All wisdom is a matter of call and response.
The sun comes up, your eyelids flutter.
The bell rings, you answer.
Work appears, you do it.
Mail arrives, you open.
Sadness fills, you cry.
A stranger nears, you smile.
A crack opens, you fall.
Hunger rises, you eat.
Quiet descends, you quiet.
All struggle is resistance to response.
That's why I will always respond.
Announcing June 12 in Seattle.
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Art Every Day Month – Day 26
2 hours ago
9 comments:
what happens when you are eating and the mail arrives? do you stop eating to open the mail? or do you finish eating, then open the mail? and if the mail results in sadness filling, do you finish opening the mail before crying? or do you cry, then finish opening the mail and then finish eating?
how do we do it all without struggle?
Where is the struggle?
good question... the struggle is in trying to do too many things at once. fighting against the finite amount of time we have will always end in suffering.
The struggle is in the "what if." Even when you do many things, and we all do, we can only bring our attention to one thing at a time. And it works out OK. When we try it, we see for ourselves.
I think my crying, smiling, falling and eating responses are a little better developed than some of the others ;-)
Holy Wow!!!
No resistance to this response: I am so there!
See you then,
Stacy
excited you'll be in my neighborhood--at my alma mater, even! hoping to see you there!
Great wisdom: "All struggle is resistance to reponse." It seems to get to the essence of what Matthieu Ricard wrote in 'Happiness': "For an optimist, it makes no sense to lose hope. We can always do better (instead of being devastated, resigned, or disgusted), limit the damage (instead of letting it all go to pot), find an alternative solution (instead of wallowing pitifully in failure), start from scratch (instead of ending there), understand that sustained effort will have to be made in the best apparent direction (instead of being paralyzed by indecision and fatalism), and use every present moment to advance, appreciate, act and enjoy inner well-being (instead of wasting our time brooding over the past and fearing the future)."
Can't wait to learn more about your trip to Seattle, Bastyr
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