Dear Lana,
I was taught that all encounters of ours are "form". And all forms are
caused by some cause and each cause is caused by generations of causes,
visible or invisible. We call these causes karma for simplicity sake.
Please try to fulfill every encounter, because there is a reason for it
to be there. Fulfillment is the reasons for us to be here.
If we live separate from these encounters, instead of fulfilling them,
then these encounters will recycle. That's what reincarnation is.
Through these fulfillment, maybe resistive to your ego at the beginning,
our wisdom grow. Then gradually our heart will shine through.
JM
Be Enlightened In This Life - We ALL Can
http://chanjmjm.blogspot.com
http://www.heartchan.org
On 11/24/2010 12:56 PM, Lana M. Gibbons wrote:
Greetings,
I apparently have been practicing a number of principles of Zen for
quite some time, albeit completely unintentionally. A lot of what I
am reading now are things I have realized through experience without
external guidance: It is very refreshing to see there are teachings
for this that I have stumbled on.
One thing I am having a lot of trouble with recently is interaction
with others who simply don't understand - people so stuck in their
dualities that they can't begin to comprehend I just don't have them,
people who are so immersed in the material world that they can't
conceive that I am happy without many possessions, people so focused
on having external influences complete them that they seem to be cut
off from simply being. This issue has been so pervasive recently that
I have went from existing with a peaceful thought-free mind (no-mind?)
to one that has been sad on occasion. I have never needed meditation
to achieve that state, but I am starting it to see if it helps.
It seems the issues most frequently presented are that people who feel
I am important to them seem to keep insisting on doing things for me,
then being frustrated that I am not ecstatic for their gestures (nor
am I upset, those gestures simply are what they are - transient,
typically materialistic things that are nice, but not necessary to my
wellbeing). They expect to be thanked as if I had needed their action
like food or water. They seem to expect me to sustain them in a
similar fashion. And thus they make their own misery over it when I
simply am who I am. I've tried explaining, but they are not ready to
learn.
I have been called "cold" or "unsympathetic". It seems people expect
me to make assumptions on the intention (or nonintention) behind their
actions. Yet they do them and by doing them they are those actions,
yet they take no responsibility for them. Even more they seem to
expect everyone, including nature itself to excuse their actions,
nullify any effect or consequences those actions may have had. To me
it is what it is - yet this makes them miserable, as if I am expected
to wipe away their remorse by reassuring them they were at the mercy
of some power other than their own.
So I ask: How do you interact with the people in this world?
-Lana
