I forgot that I'd created this image to go with my BuddhaRocks Violates the Second Precept post, so here it is today. Waste not, want not, better late than never. Hmm what other trite-ism can I wedge in here to prop up my failing memory? And I actually am going to promise new art with the next post! Yes it's true despite my preoccupation with washing windows and raking up the windfall of at least 10,000 pine cones, I do have a little something new from the studio, but that's another day. On with the show as Bugs Bunny used to say.
It has been a strange week here. Was it the full moon? Ask any emergency room worker and they will tell you about the mayhem of the full moon. And it did feel a bit like a triage unit around here. Confusion over some art placement, a new friend with a cancer diagnosis, a large unexpected bill and a myriad of small sun spots.
It was interesting to watch how I could iron out the first glitch of the week, fold it up neatly and put it in a drawer, but as multiple glitches got tangled in the wringer the mass of unruly laundry seemed to overwhelm. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't quite hang it all out to dry. I couldn't quite wash the stories out of my mind. Okay, enough dirty laundry, already.
A felt sense of unease and unrest followed me around. I felt the restless discomfort of knowing that anything can happen at anytime, a fact we most often avoid or medicate away. Pumpkin muffin, anyone? Would you like coffee with that? When there is no trouble in paradise it feels okay to say, "anything can happen at anytime" but somehow as the waves of dukkha rolled in, I had this sense that I was drowning in them. I felt the need to look over my shoulder to see what was coming. I felt the truth that there was no high ground to run to. And so the week was filled with an edgy restlessness and a strange craving for some Dharmic understanding that would help me let go of it all.
And there was the lesson. I couldn't make it go away. As my friend the Zen monk used to say, "it's not on our timelines." My week was restless and edgy, that was it. And as I quietly washed windows today and took time to just look at the clumps of spring green grass, everything just was. The restlessness abated and everything was okay.
I will end with a quote on suffering from Phillip Moffitt entitled "Suffering is Noble":
ISS
Suffering has gained a bad reputation in Western society. We view it as a mistake, something shameful, or a sign of powerlessness and inadequacy. Many, maybe most, people have a conscious or unconscious bias against the idea that their suffering is noble. It is ironic that this attitude prevails when just the opposite is true: Your suffering presents an opportunity for the most relevant, sophisticated, inspiring, and useful inquiry you could conduct in your life. The Buddha called the Truth of Dukkha “noble” precisely because suffering requires that which is most magnificent in you to come forth.
from "Dancing with Life"
