GRIEF #1

Bumper sticker wisdom; shit happens !

Taoism - shit happened

Buddhism - if shit happens it isn't really shit

Hinduism - this shit has happened before

Islam - if shit happens it is the will of Allah

Catholicism - shit happens because you deserve it

Judaism - why does shit always happen to us?

We need to turn the shit into manure.

Throughout the ages ancient wisdom has acknowledged the importance and benefits of things negative.

"... In the sweat of your face will you eat bread, until you return to the ground;  out of it you were taken: for dust you are, and to dust you will return." Genesis 

From the time of creation and the Big Bang it has been implicit that there could be no Sacred without Profane, no Positive without Negative, no Light without Dark, no Good without Evil.

"Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment." Kierkegaard

However, the Ancestors teach that we are not made for brokenness and sorrow but for wholeness and joy. Happiness is a choice and it requires being proactive. We have to search for happiness in the dark times within hidden recesses as well as our spiritual resources.

Shed and shie away from what keeps the soul from joy.

If it was not for this play of light and dark life would be insipid - like spiritual diabetes. Everything is a test of our spiritual fortitude.

The truth of suffering,…of the cause of suffering,… of the end of suffering,…and the truth of the path that leads to its end. The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha

Buddhism has remedies for our suffering as do other spiritual traditions.

Pain, Grief, Sorrow ... are a vital a part of the human condition.

"The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears." Native American proverb

Its not what happens to us but what we do with it that counts. Everything is a karmic test.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you."  

"Its all about innocence, joy and sorrow."

Rashi

In other words, trying to maintain a childlike innocence and equanimity in the face of it all. The Dalai Lama seems to have mastered this as have other enlightened beings. For most of us it can be more difficult.

"The wound carries the medicine."  African proverb

Pain is in inevitable, suffering optional.

"Savor! Give yourselves to savoring, even the doubting, even the struggling. Savor it all. You are only to savor it to be worthy of it. It is the way of actualizing." Father Toomey

It's hard to savor the hardships we face but it can be a part of our inner work. Bodhisattvas consider hardship a test of their spiritual practice. Consider pain, grist for the mill. There can be no growth without conflict. We require tension for a measure of perfection.

The Phoenix can rise out of the ashes. Those who have emerged successfully from the bottom of a pit of sorrow will often be more spiritually powerful than those who have been fortunate enought not to have been there. We need to take our suffering and make something useful out of it.

“It must be a poor life that achieves freedom from fear.” Aldo Leopold

There are only two feelings; love and fear. Which one will dominate is a choice. Spiritual transformation is about how we manage fear in our lives. Fear has many faces and comes in a multitude of deceptive guises. How we handle fear can be karmically positive. Embracing love is more powerful but more difficult than submitting to fear.

"Fear not loving while you have a chance. Fear becoming bitter. Fear cynicism. Fear turning to stone. Fear being underwhelmed by everything.

Be fearful and bless others. Be fearful and be merciful. Be fearful and forgive. Be fearful and do. Be fearful and love." Pinkola Estes

Fear is part of the Hero/ine's journey. It requires courage. Courage is to act in the face of fear. If there is no fear, there can be no courage.

“You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path..."


 "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." Joseph Campbell

Striving for perfection can be a recipe for misery. There is always a sufficiency of excellence unto itself. True perfection is an impossible goal.

“… don't think this transformation is about having the perfect life or the perfect job or the perfect mate or the perfect marriage or the perfect friendship. This is not about perfection.; it is about wholeness. It is not about having things exactly as we want them, but about having things exactly as they are. When we allow things to be, a sense of harmony develops…”  Adyashanti 

The mind must mind what the mind minds best.

Which mind do we embrace? Monkey or Survival Mind, linked to the Sympathetic nervous system and our Flight, Fight, Freeze or Fain Death response - or Big Mind connected to our Higher Consciousness, creativity, the Field and a Parasympathetic relaxation response.

“Golden verses of Pythagoras speak of storms coming and going. The wise person like the good sailor, knows how to rid them. Unknown 

S/he who sees life as a process of spiritual perfection

 does not fear external events. Tolstoy

"Yield and overcome. Bend and be straight. Empty and be full. Wear out and be new. Have little and gain. Have much and be confused”  Lao Tsu