March 30, 2019
When we say to you, make peace with where you are, we want you to make peace with where everyone is; we want you to make peace with the world events; we want you to make peace with where your friend is in relationship with where your friend wants to be. We want it to be all right with you where anybody is. Abraham, Abraham-Hicks Publications
When this quote arrived in my email inbox today, it was a message I needed to hear again. It’s a message to relax and let go of expectations and worries, and it’s a reminder that I need to hear frequently. My mind insists on creating new dramas, or repeating old dramas, or otherwise finding or inventing stories to chew on or to become indignant about. And if I don’t have enough on my personal plate to make me feel discontented, my imagination is quite happy to latch on to political or social problems that the New York Times or PBS Newshour think I should be obsessing about. My friend Michelle suggested that I might want to consider fasting from news consumption, and she’s probably right. I’m not quite ready to do that, but I’m getting closer to exploring the possibility that, when it comes to national and international issues, ignorance is bliss.
Yesterday my friend Karen from our Thursday night meditation group forwarded an email quote from a Buddhist teacher that I found illuminating, even if I didn’t completely agree with it:
The freedom from suffering the Buddha talked about isn’t in itself an end to pain and stress. Instead, it’s a matter of creating a choice. I can either get caught up in the pain that comes to me, attach to it and be overwhelmed by it, or I can embrace it, and through acceptance and understanding, not add more suffering to the existing pain, the unfair experiences, the criticisms or the misery that I face. As with the Buddha: even after his enlightenment, he had to experience all kinds of horrendous things. His cousin tried to murder him, people tried to frame him, blame him and criticize him. He experienced severe physical illness. But the Buddha didn’t create suffering around those experiences. His response was never one of anger, resentment, hatred or blame, but one of acknowledgement.
This has been a really valuable thing for me to know. It’s taught me not to ask for favours in life, or to hope that if I meditate a lot, I can avoid unpleasant experiences. ‘God, I’ve been a monk for thirty three years. Please reward me for being a good boy.’ I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. To accept life without making any pleas is liberating, because I no longer feel a need to control or manipulate conditions for my own benefit. I don’t need to worry or feel anxious about my future. There’s a sense of confidence, a fearlessness that comes through learning to trust, to relax, to open to life, and to investigate experience rather than to resist or be frightened by it. If you’re willing to learn from the suffering in life, you’ll find the unshakability of your own mind. Ajahn Sumedho, Intuitive Awareness
My initial reaction to the above quotes from Ajahn Sumedho was that they suggest a passive or cerebral approach, but when I emailed my objection to Karen, she wrote back saying “It is really important to take note of the part where Ajahn talks about investigation. The practice is anything but passive. Investigation is an activity of the mind that requires focus and also, if it is going to lead to real acceptance and not just distancing, then opening one’s heart to one’s experience.”
I still don’t agree with his statements, It’s taught me not to ask for favours in life…To accept life without making any pleas is liberating…I disagree because, at least for me, asking my higher self for favors or making pleas (to my higher self) are forms of prayer, forms of asking or of stating my intentions for having a better life. I don’t think that prayer is resistance, as he seems to imply, though it certainly suggests a desire for a better outcome than one is currently experiencing. Whether one directs one’s prayers to God, to the buddha within, to the Force, or to angels, there’s a lot to be said for articulating one’s preferences.
In any case, where I think that Abraham and Ajahn Sumedho would agree is about the need to relax and to make peace with where you are.
And once we’ve made peace with our personal status and with world events, what else is there to do? I guess the only thing left to do is to lighten up and have fun.
David Wigginton 
I love your posts and have read many of your stories. There’s a play at the Cinnabar theater right now called The Perfect Ganesh which might be if interest to you.
We’re going on April 6.
Jill Kantor
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What a very interesting subject to take on and plumb. In Jesus’ day, the theme was ‘Man sins’. In the Buddha’s time, ‘Man suffers’. But do we ultimately. At the core of many paths today, Vairagi, or detachment, I think, opens us to the Akaha, or non dual avenue of unification with our origin, and a freedom to accept gladly what comes our way. I’ve certainly had challenges on many levels over the decades, and arrived at values quite off the norm, but very heart centered. Sure, we can create karma, we hurt, until attempting to anchor in a sense of love / alignment. At least – it’s worked for myself and many friends up and down the coast.
I think you hit the nail on the head with ‘ trust, relax, be open (at many levels), explore fun, lighten up.’ Do the 60 million refugees have a horrendous path ? Surely. I believe at some point we’ve all had similar karma to work through. It does take a daily practice of self checks, and assisting others to the measure we can. As for self realization, I think it’s a slower process from an enclave on a mountain.
I think prayer is tricky because I’m in the camp of ‘we’re always in a state of perfection’. Leaning into someone else’s or our own enhanced welfare can insert one into karma, with a field of manifest intention, and the reciprocal will come due at some point, I believe. I Have had many successful answers come in the night after posing to my higher self upon hitting the pillow, – ‘what is my next step ?’ or, ‘I invite you to take me to a place that’s best for my unfoldment’. Observing nature does seem to validate the fun factor. Crows use a lid of a can for saucering down an icy roof. Birds dance in circles while building an arch for a mate to be. Young foal hops and skips as soon as able. Dogs form instant friendships at dog parks. It’s a long list as you know. At this house, the day starts with gratitude.. moves to initiative .. and exploration … keeping the mind in check keeps the sails trimmed
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