On Jun 29, 2009Prasad, iJourney Visual Editor wrote :
I had to read the passage many times before I became comfortable that I understood the message. Then, I put it aside to reflect and now, when I read it again, I wonder whether what I understood before is accurate any more.
This is not the first time, I had difficulty understanding what is written or what is said. There is a time I listened to a commentary of 5 verses about 200 times for over 2 years. Every time I listened, I saw different things. I paid attention to some other element that I missed completely in the previous listening. When I mentioned that to my spouse, she said playfully that it applies to our relationship as well. We are married for over 26 years and I still discover something new regularly about my wife and about our relationship.
It is not that the commentary, or the original text, or the message, or the person has changed. It is I who seem to be changing continuously. It is like the statement of Heraclites 3000 years ago — you can never step into the same river twice. You can never live the same experience twice.
When I read the passage again, freshly, I realized that the journey or the voyage has not much to do with either distance or the travel. It has to do with openness, preparedness, beginner’s mind as Suzuki says.
Without that openness, beginner’s mind, I can go around the world and still be stuck in the same rut. Wherever I go I get into same trouble. Whatever I am trying to avoid in one relationship shows up in every other relationship till I am ready to face myself and learn what I need to learn.
Have you seen the movie Ground Hog Day? It is like that. I feel that in many areas of my life I am on autopilot — lights are on and nobody home. My body might travel thousands of miles every month — between India and US but my mind can stay stuck in the same belief system, same attitude and see no progress.
So I read the passage again. I see hope. Can I really be in the garden and focus on the garden, flowers, smells, beauty and timelessness? Can I take the focus off of me and on the beauty around me? Can I just be with the flower that is opening minute by minute, observe the butterflies make gentle, fragile and element patterns from one flower to another and lose myself?
Whenever it happens, the inner journey stops for me. I am no longer searching, finding anxiously, excitedly and frustrated that I have not found the ultimate answer. I stand still, quiet down and be with whatever I am with and forget everything including myself. I don’t necessarily grow by traditional definition but something develops inside me that allows me to let go one more belief that keeps me stuck.
On Jun 29, 2009 Prasad, iJourney Visual Editor wrote :
I had to read the passage many times before I became comfortable that I understood the message. Then, I put it aside to reflect and now, when I read it again, I wonder whether what I understood before is accurate any more.
This is not the first time, I had difficulty understanding what is written or what is said. There is a time I listened to a commentary of 5 verses about 200 times for over 2 years. Every time I listened, I saw different things. I paid attention to some other element that I missed completely in the previous listening. When I mentioned that to my spouse, she said playfully that it applies to our relationship as well. We are married for over 26 years and I still discover something new regularly about my wife and about our relationship.
It is not that the commentary, or the original text, or the message, or the person has changed. It is I who seem to be changing continuously. It is like the statement of Heraclites 3000 years ago — you can never step into the same river twice. You can never live the same experience twice.
When I read the passage again, freshly, I realized that the journey or the voyage has not much to do with either distance or the travel. It has to do with openness, preparedness, beginner’s mind as Suzuki says.
Without that openness, beginner’s mind, I can go around the world and still be stuck in the same rut. Wherever I go I get into same trouble. Whatever I am trying to avoid in one relationship shows up in every other relationship till I am ready to face myself and learn what I need to learn.
Have you seen the movie Ground Hog Day? It is like that. I feel that in many areas of my life I am on autopilot — lights are on and nobody home. My body might travel thousands of miles every month — between India and US but my mind can stay stuck in the same belief system, same attitude and see no progress.
So I read the passage again. I see hope. Can I really be in the garden and focus on the garden, flowers, smells, beauty and timelessness? Can I take the focus off of me and on the beauty around me? Can I just be with the flower that is opening minute by minute, observe the butterflies make gentle, fragile and element patterns from one flower to another and lose myself?
Whenever it happens, the inner journey stops for me. I am no longer searching, finding anxiously, excitedly and frustrated that I have not found the ultimate answer. I stand still, quiet down and be with whatever I am with and forget everything including myself. I don’t necessarily grow by traditional definition but something develops inside me that allows me to let go one more belief that keeps me stuck.