Speaking to parents who visit Shibumi, I find that in communication with their children, most are either dogmatic and insecure about what they believe in, or in an attempt to be open-minded, shy away from expressing anything that resembles absolute truth.
Truth can never be absolute -- it is not a statement, it is not the words used to express it. But truth is not personal either -- there no 'my truth' or 'your truth'.
Lacking clarity ourselves, we do not give our children the sense that there IS something beyond the multitude of views and positions which they will someday find themselves floundering in.
It is also assumed that at some point everyone finds their own set of views and opinions to navigate the world with. Then one flounders no more.
It is possible, however, to have nothing to hold on to, no opinion, view or belief, but to stand firm in this whirlpool, to navigate the world with the strength of clarity. And that strength is not rigid: it is pliable, tender, free.
When one is even somewhat in contact with the living, moving truth, there is a clarity that comes into being. In the light of that clarity, the false is very simply exposed. There need be no judgment, no putting-down, no ego involved. No 'other-ing', no superiority whatsoever! Do we find it possible to see something false, and not to accept it, but to deny it with complete compassion, with complete vulnerability?
It is so clear that when I am judgmental, it is merely a form of self-protection. Separating myself, subtly putting myself above another, finding ways to be invulnerable, to escape anticipated pain. Without a reaction and a shift to the opposite, which is complete acceptance and subjectivity, can one see what happens when one denies all judgment but continues to see the false as false?
No comments:
Post a Comment