Having a bad day? Every corner you turn is another rope designed to trip your efforts of moving forward? Been awhile since you felt the excitement of being on top of the world?
What gives? If we’re supposed to be the most spoiled generation…why then do so many walk around the office, through malls and on city created trails acting as if being a live is the worst decision anyone could make?
Human emotion is the art I study. Through the use of other people’s thoughts and pen scratches you quickly learn of the multitude of ups and downs that paint the way for your path to follow the bread crumb trails leading to and from a new day. A thought that forced me to stop came from Buddhist Monk and spiritualist Thick Nhat Hahn who writes, “It’s because of ignorance that we suffer.”
Cell phones, handheld computers, wall to wall flat screen televisions may give us sight but it’s insight that we’ve elected to let go. Without it the elements that make up our reality evolves into fear. When there is no compassion, there’s no acceptance. And how often have we stood in the bathroom mirror filled with an overflowing amount of dislike for the set of eyes staring back?
According to Mr. Hahn, insight should never be looked upon as being a superpower. With insight you’re gifted with liberation, a break through, a vision of a self you’ve thought of several times but never understood how to reach them not once but several times. The easiest way to achieve such a feeling is to put focus on non-self.
Dr. Yutang Lin admits that grasping onto such a journey is extremely difficult mainly because modern day circumstances are created and delivered by self centeredness. The act of becoming non-self is doing more for others than for your self, which according to the doctor doesn’t come too easy in our current society. And yet it looks at you everyday in the shape of the way we studying those on magazine pages who’ve gained world fame, personal desires connected to better jobs and houses, finding the perfect romance in your love life and making sure every weekend is locked down with something to do and it has to be entertaining.
Wikipedia calls non-self: The absence of separate self.
Instantly I’m reminded of a Bodhisattva, one who is motivated by compassion and seeks enlightenment for everyone; a path to an awakening. Pretty deep talk for a Friday until you realize that weekends can sometimes be the single most important step not in your life but a passerby affected by your efforts.
Heart walks, breast cancer awareness, Big Brother and Big Sister programs, volunteering at your child’s school, cleaning up a creek, street or neighborhood, reaching beyond your front yard to help Mrs. Katz who lost her husband less than a year ago and everything he once found love in serves as a heavy weight reminder and its taking everything in her mind body and soul to find a positive…
With insight you’re gifted with liberation. The easiest way to achieve such a feeling is to put focus on non-self.
Swiftly the tables turn again knowing there’s always that deep in the gut temptation that screams, “I do for others all the time and get nothing in return!” Ouch…not a cool game to play. When you expect you’re doing nothing more than setting yourself up, “It’s because of ignorance that we suffer.”
A great place to begin is at work…take self out of your job. Constantly we allow ourselves to be deeply embedded in the desire to collect every penny owed without ever realizing the number of lives that are touched minute by minute by the product or services generated by the energy of our imaginations and or ability to create. I know an artist that constantly reminds me that each featured piece is designed to lift someone’s day. The art is often given away not sold because seeing another become enlightened by your art is priceless.
I don’t know how many times I hear every walk of life pour sorrow onto the open fields of success waiting to be born becoming an open wound that either festers into disbelief in the self you are or creates an open space to which you set aside everyday, every year and one day at 90 you’ll look back and wonder why such a decision to be happy didn’t seem important at the time.
These are extremely trying times and with every passing moment the American dream takes one step farther away from becoming your reality. Banks aren’t going to bail you out. Fast food and ice cream lead to obesity. People Magazine costs more than high blood pressure medicine. CD’s are still eighteen bucks and forget about how much you’ve invested in Hollywood’s biggest and brightest big screen ideas.
The act of becoming non-self is doing more for others than for your self. Go back to work Monday morning feeling great about sharing what you’re given during the arrival of each guaranteed sunrise…life.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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