Our culture goes out of its way, in fact is entirely devoted to refuting or denying the idea that the world is an extraordinarily strange and wonderful place. I am a little slow so I am just now seeing that quite clearly. Yeah, I knew it intellectually but grasping the outrageous depth of the Fear that led to this saturation of denial is pretty astonishing.
Why do I see it now? It is another step into medicine, healing and health. Traditional Chinese Medicine is based in nature, in the rhythms and patterns of natural phenomena. It differs from allopathy in that it does not seek to isolate any portion of cause or effect.
How did we come to have such Fear rule our world? I believe it was Greed that cultivated Fear. Today we are a consumer society, moving from purchase to purchase, seldom content, mostly mindlessly grasping. As a culture we put our faith in science. But science is not what it seems, there is actually very little investigation or insight occurring in science. There is a great deal of marketing occurring however.
What are Greed and Fear according to the Dhamma? Two of the three poisons: Greed, Anger and Delusion. Fear is Delusion and Denial is the verb form, the active principle, the response of a desperate and shallow being but also our greatest coping mechanism. Not all bad, but there needs to come a time when perception can be evaluated, when denial is not in charge.
How do we counteract the three poisons? That is the whole of the teachings, the Four Noble Truths, that is why the Dhamma is in everything and every moment. This is our function and our reason for being, we are the energy of duality, that tension between opposites is the force, Luke- just kidding. Anyway, the point is...
being open to mystery, embracing vulnerability, staying with fear yet not being ruled by it, That is what mindfulness is all about. Our practice is to revisit it as often as we have energy for, energy cultivated by following the Eightfold Path.
It may be obvious that there is a lot not said here, lets just go do rather than stay here and talk about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment