Sometimes insight or a different way of seeing ourselves and the world is received when we lightly consider some of our semi-conscious assumptions. In "Prelude," at the beginning of the book The Dance, I use the phrase "what if" in an effort to invite contemplation of beliefs we may be taking for granted. Sometimes we need to consider our (conscious and semi-conscious) beliefs in the spirit of gentle inquiry, wondering "what if" they are not true.
Prelude
What if it truly doesn’t matter what you do but how you do whatever you do?
How would this change what you choose to do with your life?
What if you could be more present with each person you met if you were working as a cashier in a corner store, or as a parking lot attendant, than you could if you were doing a job you think is more "important"?
How would this change how you want to spend your precious time on this earth?
What if your contribution to the world and the fulfillment of your own happiness is not dependent upon discovering a better method of prayer or technique of meditation, not dependent upon reading the right book or attending the right seminar, but upon really seeing and deeply appreciating yourself and the world as they are right now?
How would this affect your search for spiritual development?
What if there is no need to change, no need to try to transform yourself into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving or wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?
What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature- gentle, compassionate and capable of living fully and passionately present?
How would this affect how you feel when you wake up in the morning?
What if who you essentially are right now is all that you are ever going to be?
How would this affect how you feel about your future?
What if the essence of who you are and always have been is enough?
How would this affect how you see and feel about your past?
What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?
How would this change what you think you have to learn?
What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practises that offer us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you have to make about how to spend today?
What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world will arise from deep within and guide you every time you simply pay attention and wait?
How would this shape your stillness, your movement, your willingness to follow this impulse, to just let go and dance?
From the book, THE DANCE, by Oriah (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001).All rights reserved.
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"What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practises that offer us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold?"
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most deeply resonant lines I've ever encountered. I have a poster of The Prelude hanging in my house, and every time I come to this line I experience the same kind of "goose bump" moment that occurs when I listen to deeply resonant songs (e.g., Joni Mitchell's "All I Want").
This one line eloquently captures my ongoing struggles between acceptance and striving, my widely varying openness to the kindness of others, and the resistance I often feel to allowing things to unfold.
Your choice in phrasing this as a "What if" makes it all the more poignant, as I am by nature more willing to be in a question than I am willing to respond favorably to an imperative.
Thanks for sharing this gift that keeps on giving.
Thanks you. I first ran into the concept of unfolding in a fiction book I read years ago. It has been the best description of what life and finding out my who I am has been like. Often I get to busy or just want to get to the end of the present experience and find out what it was that I needed to learn. "What if" gives us time to pause and not be so active in driving the action of life. I learn more when taking the time to let things unfold. It is also a way of accepting the things we cannot change, which you touched on in an earlier blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking time to post.
Mahalo
One cannot fool themselves with abstraction, in my opinion, the state of non-striving needs to come through striving, sweat, effort. Then what is practice is non-practice. This is the paradox of life. To live, one must die. If one does not die, one cannot fully live. Transformation of the mind is a matter of putting oneself in the right conditions and letting the soil of consciousness do its work. Like rain falling on the earth. But if it is covered with knowledge then there is no penetration.
ReplyDeleteThese questions are not an effort to "fool" anyone including myself. They are aids to bring to consciousness what may well be unconscious or semi-conscious assumptions and beliefs. I respect practise very much and do mine daily. These questions are, to borrow your metaphor, a gentle rain which might, on receptive consciousness loosen the soil and allow new seeds to sprout.
ReplyDeleteExploratory questions are my greatest tool for self expansion and discovery. This post reminded me of the first chapter in What The Bleep - The Great Questions. [http://www.whatthebleep.com/reality/BleepBookCh1.pdf]
ReplyDelete"[Great questions] are Great because they open us up to a greater reality, a greater vista and greater options. And they come in the form of Questions because the come from the other side of the Known. And to get there is to change."
I needed this reminder. Perfect timing.
Your question:
ReplyDelete"What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?" caused me to huff an appreciative half laugh. It resonates with me fully. Thank you for sharing these ideas and your authentic self.
Yes, rain falling on spring, receptive soil... I only wanted to write this because after spending 6 years as a Zen monk with Thich Nhat Hanh and now living in the world for 10 years, I see how people live in abstractions and ideas. The world of facts is very far from the one that society lives in. As most people live in ideas, there is a danger in getting lost in them, even the highest, most noble ones, if they are not grounded in contemplative experience which allows them to enter into non-conceptual silence and deep looking.
ReplyDelete