Claiming all of life

One of the gifts of the teachings of the Buddha is his clear acknowledgement of the very nature of the busy-ness of the human mind and of how we humans tick. Said another way, statements about the way things actually are versus selective focus on the way we think things should be or ought to be allows us to enter into a space of rest and acceptance. By naming the things we dare not name or most fear we take steps towards fuller integration of ourselves. In other words we continue our journey home, to ourselves.

One of the wisdom teachings reminds us that often as a result of the contextual conditioining we receive (what Don Miguel Ruiz refers to as “domestication”) we often go through life grasping after things we deem “good” while fearing and resisting those things we classify as “bad”. The challenge this line of thinking presents is that we inadvertently affirm cycles of judgement, most notably judgement of ourself. The gift of claiming all of life is that we resist the temptation to carve ourselves into segments and instead move in a more balanced fashion through all that comes our way. When we choose to see the drama without becoming drawn into the drama we learn more not just about the nature of things but most important, we learn about ourselves.

– Lois