Zen living part 6 (summarized): When Bad Things Happen

by JimmyPage 17 Replies latest jw friends

  • JimmyPage
    JimmyPage

    You aren't in charge of anyone or anything, and when you realize it, you will set yourself free to really live.

    Humans tend to categorize, label, and set up expectations. Cultivating a Zen attitude means simply living, experiencing, and being without categories, labels, or expectations.

    "Tragedy" is only "tragedy" because we label it as "tragedy". Removing the label and simply experiencing the experience can help negative feelings pass and can turn a "tragedy" into a learning opportunity.

    When humans experience catastrophic loss, it is more difficult to put things into perspective, but as with less serious losses, major loss is difficult because we attach our expectations and false sense of ownership, fears, and regrets to the things we have lost.

    Letting go of the attachments to our feelings of pain, grief, and sorrow can help us move through any experience.

  • BabaYaga
    BabaYaga

    Nice!

    It is usually the ego that comes up with the labels for experiences, anyway. Our deeper self is not affected, nor does it feel any need for labels.

    I just found this thread... I will go find your other five.

  • bluecanary
    bluecanary

    Thanks JimmpyPage.

  • poppers
    poppers

    Great post, JimmyPage. Keep 'em coming. In the meantime, allow me to add a few thoughts:

    "Do not seek the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions." Zen saying.

    "Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature on one's being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom." D.T. Suzuki.

    "Thirty spoke join together in the hub. It is because of what is not there that the cart is useful. Clay is formed into a vessel. It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. It is because of its emptiness that the room is useful. Therefore, what is present is used for profit. But it is in absense that there is usefulness." Lao-Tzu.

  • Robdar
    Robdar

    "Tragedy" is only "tragedy" because we label it as "tragedy". Removing the label and simply experiencing the experience can help negative feelings pass and can turn a "tragedy" into a learning opportunity.

    With all due respect, this is, for the most part, naive thinking. A tragedy is still a tragedy and there is nothing wrong with grieving the tragedy. Of course, I rarely think of anything as tragic. Perhaps you should change "tragedy" to read "negative experience."

  • bluecanary
    bluecanary

    Mel Brooks said "Tragedy is when I stub my toe. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." A given situation is only as tragic as the mind believes it to be. What is tragic for one individual is not for another. This can be said about any circumstance. Example: Human beings eliminate their own species through nuclear war. Tragic for us; fortuitous for the next species that evolves on earth (and for the earth itself). Thus tragedy cannot be said to be an absolute. No, there is nothing wrong with grieving a tragedy. At the same time, it is useful to be aware that we have choices in how we view things, rather than be held captive to grief as the only option.

    Of course, like Mel Brooks, most of us impute tragedy to the most minor of circumstances.

  • choosing life
    choosing life

    Attachment to pain? I guess it happens. I used to work at a pain clinic where the folks come who are in constant severe pain for years. Real, physical pain is all pervasive.

    I don't think many were attached to their pain and suffering. Most would have given all they owned to be relieved of this pain that had taken over their lives.

    Yes, you can treat it with meds., but for most, it was little help. Some chose to leave this life because of the pain. It is hard to imagine what chronic pain is like until you experience it yourself.

    One lady told me to imagine that you have been stabbed with a knife and it is hanging out of your leg. All you want is the knife removed, but they keep telling you to learn to live with it, don't think about it, change the way you perceive it, etc. Some people have to go through many years in this condition.

    I actually like Zen philosophy, but like most, it has its limits.

  • eyeslice
    eyeslice

    I too like the idea of Zen living. I would love to be at peace with myself when my time time comes and I think the attitude that Zen teaches would help.

  • JimmyPage
    JimmyPage

    When I first started reading about Zen living it seemed pretty naive to me as well. But I've come to find that it really has become a great source of inner peace to me.

  • Robdar
    Robdar

    I've studied Zen for years. It's philosophy is good for the most part. I do have some issues with it though.

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