So many are saying Where is God when I need him? Especially today. Many feel deserted and alone. But it is only that we have been looking in the wrong direction, searching everywhere but at home. The surprising answer to the question tells us instead, that all we need is right here with us in our everyday life. In fact it is right at the kitchen table. It is only that we have been looking elsewhere, searching all around. These episodes offer specific ways in which we can encounter God, fulfillment, enlightenment right here in our daily lives, wherever we go.
We are always waiting for something to happen to make things right. There's usually something missing in what's going on right now. We want it to turnout differenly and won't stop until it does. There's a picture in our mind of how everything is supposed to go. Most of us refuse to feel satisfied until our picture is fulfilled. Then we'll feel as if we've won, worthwhile. But life has its own ideas about what must happen, and the conflict between our pictures and those that life presents ties us in a knot. It takes our joy away, fills us with trepidatioin and does not allow us to see the incredible beauty and wisdom in the way of life Once we stop battling and opposing life, we can pause and see what's really happening, discover our true role, and become able to move forward with unexpected happiness.
Good morning, good morning. It's Brenda Ashen Shoshana back with another episode of Zen Wisdom for your everyday life. Everyday life. Here we are again, another day, another moment in time. Another hope. Another longing for something. Each day brings with it its own hope. Longing, wanting, expectation, maybe. Maybe it will happen today. That's like a little refrain in the back of our mind. Maybe it will happen today. Well, what? What is it that we want to have happen today? Not yesterday. Well, it didn't happen yesterday, so maybe today. It seems for many of us it keeps us going, that little refrain. What will today bring? Will it finally happen? Will will I receive them the phone call, the job, the relationship, the love? Will the person I'm having trouble with suddenly change? Will they tell me they love me? Whoa. Maybe maybe I'll be able to drop these obsessions that have been plaguing me since forever. Maybe it'll be today. Now we don't necessarily think that consciously. But there it is. It is a refrain. As if what happened yesterday wasn't enough. It wasn't good enough. It didn't fill us up. It didn't meet the requirement. We might have had a beautiful day, but there's always something missing. A little something. We don't know quite what. Just a little something. Maybe what's missing or what's troubling is that that day will not come again. It's over. Even if it was a really beautiful day. Maybe we're troubled. Oh, the day is over. The moment has passed. And what's coming next? That's another one of the the refrains in the back of our mind. An uncertainty. Maybe an anxiety. Can I can I meet the moment that's about to come? Can I handle it? Or how is my partner or friend or boss or whatever going to behave today? These are the lingering, endlessly lingering wishes and questions and concerns that keep something from being complete and just right. You know it's very interesting when our concern for tomorrow or the next day or the next moment even subsides, or maybe it even vanishes, something else comes. We can jump thoroughly, totally into what's right here. We don't have to worry how what what are the what's the outcome, what are the consequences. You know, many, many years ago I worked in hospice or and with families actually who were dealing with terminal illness. That's a very, very fascinating and strange time of life. Actually, it's a very wondrous and beautiful time if if if if taken in the right way, if seen in the right way. But it is so that many times once there's the family member is already in a hospice, there's no more time left. That's how one perceives it. And so right now all has to be said or done, all those little moments. Can't wait anymore. This is it now. And believe it or not, I saw many, many healings, m many opportunities for people to come together in a way that they really never did, sharing their deepest feelings of love or maybe even of disappointment, whatever it was. I mean it didn't happen all the time, but it happened quite a few times. And it happened quite a few times that because the person wasn't longing for something to come in the future necessarily, they could really treasure and enjoy and value and see what this is here right now, what it is, be with it in a very different way. Now I'm not saying that that's what we need to do if we become so sick, of course not, or maybe even wait until what we think is the very last opportunity we have to be with someone. I don't mean that. I mean that this constant waiting for something else for another day, for another opportunity, maybe to prove ourselves finally. That is a very, very tricky business because we are actually losing the opportunity that we have every moment to really face the moment. Be here with our condition right now just as it is, and when we are willing to do that, not to resist it, not to object and oppose it, but to really, really experience it and say yes to it. Something very magical happens, even because what happens is that the beauty inherent in every moment will bub bubble up, bubble up, bubble up. Really? Even in even in a sick bed. Really? Beauty will bubble up. Where's it coming from? Well this it was always there. It's not coming from anything, but what was preventing it from bubbling up was our resistance to the moment, to the situation, the person, just as