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 live most of our lives surrounded by Dire Predictions, a snowstorm is on the way, huge winds, dangerous conditiions. And, then, before we know it, the snow has turned to light rain and the sun begins breaking through. Dire predictions come from all directions regarding most aspects of our lives. When we focus upon them, believe them, guard against them all day long, our lives are tangled in fear and pain. When we stay with things as they are, feel them, enjoy them, become engaged with what the moment brings, gratitude, happiness and also compassion bubbles up. Life brings us what is needed, one moment after the next, including natural insight which allows us to do what is needed, appropriate, and what is beneficial for all.
Good morning. Good morning. It's Brenda Ashen Shoshana back with another episode of Zen Wisdom for your everyday life. Big snowstorm predicted today. Warnings, warnings. We may lose electricity on and on. Big, big predictions, concerns, and yet the beauty of the snowflakes falling. When you forget the predictions, and actually it's already stopped. We live with predictions, warnings. Be careful, do this. Now I'm not saying we don't have to prepare. And we don't have to be aware. Aware, prepare. Be aware of what's coming to the extent that we can, but we don't know what's coming. We never do, we never can. And it's okay. It's good. There's no snow anymore right now as I'm looking out the window. When I sat down just a short while ago, maybe forty minutes ago, it was the winds were blowing. There were m all kinds of snowflakes and beautiful ones falling along and against the window. Mm. So interesting. I really get such deep comfort watching the changing conditions of life. And I would say most of the time, almost all of the time, they have nothing to do with what's being predicted, what's being warned of. You know, these warnings actually prevent us from enjoying the day. This day, this snowflake, the beauty that's all around us. We're focused on these awful calamities which are going to happen. All the grids will be down, the the this the Con Ed will be over, you know, be no more service, all kinds of warnings and dire predictions that do not come true. Very, very important. Are you living a life based on dire predictions or on the beauty of the moment and the snowflakes falling? You know, there's a wonderful, beautiful Zen poem, which I always loved, which said Beautiful snowflakes. No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place. How wonderful. No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place, and no person is in an inappropriate place. No moment occurs inappropriately. It's really just a huge unfolding, unfolding of life as it goes along, all by itself. We think we're in charge. We think we can dominate or re return the energy in a different direction. Reverse was the word I was going to use. Reverse or alter this great natural unfolding of life as it is. We think we can go to the ocean and say, oh, I don't like high tide, now you've got to become low tide. I don't like snow, I want the spring day. No, no, no, no, no. That's not the way it is. And if you live that way, thinking that you're in charge or thinking that these dire predictions are in charge, you'll lose the beauty and the preciousness and the fun of life as it rolls along. Now, some can say to me, How can you say it's fun? Where is the fun when we're seeing all these dreadful things happening? How can that be fun? No, I'm not saying that these dreadful things are fun, but I'm saying we choose what we're going to focus on. We can see all kinds of predictions coming true if that's what we're focusing on, but we don't see how they turn out. We don't see the bigger picture, and we don't see the cause and the and the beauty and the meaning and the growth that comes of whatever happens from whatever happens. Now that itself is in practice, from my perspective, period, to actually see and be and experience life as it unfolds by itself, not getting hooked into the dire predictions or the warnings or the endless, endless fear-mongering. There is endless fear mongering that goes on, especially these days. I mean, some of the claims are absolutely outrageous. But we take them to heart. They uh enter our being, they create stress, illness, paranoia, distortion, rage, fear, many, many, many, many, many negative outcomes of something that is not even true to start with, or doesn't have to be true. It's just a prediction, it's just an illusion. It's just something that people have dreamt up, but it's not grounded in the actual events, the actual unfolding of life. So I think that this beautiful snowfall today is a very good example. As I'm sitting here, you know, it's all be careful all days, all day long, huge accumulations, huge winds, blah, blah, blah, blah. No wind, just a flurry of wonder, a little wind here and there, nothing much, nothing frightening, nothing harmful, something beautiful. Energy flowing, beautiful snowflakes, and in a very short while all cleared up, nothing sticking. So you see, when you stay with the facts, that's what my teacher, my Zen teacher, always said, What are the facts? And believe it or not, for many, many years I didn't even know what the facts were. What does he mean by the word facts? That's how lost we can be in our mind, in our thoughts, in our dreams, in our and our expectations. What does it mean? What are the facts? The fact is what's actually happening right now, and whatever you discover in what's really just here right now. That's the fact. Just that, that's all. Being with that, and if you can do that moment after moment, just be with the facts. How does my feet my foot, my feet feel as I walk on the floor? I'm gonna get up now, go to the kitchen, have a cup of tea. How will the bottom of my feet feel as I walk? That's the fact for you of this moment. How will the tea feel as I drink it down? When we stay really grounded in those facts, it feels wonderful. Thank you for the tea. Oh, thank you. So delicious. We really, really taste it. Thank you. Outside, there's a siren passing. Just passes. We're not sitting here, oh my gosh, that siren, what does it