1. Truth: Cultivating your curiosity is essential. What reminded me of this just this morning was a short video I saw in which author Elizabeth Gilbert talked about how we should follow our curiosity instead of our passion. She’s right, and yet it’s something that Buddhism was already saying, that freeing ourselves from fixed mind, letting go of our agenda, opening ourselves to whatever might arise with a sense of curiosity is a worthy pursuit, the way out of suffering. Pema Chödrön says,
There is a common misunderstanding among the human beings who have ever been born on earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same. A much more interesting, kind and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our curiosity is bitter or sweet. To lead to a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world ticks, how the whole thing just is.
2. Truth: Much of what passes for new wisdom seems to me like repackaged Buddhist philosophy. I’m running into this a lot lately. What I can’t figure out is if the people doing it just don’t realize they’ve discovered something that was already known, like Columbus “discovering” America, or if they really and truly just don’t know that much about Buddhism, or worse yet, they know and it’s all a ruse, a fabrication, a trick, an attempt to gain fame and fortune for themselves without doing the real work. Or better yet, there’s some big, universal truth that can’t be contained by any one philosophy or religion, and we keep coming back to it, approaching it from different angles, like that saying “many paths up the same mountain.”
3. Truth: There is some mysterious but obvious truth that stands on its own, outside and apart from any system of belief. I first encountered this when I took a World Religions class in college. Seeing how there were themes and stories and practices that crossed cultures and time blew my mind. For some people, that might have caused them to lose their religion, and while it did shift my attitude about the religion I’d been raised in, it actually solidified my belief in something bigger, something beyond our tiny little egos, our small little selves. I felt the echo of it rippling through every attempt humans had made at a fixed truth, all their assertions that they were part of the “one true religion” and everyone else had it wrong. I realized that God, however one might define that, was bigger than religion, and the means for knowing that energy, for connecting with that quality were personal and specific.
One wish: That we each find a way, a method, a practice, a path to connect with what is true. That we can find comfort, refuge in it. That our understanding of truth enables us to be wiser and more compassionate humans. That we remember, as Ram Dass says, “we are all just walking each other home.”
1. Unfold: An Introduction to Art Journaling from the Heart, my dear friend Susie’s new online class. I’m taking it, and if you want to join us, register by September 27th for the early bird pricing. Class starts Sunday, October 11th.
2. How to Love Yourself (and Sometimes Other People), a new book by Lodro Rinzler, co-authored by Meggan Watterson. “This book is a smart, hip guide for spiritual seekers who want to experience more love and stability in all forms or relationships.”
3. Unicorn farts & big breaks from the amazing Paul Jarvis, in which he explains two very important things. One, what looks like an overnight success usually is not, because “Achievement is never the result of a single action, it’s the build-up of all of our actions.” And two, that the joy should come in the making, the doing, the process, because “The sweat, research, trials and failures, dead ends and unknowns are exactly what makes things great…The process can be enjoyed as much or more than the outcome because otherwise, why bother?” Paul sends out an email to his list every Sunday, but also created an archive of those messages on Medium. It’s worth a look.
5. Giving Up The Need To Be Perfect from Kute Blackson. A great argument against perfection, because “Trying to be perfect is a sure recipe for suffering.” This guy knows how to preach. Whenever I watch one of Kute’s videos, I feel so energized, so inspired. Do yourself a favor and watch. Also, don’t forget to read the post that goes with it.
9. Wisdom from poet Mary Oliver, “Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.” Her new book, Felicity, comes out next month, and has been described as an “inviting collection of love poems that celebrates the divine as much as it does the natural world or human relationships,” and “an eloquent celebration of simple joy from one of America’s most beloved poets.”
24. Why I Cook from Dr. Andrew Weil. A great exploration of the magic of cooking, in which he says, “There is another reward of cooking that fascinates and motivates me: it is excellent training in practical magic. By that I mean that cooking gives you a chance to practice the esoteric art of manifestation — bringing something from the imagination into physical reality.”
25. Blogging from the Heart with Susannah Conway, one of the best ecourses I ever took. Registration opens Wednesday September 9th and class starts Monday October 5th.
The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all beings.
28. Five Minutes of Awesomely Real Self-Care, wisdom from Mara Glatzel, “In the beginning, I was ‘busy.’ My work was more important than I was. Saying yes to everyone around me was more important than I was. Being seen as perfect was more important than I was…Tell yourself that you belong in your own life.”
Be proud to know as much as you do about life, dreams, and reality. Bask, Jill. It was a long climb up the stairway of enlightenment, and many a battle over false beliefs and mass consciousness have been won.
You don’t have to shout from the roof to live your truth, but don’t shy away from the ignorant; they need you. Nor be intimidated by the wise; they love you. And please don’t ever let self-consciousness keep you from stepping out into a world that would be unimaginably incomplete without you.
You are a vessel of light, a holy ghost, and frankly, so dang “hot.”
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 