A surprise at a local church! Who would thinkyou'd find Guadalupe at what started as a German parish!?
Listening to: This is where we first encountered the amazing voice of Lila Downs.
Today's Bliss Formula: A bike ride to the beach in early morning. Toes in the sand. We'll take our coffee and our books and enjoy the sound of the waves and the wind before the beach goers arrive.
From Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within by Robert Thurman:
"Realizing your selflessness" does not mean that you become a nobody, it means that you become the type of somebody who is a viable, useful somebody, not a rigid, fixated, I'm-the-center-of-universe, isolated-from-others somebody...You become the type of somebody who is content never to be quite that sure of who you are -- always free to be someone new, somebody more...You've opened up your wisdom, and you've realized that "knowing who you are" is the trap -- an impossible self-objectification. None of us know who we really are. Facing that and then becoming all that we can be -- astonishing, surprising, amazing -- always fresh and new, always free to be more, brave enough to become a work in progress, choosing happiness, open-mindedness, and love over certitude, rigidity, and fear -- this is realizing selflessness!
Wow.
Now that is an explanation of this sometimes difficult concept.
And I guess it's the answer to my conundrum about body image, isn't it?
Or is it?
Do you think we can take these concepts of changeability too far? Not far enough? Chime in.
6 comments:
I think that change has to be done with the mindset of improvement; of alteration of those characteristics or habits that are destructive or detrimental to the Self;a transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly so to speak :-)
Change is healthy and an every present part of nature and the Earth. We must learn to embrace it to respect it and enter each phase of our changing existence here and now with a happy open heart and soul. Just MHO.
peace and blessings.
bojosmom
Personally...I love when I learn something new about myself. Like when I don't want to go any further up a mountain, and then I find myself sitting at the summit. I'm' like--"uh, who is this chica that got me here? Nice to meet you!!" I think we sometimes get all hung up on WHO WE THINK WE ARE that we fail to see that that part of ourselves we feel disconnected from, but is our truest self, is still evolving and changing without our mental knowledge.
Peace & Love.
The fact that we are able to change, to meet each day anew, to let go of the past, to stand transformed in the moment, is so incredibly hopeful to me! I think the idea of self-evolution is powerful and very sacred.
I think bojosmom really hit the nail on the head: that we know change is "right" when it is constructive, when it's about getting rid of destructive. I think that change for change sake can be SO destructive and I think a lot of people use this buddhist concept of "no self" to justify that type of change. Like a spinning top, you have to have a strong, stable center from which you move. Once that stable center is wavering, the top falls over -- and, really, loses its "top-ness."
I think we evolve continuously throughout our life. Accepting that we are not, and will not remain, static may be the hardest thing. And of course we'd like to change all the bad into good - but it isn't just about changing a bad habit say.
A story:
In my twenties I went through this stage where I was trying to figure out "Who I Was". I thought it was a matter of finding some single comprehensive description. I asked family, friends and coworkers to describe me and everyone described someone just a little different. I was frustrated - I wasn't getting this nice clean description I expected. Why did everyone describe someone different? Who was I?
At lunch one day I ended up in conversation with a coworker about my confusion. Margaret was in her mid70s. After listening to me she asked why I felt I needed to be just one single, simply described person. I told her isn't everyone. She told me No, we are each of us very complex individuals and I would find that I would change throughout my life as I adjusted to, and experienced, the world around me and to not do that, change, is death - of one kind or another. She went on to say how dull would it be if we were to stay static and predictable - why would I, or anyone, want that. That the other problem I would experience in asking others to describe me is that I would be something different to every person. Each person would have some specific characteristic or quality of mine that they would see - based upon their own individual perceptions and needs. She said you will find that you will be many things to as many different people in your life.
She told me not to worry about developing/finding some single static description but to marvel at this complex, ever changing, adaptive individual that I am.
Looking back now, a few decads later, I have come to realize how right she was. Even when I haven't thought I was changing - I was. I have been many different persons to as many different people sometimes. Every once in awhile I am totally amazed at the person who is evolving - I've totally surprised myself every now and then.
But accepting change as a constant - can be tough. It's about the journey not the destination I'm finding.
Sorry, a long and not well told story, but there it is. Still changing....
wahoo! for steppin' outside the box!
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