mean? Who is hurt? Blah, blah, blah. Is this a sign of something happening? You know, we look for signs and symbols. Oh, that seems very grounded and rooted into human experience. What is this a sign of? What can I expect coming down the road? Well, don't expect anything. Stay grounded very deeply in what is the fact of right now. Now, if and when you can do that, and I'm not saying we can do it all the time, maybe some people can. I mean, it's a process and a practice. And it's a practice of great joy in life because this moment is usually when you can do that very, very fulfilling. To really drink a cup of tea, yum. Wow. It's the smell of it, the warmth of it, the taste of it. Feel it go down your throat. Just drink that tea. It's so it's so delicious. How many of us can really drink a cup of tea? There's another beautiful poem, haiku, which says, Drinking a cup of tea, I stopped the war. Very famous little haiku. Drinking a cup of tea, I stopped the war. Now that's beautiful, and what do they mean? What is that? In a way, that's the whole heart of our practice. Where is the war? How did I stop the war by drinking a cup of tea? Well, I stopped the war within myself. I stopped conflict, I stopped living by terror, fear, predictions. Is this right? Is this wrong? I just really, really was completely drinking the cup of tea, enjoying it, really tasting it, really relishing it, really receiving what was here now. Feeling a lot of gratitude for it usually, but that bubbles up even when you take a real step. Mmm. Feels so good. Wow. Gratitude bubbles up, bubbles up by itself, unfolds. That's the unfolding of life as it is. Gratitude bubbling up, compassion bubbling up, insight into the larger picture inevitably bubbling up by itself. Life unfolding apart from the dire predictions. The unfolding, the bubbling up of gratitude, of compassion, of understanding, bubbling up, I don't mean intellectual understanding, I mean really this same thing as when you drink a cup of tea, yum, the insight comes, oh, I got it, I've got it. Really getting it, that bubbles up by itself, too. And that stops the war, stops our hatred of others, of ourselves, stops the sense of everything is conflict, conflict. A war is based on conflict. Who's gonna win? Who's gonna lose? Who's gonna get hurt? Who isn't? Horrible way to live, horrible. Am I in danger? Am I endangering someone else? That's not part of drinking a cup of tea or taking a real step. Now this may seem silly in lieu of the vast predictions of this and that. But remember, these predictions are not the fact. They're not the moment. They're dreamt up in the mind that dreams up all kinds of dire predictions, catastrophic expectations, ways of harming, blaming. That's not staying with the fact, with life itself as it unfolds. And believe me, life itself as it unfolds has all the answers. It knows. It cannot be harmed. It cannot be overcome. No, no, no, no, no. I've heard some of these people who are filled with dire predictions saying, I am God. Oh, really? Really? That's part of it's part of the nonsense. It's part of the dire predictions trying to frighten everyone. And being completely lost in some kind of a dream. Believe it or not, these crazy dreams can be deleted and healed and seen for what they are when we drink a cup of tea. I'm really drink a cup of green tea. Really drink it. Really stay with the facts, stay with the reality. And I don't mean just intellectually stay with it. I mean live it. Focus on it. Become drenched in the moment, in the truth. Feel the truth of your foot on the floor and drinking the tea and doing what you're doing moment by moment, and you'll see that you are life and you cannot be destroyed. Cannot. No, it's not even possible. Excuse me. When we begin to see that, our fear deeply lessens. It unrolls and comes back, but it unrolls more quickly again and again and again, till it does not dominate our life. It cannot dominate our life. And the more and the these predictions and these imaginations have less and less power. And if they don't have that same effect on us, and when they don't, they lose their power because the only thing that empowers them is our reaction to them and our believing them and taking them in and living from that basis. That's what gives them some kind of energy. I can't say it gives them power, it doesn't. It gives, but there's some kind of energy, our energy that we're putting into it. Take that energy back, take it back. Stop the war within and without. Take the energy back. It's amazing the power of even a few people taking that energy away from the dire predictions and instead entering the realm of gratitude, compassion, and enjoyment for each m for each moment, each step. Tiknad Han has a lovely, lovely, lovely phrase. When you get up in the morning, or when even when you don't get up in the morning, whenever you like taking a step, taking a walk, which he does very slowly, and he says, I am home. I have returned to the here and the now. So beautiful. And that's from Tiknat Hun. And so as you take your steps slowly and really feeling each step, I am home. I have returned to the here and the now. And you're really focusing on that, feeling the beauty of the step, feeling the here and the now. And then these these sirens and these dire predictions, they're just background noise. And they don't really have much effect. When they become the foreground and you focus on them, like the thunderstorm that's supposed to be so terrible. And right now, the sky is white and clear. Look at that. I wouldn't be surprised if the sun broke through any moment. Well now it's a wonderful image of our life. The sun can and will break through any moment. Will we even see it? Look how white I'm looking at the sky in front of my eyes. Clear up. Let's let our life clear up like that. And it can and it will. We are life. And I hope all of you have a really, really beautiful day. Thank you for listening. The URL for this podcast is www.zenwisdomtoday.com. And my email is topspeaker at yahoo.com. If you would like to email me for any reason. And I love receiving your emails and I thank you for them. And I thank you very much for listening. Have a beautiful, beautiful day. Beautiful. Bye-bye.
