Trauma - a Realistic Perspective

     "A critical component of ... the [Buddha's] Noble Eightfold Path ... counseled that trauma, in any of its forms, is not a failure or a mistake. It is not something to be ashamed of, not a sign of weakness, and not a reflection of inner failure. It is simply a fact of life. 
     This attitude toward trauma is at the heart of the Buddha's teaching, although it is often overlooked in the rush to embrace the inner peace that his teachings also promised. But inner peace is actually predicated upon a realistic approach to the uncertainties and fears that pervade our lives."

       Mark Epstein. "The Trauma of Everyday Life." Penguin Press, NY, 2013.

 

Our World Churns

     Eric Reguly's article in yesterday's Globe & Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/stories-from-the-burgeoning-libyan-smuggling-industry/article24210483/ brings to mind how life continues to churn, like a blender, all of us, everything in this world. We're all interconnected. No matter where we happen to find ourselves at any point in time, it will all change, sooner or later, in this huge blender called life.
     Everything is in flux, flowing, changing, blending, coming apart, coming back together, flowing, flowing, flowing.

 

Can We Really Know Anyone - even Ourself?

     A senior meditation teacher once advised: "Only don't know."

     A definition of expert: "One who's incapable of learning."

     "The Renaissance is all about secret transformations. Human beings - we're not objects, we're not things. We are alive & changing every minute. Our very nature is change. Our very nature is transformation - which we forget, because we say "Oh that person is like that." And we forget they're like that today, but they could be like something else tomorrow, and maybe they were something else two weeks ago. 
     We keep actually putting labels on people and typing them. And in fact the one thing about human beings is that we're quicksilver, endlessly transforming and changeable." 

     Peter Sellars, American theatre director, interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel on CBC Radio:
     http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Ideas/ID/2442656684/

Corner Store, Rome, Italy