The Buddha at Work's "Working for the Weekend" Quotes for 9/3/10

"We have many wasy to cope with life, many ways to worship comfort and and pleasantness. All are based on the same thing: the fear of encountering any kind of unpleasantness. If we must have absolutely order and control, it's because we're trying to avoid any unpleasantness. If we can have things our way, and get angry if they're not, then we think we can survive and shut out our anxiety about death. If we can please everyone, then we imagine no unpleasantness will enter our life. We hope that if we can be the star of the show, shining and wonderful and efficient, we can have such an admiring audience that we won't have to feel anything. If we can withdraw from theworld and just entertain ourselves with our own dreams and fantasies and emotional upheavals, we think we can escape unpleasantness. If we can figure everything out, if we can be so smart that we can fit everything into some sort of plan or order, a complete intellectual understanding, then perhaps we won't be threatened. If we can submit to an authority, have it tell us what to do, then we can give someone else the responsibility for our lives and we don't have to carry it anymore. We don't have to feel the anxiety of making a decision. If we pursue life madly, going after any pleasant sensation, any excitement, any entertainment, perhaps we won't have to feel any pain. If we can tell others what to do, keep them well under control, under our foot, maybe they can't hurt us. If we can 'bliss out,' if we can be a mindless 'buddha' just relaxing in the sun, we don't have to assume any responsibility for the world's unpleasantness. We can just be happy."

- Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special

"...we have a fearful mind. That fearful mind is the mentality of those who are still taking pleasure in hibernating in the cocoon of comfort. People come up with long lists of reasons they would like to hibernate. They complain that the world has not provided enough hospitality, so therefore they have to stay in their cocoons. Philosophers, psychologists, musicians, mathematicians, cooks, and seamstresses alike--all kinds of people with all kinds of mentalities--may have their own answers as to why they should be left in their own particular cocoons.

Based on that situation of fear, the baby or infant warriors, would-be warriors, may have arguments or logics to justify remaining in their cocoons. Those of us who have left the cocoon and joined the warrior's world always treat such would-be warriors gently. We respect them, but on the other hand, we don't just let them lie in their cocoons forever. We gently take the cocooners out of their cocoons and we place them, instead, in the cradle of loving-kindness, hoping that they will not be bothered by being disturbed.

Sometimes they are offended. They might cry and kick and even shoot a jet of diarrhea right in our face, but they are still somewhat feeble and sweet. In spite of their kicking and screaming, we place them in the cradle of loving-kindness. We take pride in such persons and regard them as would-be warriors, in spite of all their bad temper. We are not put off. Nevertheless, the first step, providing loving care and loving-kindness, takes lots of patience."

- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Smile at Fear

Black Snake

 

I startled a young black snake: he

flew over the grass and hid his face

 

under a leaf, the rest of him in plain sight.

Little brother, often I've done the same.

 

- Mary Oliver