Addressing the World Instead of Cursing It

Dear Friends,

The practices advocated by Pema Chodren in Start Where You Are, as in her other books and teachings, have much to do with self-acceptance.  Spiritual striving can involve a great deal of self-dislike, rejection of self, wanting to be someone and somewhere else.  She mentions longing for the past as another gesture, like longing for an imagined future state of completeness, that only contributes to our confusion.

At the same time, there are kinds of invitation, or asking, or action, that we naturally perform and that do not come from dissatisfaction.  For example, when we bless the space around us, or when we invite the accompaniment of unseen entities, or when we are moved to an act of caring and compassion: all these take us in the direction of participatory connection with our world.  They can very well be prompted by our innate, always-already-self-burgeoning wholeness (what Pema would call our buddha nature).   They are the natural extension of our root impulse toward creation and integration.

There is a charming, suggestive anecdote told by David Spangler about a time when he was in a hospital waiting room and he took the occasion to enhance and cooperate with the energies, the inherent sacredness, in the room around him.  Suddenly a small being appeared to him and asked, somewhat perturbed, what he was doing.  When Spangler described what he was up to, the being said, "Humans don't do things like that!"  Spangler affirmed that he was human, and he was doing it, so it was indeed possible.  The being brightened up considerably and replied, "Carry on!"

Today, like last week only differently, we'll notice our dissatisfaction with ourselves and our world -- including dissatisfaction with climate change, political changes, and personal changes taking place in this time of acceleration.  Along with the gesture of acceptance, however, we will also practice the art of invocation.   

It was Pema's teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, who pointed out that in former times we used to greet difficult, interesting, or joyous events with a prayer or invocation of a deity or saint, whereas nowadays, when something happens, we just say a curse word.    He seemed to suggest a shift from our contemporary world of cursing to a renewed practice of invocation.

And Rilke, in his essay "Experience," describes how the energy of a tree near him moved toward him, into him, and as it were "treated his body like a soul."  We can take the role of the tree in his account, and send our participatory energies into the Earth as a whole, its many kingdoms and even its many troubles.  We can treat the Earth like a soul.

wishing you joy in all you do,
Michael