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How strangely secure
this world of illusion seems now - open your eyes! |
The teachings are often seen as permanent and stable only to find out they too must be seen through again and again. They are not rules or beliefs to huddle under, to graze beneath.
Once you acquire some calm stability in the mind you are able to see through the very teachings you were once in need of...you leave them and offer them for others. You acquire new sight, new disciplines to help you see the illusions.
CINDERELLA
Cinderella, the soul, sits among the ashes. She is depressed, as usual. Look at her: dressed in rags, face smeared with grime, oily hair, barefoot. How will anyone ever see her for who she is? A sad state of affairs.
Winter afternoons, in a corner of the kitchen, she has long conversations with her fairy godmother, over a cup of tea. The fairy godmother has, accidentally on purpose, misplaced her magic wand. In any case, these transformations are only temporary. The beautiful spangled gown, the crystal slippers, the coach and footmen — all would have disappeared at the stroke of midnight. And then what?
It is like the man in the mirror, says the fairy godmother. No one can pull him out but himself.
Stephen Mitchell Parables
Sat with the Tibetan prayer before reading this blog entry this morning. In each experience, I reflected upon giving up delusion. It is so very hard for me to do so. In two separate work meetings this week, I offered advice to others on how to proceed--- the advice was unsolicited, but enthusiastically embraced. The familiar delusion of who I believe I am in this setting was back in all it's grandeur. In a third meeting with allies and political leaders of the State Senate, I managed to be silent, to offer nothing. It was the right thing for me to do. But afterwards, my criticism and judgement of others in the meeting raged in my thoughts. My delusion about who I think I am is strong.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, poor, pitiful Cindy! She has a mind that takes its own confusion as real. She needs a dharma buddy to remind her that she is not her thoughts/feelings/perceptions....My "Buddha-fairy godmother" once gave me a mantra: "Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise." I pray that Cindy's fairy godmother gives her such a gift! May all beings benefit from the fruits of this practice (including the pumpkin carriage and the mice footmen).
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