In a world where all is borrowed, and time like elusive dust seems to just slip through our fingers,
all we really have are these precious moments where we can make fertile the soil in the garden of our hearts, that here love may make its home and here the mortal seed may flourish.
Only love can free us from the womb of time
for life like a magnificent mysterious cloud holds its shape and form only long enough for us to blink,
and all our precious memories are but shadows of time that will drift away like fallen leaves returning to the emptiness from which they came.
Thus we are, like innocent children flowering in the garden of souls.
from the album In the Garden of Souls by Vas – Azam Ali and Greg Ellis
Having just had my first real positive breakthrough with my slipped disc, after 7 years of pain, I was reflecting on what different views it is possible to form on the myriad shifting conditions of ones life, and how differently those views must then impact on your life.
I’ve just had a successful course of physiotherapy, and as a result, now have less pain than for many years, and some means by which I can manage my pain, without resorting to pain killers. That is quite a breakthrough!
However, I’ve had many rounds of physio in the past, and been referred to various different agencies and different treatments in that time.
So now that this treatment has been effective – primarily because I was referred to someone in the physio department who was a ‘specialist’ in back treatment, rather than to the other physios, what is my response?
Curse my luck?
Is it to curse my ‘luck’ that only now has a solution been found? I could have been referred to *that* physio at any time, but I wasn’t. No-one thought to do so, it seems, despite the lack of success of their own treatment.
So you could say that perhaps I could have been without so much pain had things happened differently – had someone thought to pass me on to their colleague.
but they didn’t … and that is cause and effect …. karma ….. and dependent origination.
Half full or half empty?
But what of my view … my ideas about what is? Should I hang on to what might have been, and wasn’t … and feel regret, or even anger at the missed opportunity, and all the things in life I’ve missed due to chronic pain?
Or should I just be grateful for what I have now …. that I’m relatively pain free … and can now do simple things in life again?
Is your Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
How do we form these views? Well, we form views by selecting out of myriad facets those that fit a particular angle, a particular ‘take’ on things. And we leave out all the aspects that don’t fit with that …. reducing something immensely complex and constantly shifting, into something simple, neat, and ultimately, untrue.
The consequences of our views
And what are the consequences of these views? Is it not the case that once we have a ‘view’ on things, then we always then disregard all the arisings that don’t fit with this …. and just keep picking up on that which seems to ratify our view?
Do we not only selectively pick out what suits us, but also respond feelingly in such a partial way too?
Do we not have a ‘mood’ which is a result of the ‘view’ we have?
If we feel we’ve been hard done by all these years due to settling on a view which says it *should* have been different .. then how will that make us feel?
Or if we simple say … that’s karma, that’s dependent origination … and let go … and just get on with what is …. without partiality … then how will we feel?
Falsify what is, come up with a view … then filter what comes to be …. and get caught up in negative emotions …..
or just stay with what is … fluid, complex, shifting always …. and spontaneously respond to needs as they arise, without prejudice, without partiality …. and without reactivity ….
hmmm …. do we see life as a glass that is half full, or half empty?
Do we need to see it is exclusively either? Do we need a view of this sort?
Skilful means and beyond
Perhaps half-full is a more useful skilful means than half-empty ….. but beyond skilful means and provisional understandings lies what is …. which lies beyond views.
Open, receptive, responsive ….
Unrestricted …..
Allow the heart to open … and the mind’s natural expansiveness to just be ….
