6/27 & 6/28/05

June 27, 2005

I’m glad Jack writes notes on our journal entries. Sometimes my entries don’t make much sense to me because I “think” I’m going in the wrong direction, but when I get my journals back with his comments, I feel like I am on track and where I need to be. I think because I feel confused in my journey, my brain thinks it needs validation for the things I have learned about myself over the years. It seems that my path is obscure in a way. I know where I’ve been and, looking back, it all makes sense. I no longer try as hard to see where my path is taking me, but the present seems lost because I am trying to not pay attention to it but live it. Because it seems lost, having Jack’s comments and talking to Bob helps me see that my path is what it is. There are no wrong turns or bad paths to take. Wherever I go is where I need to be at that time.

We tried Tai Chi at the beginning of class today. I’m going to practice what we learn each day. I think it will help with my arthritis. I’m even thinking about seeing when it is offered next semester and take it so I can learn more. [I checked online and found that it is not offered when I can take it due to work and my other classes].

Liz talked today in class about wanting to understand it all. I think that is the wrong way to look at it. I “think” you need to stop thinking about it because we think too much, too hard, too long, and too deeply. When it comes to Eastern thought, we need to read it and read about it; we’ll end up taking things in without realizing it. We need to just accept it – what we get and what we don’t get out of it. Someday we’ll look back and realize we understood more than we thought we did as we were going through life’s situations.

June 28, 2005
All these movie stars state they are now Buddhists. How can that be? Don’t real Buddhists think of themselves without any attachment to label? My in-laws are Buddhists; they wouldn’t be able to tell you that. They believe in Buddha; have the monks over to bless births, new homes, and marriages. But if you asked them what religion they were, they would tell you they don’t have one. They take life as it comes. Nothing excites or upsets them. They go with the flow and just enjoy where they are each minute. I think that is true Buddhism. If Buddhism has no labels, how can a self-proclaimed Buddhist truly be Buddhist? I don’t get it except for the fact that our Western brains have told us we need to have a religion, we have to put a label on how we live (our “beliefs” as it were).

In “Being There”, the main character was useless to everyone but useful to himself. He had no highs or lows, no expectations from life or anyone. To Chance (I’m sure his name is appropriate for something in the Eastern philosophy – maybe that nothing actually happens by chance), North was a relative term. He thought he slept better facing north and then found that he was actually facing west. He slept well in that position and that was all that mattered. He doesn’t think about anything. He is just living his life doing what he does. Chance has no preconceived notions about anything. He is happy wherever he is no matter what he is doing. He takes life as it comes. In this society, I think it is difficult to become completely useless as Chance is but that could just be my Western thinking getting in the way. It seems it would be difficult because a person needs to “do things in order to make a living” for survival. I think it would be hard to find people in this day and age that would take in someone like Chance and let them live their own lives without having expectations placed upon them.

I think Chance is an enlightened one. He talks about the “Garden” as the other sages use the analogies from their own experiences to make their points. He speaks in regards to what he knows – his life’s experiences. Each person sees in Chance what they need to see at that specific moment in their own lives. Chance, like the Chinese sages, do not find it as necessary to speak but more necessary to listen. I think that is why everyone thinks he understands what they are saying in whatever language is being spoken. He listens more than he speaks.