Riding in a car the other day, I was told by the driver that sometimes the car’s radar system, which is supposed to alert the driver when the car is nearing an « obstacle, » malfunctions. It seems that it often sounds the alarm when there is in fact no « obstacle. »
That’s exactly like our minds, I thought, inventing obstacles that aren’t there, building fictive walls, boundaries, enemies, threats that shimmer like a mirage but that we take to be « real. »
And the biggest « obstacle » it creates is « me. »
Obstacle and mirage
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
each move we make is in essence a defense against death, isn’t it? – each in our own style.
power, narcism, absorbtion, …
not at least creating a me
being there in the moment – is in fact integrating death itself, isn’t it?
the unbareble lightness of being –
Once you made a quote of a famous french writer: i forgot his name
the image was:
in the mountains you hear the sound of a bird – that you don’t see.
when i read it – it touched me so deep ( i got chickenskin – don’t know how to say this in english) . For i knew it was that. Just that.
yes. –
The problem is not the different faces of "me" or the "borders," etc. What causes trouble for me and you is the obstacles that we make of all that.
thanks sensei –
I guess they are real – and radical – and there – for we create it ourself – over and over again…
but
at the same time – at a dual level – it is good to have a "me".
A "me" who has the right to be there.
a right to defend itself.
a me who can be a safe harbour – resting in center.
who has good boundaries instead of barriers.
We could easily loose ourself in some "absolute" style of defense too…
in fact harming ourselves
we can hide behind everything
it is so tricky…
this is why i think it is so important to work at both levels at the same time
and! to do fysical practice too.
a body doesn’t lie…