Working with uncertainty.

You will experience uncertainty on the path.  We can turn and hide from it, or learn to carry it into our practice.   

In the beginning, turn it into a question.  Use it as a marker for curiosity.  Try to resolve it.

In the middle, allow it to refine your practice.  Use it to find the edges and break them down.  Allow it to give rise to dissonance and resistance so you know where to focus your attention.   

In the end, no one has walked this path before.  You are forging an new trail, uncertainty lies just around the next bend.  Keep going. 

Jerry-rigged.

When was the last time you found yourself struggling with a problem?

Did you search out the right tool for the fix? Develop a new tool?

Have you have tried to solve a problem with a tool that wasn't designed for the job?

There is a certain art to jerry-rigging.  A proficient craftsman can make use of a wrong tool and produce beautiful results.  With proficiency comes agility and innovation.

But what if you are not proficient?

An emerging craftsman attempting to jerry-rig a solution often ends up with a mess.  Or at best a solution that quickly unravels.

We often go through our days and weeks jerry-rigging solutions to problems when there are perfectly qualified tools for the job.  Tools we can acquire, learn, and master. 

As an emerging craftsman in your practice, when we are trying to jerry-rig a solution we should recognize our frustration as a sign that we need to search out and acquire better tools.  If we are frustrated, struggling and irritated, then we need to step back and reassess.

Reassess here means to ask for help, open a book, or search out the right tool for the job. 

What does jerry-rigging feel like when it is done correctly?

Curiosity, examination and joyous perseverance. 

A tool for looking closely.

My daughter recently developed a fear of bugs. 

A few weeks ago a bug flew in her eye and now every bug she sees is an eye assailant.  Her response to fear is pretty typical for a toddler, she yells and cries. 

To help her overcome this bug phobia we bought her a toy bug vacuum.  Basically it is a gun that sucks up bugs into a tiny viewing chamber, where you can look at them closely and then release them outside. 

It works pretty well for what it was designed to do, to turn a fear into a curiosity.

The bug vacuum gives power back to the user.  It lets them regain control of their fear and work with the situation, rather than feeling powerless.  Any tool that does this is really valuable to the user, because it not only solves a short term problem (bug), but it also develops an ability to look closely and examine what they are actually afraid of from a safe vantage point.

That is also what makes meditation so valuable.  It is a tool that allows us to work with our thoughts, fears and emotions from a safe vantage point.  It is a tool that gives us power and allows us to regain our ground. 

Once you develop a stable meditation practice, you can start exploring the bugs in your life and you will probably be surprised at what you can dig up. 

Wandering.

We don't wander because we are lost.
We wander because we are searching.

For connection.
For meaning, love, something human.

We search for something we don't have, or don't recognize.  So we roam about, different groups, settings, countries.  We wander in search of connection.

The root of wandering lies in loneliness.  The root of loneliness, love. 

Hold on a moment.

You can also wander out of curiosity.

In search of truth, knowledge, certainty.

Uncertainty propels us forward, keeps us searching on the path.

So why do we wander in and out of various mental states throughout the day, is it because of curiosity or love?

 

Leading the next generation.

Encourage curiosity and questions.  Create a sense of wonder and awe.

Build connections.  Start dialogue.  Promote conversation.  Give them resources. 

Send them on their way in search of an answer. Ask them to share their findings.

Challenge them to go deeper, see connections, draw out implications.

Ask them to contribute.  What do they see?  What questions do they still have?

Keep going. 

Who's next?

Curiosity.

Curiosity is ravenous.  It devours anything it needs to keep digging deeper.

Curiosity is unstoppable.  Obstacles and problems only fuel the fire.

Curiosity is propelled.  Stillness can't even hold it back, it may even act as a catalyst. 

The curious student makes their way from studying to contemplating to creating and even testing their theory. 

Give someone a degree and they could have a job for life.  Make them curious, and they could have a passion.

UFOs

 

Show someone a UFO and they are captivated.  Their curiosity is ignited and they search for an answer to what it is.  What is that thing?

We are uncomfortable in mystery. 

But provide an explanation, resolve the mystery and identify the object as it is and that same very thing becomes uninteresting.  A rationale and logical identification removes all curiosity, why pay further attention to that which we already know?

UFOs are interesting because they are unidentified, yet day in and day out we seek to identify everything.  The question that might be worth pursuing is are our labels correct?  Do we correctly identify things, people and the world around us and then through that identity write them off as uninteresting.  

What if the people we encounter and the world around us broke out of the box we have put them in?  Would our relationships be more interesting if we were actually curious about the person sitting across from us?  Would our day be more fulfilling if we were free from our perception of what the day was going to be before it even started?

If we break out of identity, the world and the people we meet become a mystery.  We are once again borne of curiosity, begging to take a deeper look and keep exploring. 

Time to break out of the box. 


Photo courtesy www.ufosightingsdaily.com