LET EACH DAY BE NEW

When the New Year comes, we all wish each other a Happy New Year, or a happy new day or happy new relationship. But how do we truly make the New Year new?

Most of the time we live in the past, comparing each event with another in our memory. We can live our lives this way as well. But it isn't difficult to allow our lives to be fresh and new eachmoment. There's actually nothing we need to do. It's already fresh and new each moment. It's just a matter of leaving the past in the past. Staying with what and who we are now.. allowing people and events to transform and enjoy the change that takes place, rather than fighting it.

The joy of a new day, a new breath and new moment is truy exhilirating. Allow it to wash over you and allow your life to become a wonderful adventure.

Transcript

Speaker 00 0:00

Hi, good morning. Hello, how are you? It's Dr. Brenda EshIn Shoshana back with another little talk on Zen wisdom for your everyday life and how it helps us to return to our root, to our original, authentic life. It's beautiful to be back talking with everyone again. And my talk for today is really on how do we make a New year New, or a new day new or anything new? For many people the holidays are coming, and we say happy new year. There are always different holidays, but what does it mean to make a New Year, New? We don't really focus on that so much. What do we do to make it new? Usually we're so much much in the grip of what has happened in the past and how we can make the holidays similar to the way it was before. The holidays often bring up memories, people and events that used to here and maybe they're not anymore. We are often dwelling upon how things used to be and wanting them to be that way again. There's a strong urge in the human being to want everything to stay the same. However, as we learn in Zen practice, every moment, every breath is new. We don't have to do anything to make it new. It is new. It is fresh. What we have to do is stop dwelling upon the past. We simply need to place our attention on what is really here. So much of our attention is co-opted by our thoughts, by comparing one day to the next, one person to the next. Really, our obsession is with preventing things from being new, fresh, different. We have a sense that dwelling in the past and in our thoughts and demand that things remain the same, will bring a sense of security. We'll know how to react then. We'll feel that nothing changes. Thats a great wish that human beings live with, because if nothing changes, if we know what to expect we can be prepared. We think that we will not then be confronted with something we can't handle.

Speaker 00 2:43

Some times we wake up and feel sad. We might feel a little depressed and then think, oh, this is going to be a hard day. Not so, it doesn't have to be a hard day. Maybe just a hard hour, a hard few moments. Why do we have to take that along with us all through the day. So it's actually a practice to let things become new. And if every day is new, every year is new, every interaction we have with another person is brand new and we make room and allow it to be so, where will the pain be? Where will the fighting be? It won't appear, because we're giving everything space to grow, to evolve. And actually, the change and growth happens naturally. It's inevitable. It's happening even though we're not allowing ourselves to see it, to connect with what's fresh and new in ourselves and in others.

Speaker 00 4:30

You know, I had to move away from the place I lived in recently. And the place I'm living in now is on a high floor, clearly, literally in the sky, in the clouds. There are no walls, just windows, big, big high ceilings and windows between me and the . But beyond the beauty of it, it's the very first time I've actually lived in the sky and spent time with the clouds, gotten to really see them, know them and enjoy them immensely, immensely. I never knew how much they changed. And it's amazing, actually. From one configuration to the next, to the next. And they're all very beautiful and they're all very different. So if I sit here missing the way the clouds just looked, I'm missing the beauty of the new configuration. And one pattern after another, they're each exquisite in their own way. Each different continuously, too. I've been here for several months now, and that's become my greatest teacher, watching the clouds. Sounds strange, but I really mean it. It's just breathtaking to see how naturally they form and reform and then change again.. And there is such a beauty in each moment of the transformation. Now, I really realize that that's true of human beings as well and of our lives and of the day. Constant reformation, transformation, whatever word you want to use.

Speaker 00 6:38

Why don't I sit up here and grieve for the passing cloud that passed by. Because it doesn't belong to me, I'm not controlling these clouds that come and go and change. I'm observing them., beholding them. I'm delighting in them, welcoming them. I'm not clinging to them. And without doing that I can see their beauty and not interject my personal demands that a certain cloud formation stay a certain way. In our families or relationships we have such a strong demand that it has to stay the same way or the way we like. And when it doesn't, we will actually kill in order that it meet our imagined needs and demands. So it's a very different way to live to stop all that that and allow each moment, each day, each person, each year to be really new. We then allow life live itself, understanding what our true role is. As we do so our own perceptions will become fresh and new. And we will not be in pain or conflict or grief or anger, wanting to harm a configuration we don't like. We'll just be marveling at the amazing harmony and beauty that already is going on.

Speaker 00 8:33

You may say it's one thing to do this with the clouds, but how about myself, my partner or my child? That could be scary, I won't know how to relate to my child if they're brand , different from me. Panic can set in. Am i going to lose them? Will we understand each other? Will we grow far apart? Actually, the opposite will happen. If you allow everyone to change and evolve, a grow and develop, you'll be much closer. That sounds like it's not possible, but it is. Not only is it possible, it's inevitable. Because what is it that really makes us close? Is it clinging to the way they used to be? Or is it honoring each one's journey, each transformation that they participate in? It may not be the same transformation that you participate in. But you honor it and you watch it. And you can enjoy it tremendously, too. You don't have to own the clouds. You don't have to possess them. The same with your children or partner. They're here, making their own exploration. They don't have to do their exploration the way you've done yours, and they won't, and they can't, because we all come with our our own journey before us. Every cloud doesn't go in the same way or do the same thing, and that's true with people, and with our hearts, and years. So when we say Happy New Year or have a beautiful new day or new weekend or whatever it is, or new relationship, That's really a teaching. And then it's simply about paying attention to what's really here. Really, really deep attention so that it's not about us. It's about what's here. Let's not make everything about us. We're just part of the show, and it's a beautiful show when you look at it through new eyes, and when you let each moment be new. I remember my teacher always used to say this step will not come again. That is the same as saying this day will not come again. Don't miss it. Don't linger in other days that are gone. Be here to see what is being brought now and how what is being brought now can uplift all the days that have gone by.