Waxing the Dead Wood

[sooZen]

another essay from Zen Upchuck, my journal:

Sometimes (faithful readers may know this already) I check my pulse, especially after a traumatic and eventful week such as this has been, by going to two sites in particular. One is http://www.astro.com and the other is Osho Zen Tarot (I know, I may go straight to someone's idea of hell!)

Relax and unwind
This is a day of pleasant thoughts and communication, of easy intellectual exchanges with other people, general light-heartedness and good times. This is a good day to tell someone that you love him. It is also a good day to discuss any aspect of a relationship. If something has been bothering you today, you can discuss it and clear the air in such a way that there will be no negative feelings. Today it will be easy to let the other person know that you are fond of him and that you are only trying to make the relationship better. Go out for a drive today, or better begin a long vacation. A trip started under this influence will give you great pleasure, stimulate your mind and expand your consciousness. You may meet new friends who will stay with you for a long time

Traveling

Life is a continuity always and always. There is no final destination it is going towards. Just the pilgrimage, just the journey in itself is life, not reaching to some point, no goal--just dancing and being in pilgrimage, moving joyously, without bothering about any destination. What will you do by getting to a destination? Nobody has asked this, because everybody is trying to have some destination in life. But the implications... If you really reach the destination of life, then what? Then you will look very embarrassed. Nowhere to go...you have reached to the final destination--and in the journey you have lost everything. You had to lose everything. So standing naked at the final destination, you will look all around like an idiot: what was the point? You were hurrying so hard, and you were worrying so hard, and this is the outcome.

Osho Rinzai: Master of the Irrational Chapter 7
Commentary:

The tiny figure moving on the path through this beautiful landscape is not concerned about the goal. He or she knows that the journey is the goal, the pilgrimage itself is the sacred place. Each step on the path is important in itself. When this card appears in a reading, it indicates a time of movement and change. It may be a physical movement from one place to the next, or an inner movement from one way of being to another. But whatever the case, this card promises that the going will be easy and will bring a sense of adventure and growth; there is no need to struggle or plan too much. The Traveling card also reminds us to accept and embrace the new, just as when we travel to another country with a different culture and environment than the one we are accustomed to. This attitude of openness and acceptance invites new friends and experiences into our lives.
These are my what comes up for me today at both sites, "Relax and Unwind" and "Traveling",

Love both of them! I needed some relaxing and unwinding for sure as this last week has been hurtful and painful (abet enlightening.) And the traveling card from Osho tarot is great on many levels, I am going with Mare and Cec to Las Cruces tomorrow for the Dona Ana Art Festival (their first festival and friends will be there!) and also, I am traveling constantly and aren't we all... No destination, just life rolling beneath our feet.

When a loved one tells you that they no longer want to be around you, that it is too painful for them, you have to respect them and their processes. I cannot judge what is right or wrong for anyone other than myself, that is for durn sure! I am just a traveler in this life, trying to be as healthy and happy as possible and it is not always possible. And I know this path that I am on will have its ruts and pitfall and dangers as well as a place to sit, to contemplate the beauty of life with all its terrible realities and know our human frailties.

I know that every moment is a gift, every breath I take is precious because it may be the last. In my most contemplative mood, I realize that the NOW is it, nothing else but this NOW. Oh yes, we have history, we have experiences that burn themselves into our memories and memories can be what they are meant to be, LEARNING EXPERIENCES in this school we call LIFE.

Cec was trying to tell me that I don't "think before I speak" and he is right, I don't. I don't think before I write, I don't. I either speak or write or I don't. There is no thought involved mostly. I am liable to say whatever flows through my mind and I don't want to start thinking that I will "hurt" someone's feelings because that is not my intent. I cannot control what others think or feel. Also I am not immune to pain or hurt, I am not saying that, I surely AM liable as I have emotions like any other being (animals and possibly plants included).

Conditioning is a bugaboo. It is our history, our trail, it colors our experiences. If you are conditioned in your life by your parents, for example, to fear certain things (like bugs), to dislike certain foods (like tomatoes!) you will carry that with you. Conditioning can be helpful as well. You want to condition your children to not run out in the street, condition your dogs to obey when you say "wait!" because without some conditioning, it is dangerous.

But this conditioning, these past experiences that are our teachers can also be really big roadblocks in our growth. The only way to NOT GIVE IN TO YOUR CONDITIONING is to be in the NOW. If you are in the NOW, there is no past, no conditioning and consequently, no "thinking before you speak". It is very freeing on one hand and scary for those around you to perceive you as liable to say most anything and I admit it, I do.

My main concern in this life is growth, to learn all I can about myself before this time is up and sometimes I think that is sooner rather than later (just a feeling.) Before I leave this planetary plane, I want to heal myself and those around me that need healing, that are hurting and in pain, and that process itself can be painful. (Just like little Frida, Mary's dog, who somehow cut her nose yesterday and needed doctoring! Ouchie!)

Notice, I said, "Healing can be painful" because it is. It itches, it burns, it makes us cringe and cry. It does me, it does you. But if one is unwilling to experience healing, to get beyond the pain, experience the pain then you become stagnant like a pool without an outlet. Eventually, it gets stinky and yukky. A clear conscious is only possible when you are in this moment NOW. A mind without guilt or regret is only possible in the NOW. We must all face our conditioning, our precieved demons, our yukky stuff or go to our deaths with would'a, could'a, should'ahhs.

Don't think ego is involved here because as soon as you or I do that, it changes the color of perception. Greed, jealousy, hatred, fear are all colors of a "thinking mind" out of control. Meditation and exercising can help but there is no panacea for a racing rationalization of situations. If you rely on you intellect (which should be a tool for survival) and I mean solely rely on your intellect to guide you, you will get lost and perhaps fall off the path or even fall down the mountain you are climbing that is LIFE.

Stop! Enjoy the view, cut the dead vines, trim the dead wood, "wax on, wax off" so to speak. There is no right way, no wrong way to BE...just BE...

[dadio]

thank you for sharing.

[sooZen]

Thank you for replying...