We’re living in interesting times. I heard that said yesterday, ruefully. A gentleman of deep thought had been discussing social media and the lack of connection between people. A retired teacher, he’d seen the writing on the chalkboard long ago. Our conversation was warm, authentic and…connecting.
In the reflective hours of later, his words and their implication opened, one thought expanding into another. There was a certain irony, sharing thoughts and moments of something real, we were connected. I’d said that to him, for as much as we are not (in our perception), there is so much more that we are. We’re connected, inextricably, inevitably, eternally to everyone and everything.
Considering the times though, authenticity is the revelation. The truth is being revealed everywhere you care to look. Many are focusing on limitation, what we are not and where that’s showing itself. Where we put our focus is also where we’re creative, literally creating our reality. It seems hard not to imagine times past like a warm bed, comforting. There is no comfort to be had from dwelling in the past though as it’s not real. That which lies ahead, where fear would take us if we let it, is similarly unreal.
Here in this moment, fully present to what’s on offer there is this - expansion. Each moment offers us the chance to transform, expand into new potential. We are the creators, connected to limitation or expansion as we wish. A strawberry is as sweet as we choose.
- S. Marian.
Buddha told a parable in a sutra:
A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
(Buddhist koan, belonging to all.)