parents to a child.
These are untrue ideologies, a lot of them based on the consumerism
attitude of rich countries, and we have to accept that they are untrue and
that we will die and do it each moment though we live and live.
where i worked in Uganda, most people didn't see the world along the
lines of big words and ideas. they ate and drank when théy could
and they sat down when they were hungry and thirsty.
they cried when they were sad,
and they could be happy in the moment much more than us here in Europe.
of course they tried to project, to create, with procreation there is always a
need to build a nest and a future. so maybe they built a new house:
but when they failed they didn't see it as a personal offence from God or the
government or their neighbour. ok, some tried to see a reason,
such as that they offered the wrong chicken to an uncle's ghost
during funeral rites, and then they tried fearsome ways of reconciliation.
but most of all they always knew about the impermanence of buildings, plans,
safety, food, shelter.
They didn't need to accept it. they knew.
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