Are you open to life?
In his book Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield explains that acceptance does not mean we cannot work to improve things. But just now, this is what is so. Zen Buddhists say, “If you understand, things are just as they are. And if you don’t understand, things are still just as they are.”
“Acceptance is not passivity,” stresses Kornfield. It is a courageous step in the process of transformation. Acceptance is a willing movement of the heart to include whatever is before it: “This too.” As individuals, we have to start with the reality of our suffering. As a society, we must begin with the reality of collective suffering. We can only transform the world as we learn to change ourselves.
But what does it actually mean to transform ourselves? How does one gauge progress along a spiritual or philosophical path?
Strangely, the art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging on the other. “It consists in being sensitive to each moment,” observed the writer Alan Watts, “in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
Consider taking a moment to reflect on your day briefly:
Have you been wholly open to life?
Were there moments where you resisted aspects outside of your control?
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