they are, wanting them to be some way else, something different, something better, including ourselves. Our resistance to ourselves being exactly as we are, fighting it, opposing it, rejecting it. It's that response that's preventing the beauty from bubbling up because we we don't want to see the beauty, we want to change it to suit our wishes, our need, our image, whatever it is, we want to change it. And you know, we do that in relationships all the time as well. Ugh. Look at she, because we might have a a reaction to what somebody did, it might we think it causes us pain. Somebody did something and as a result we experienced a lot of pain. Well, not necessarily as a result. Let's take that piece away. They did something and we experienced a lot of pain. It's our pain that is causing us pain. We could have reacted in many different ways to what they did. But we pin it all on that person. I hate them, they're awful, I gotta change them. They are the fault, they are causing me this pain. No, it's not true. The way you are perceiving them is causing you the pain. The way you are rejecting the experience, resisting it. Not and you know, when we stop resisting it and we stop rejecting our own reaction and are able to really see it, the pain goes away. And not only that, we see ourselves differently as well. We are not that pain, we are not that negative reaction. It's just a reaction we're having. If we attach to the reaction, linger with it, identify with it, oh yes, then we'll be suffering. But if we don't, if we see it, oh, it's a reaction. And see it, greet it, but you are not it. It's just a reaction. There are many other reactions that could and will come. Responses. So the really important point for today is not we don't have to wait for things to get better, for the external world to get better, for that gift that we're waiting for to arrive, the phone call. The apology maybe. Many of us are waiting for apologies. Well, if they apologize, then I'll love them. No, no, no, no, no. Just love them. No conditions. Just love them for your sake, for their sake. Stop waiting for something to intervene and make everything alright. That's a danger to do that because everything can be alright right now, right now, this moment. It's in our mind. We think that it has to come later or things have to happen before everything can be alright. The deepest teaching of Zen is that everything is always alright. Fine. I remember Son Rosha used to say that he would smile. All right, everything fine, everything perfect. He would laugh. He was very cheerful. He was charming. Still is. He's not a physically alive, but his cheerfulness, his charm, his delight, he took such delight in little things. Wow. That's still available to everyone. He wasn't waiting for something else. Now, now when we live in a very goal-oriented way, which the whole culture is extremely conditioned in that way, we've got to achieve our goals to prove ourselves that we're worth something. Ooh, wow. But who set up these goals? Who set up these conditions? Oh, I'm worth something if I achieve this, that, and the other thing? Really? Who made that up? Why aren't you worth something just now, right now? What's the difference? Why would certain actions make you worth something and other actions make you not worth something? That's really a profound part of waiting, waiting to be affirmed to be worthwhile. It's a long wait to be good enough. Oh my goodness, all the conditions that we place in front of ourselves and others and situations in order to declare them good, you're good enough. You'll go to heaven, you're good enough, you'll get the raise, you're good enough, you'll pass the test. And if you don't, so sadly, in our society, so many suicides. That's shocking when you think of it. It goes right against the course of life. But people feel I didn't make the grade, I don't deserve even to live, I'm not good enough. There's something fundamentally wrong with me. Many, many, many are suffering from that very unfortunate and lethal, actually. Delusion. It's a delusion. Fundamentally, there's everything right with you, everything powerful, beautiful, hopeful, life-giving. All we need to do is see through the tricks we're playing on ourselves, the illusions that we're buying into. Just see that, just see it, and they go away. How do we see it? How? Well, look. Open your eyes and look at yourself, at what you're thinking or what you're feeling. Just look at it, just know it. That's why we invent often sit just sit on the cushion quietly, not with a huge goal which will take us away from what we're seeing right now, but just be there fully present to right now. Right now. Without now, this is the crucial part. Without rejecting it, without resisting it, without hating it, without wanting to be something else, something better, something different. That's now those feelings will emerge. Just notice those as well. Notice it. Notice, notice, notice. The more you look at it, the more it begins to fade, has less and less power over you. So I really wish you a beautiful day, which the day is beautiful, and I wish that you can participate and acknowledge and say yes to that. To let go of wanting it to be anything different than it is right now. To really fully say yes to it. Thank you for this day, as it is. If you keep doing that, all the beauty of each day, the wonder, the gifts, the promises will bubble up for you. So I really thank you for listening very much. It's great to be talking to all of you, and thank you for your lovely, lovely emails. My email is topspeaker at yahoo.com, and my the URL for this is www.zenwisdomtoday.com, and thank you for being here. Take good care. Bye.
