Day Fifteen, Enlightenment as Forgiveness, part one

Day Fifteen

Enlightenment 

As the First Stage of Forgiveness

Take something that someone did “wrong” to you.

Choose two chairs.

This is the game, to go back and forth between these two chairs.

Here’s the game..

Enlightenment as Forgiveness Game #1:

Think of a minor “crime” someone has committed.

They’ve said something you don’t like.

They’ve supposedly insulted you.

They didn’t return a call.

Didn’t treat you with respect.

On, and on.

Not major.

Not breaking any laws.

Just the normal troubles of living around other humans with their busy lives, and selfish ways, and habits and ongoing sleep.

Oh, well.

They did something.

You decided to get tweaked by it.

The game requires two chairs.

Remember the meta-concept: Learning is the noticing of a difference that makes a difference.

This is about that.

It is not about “being good.”

So here goes.

Sit in the chair we’ll call SUFFERING

In this chair listen to the words in your head that justify your suffering.

They are almost over and over about how this person did such and such wrong. How it’s not fair, or mean, or selfish or something.

Anyway, sit in the chair and go over and over the words.

Now

Shift.

To a chair we’ll call: BEING PRESENT

In this chair, look at the world around you.

Notice your breathing. Your breathing in and your breathing out.

Notice your arms and your legs in the moment.

Notice gravity.

Have a smile on your face and place that smile about something you are seeing or hearing or sensing or breathing, in the moment.

Hang out in the present.

Have ZERO OF THE EARLIER WORDS IN YOUR HEAD

Just be present.

Like a dog, or tiger or river otter.

Being alive and aware in the world of now.

Feel what this is like.

This (learning is noticing differences) go back to the SUFFERING CHAIR.

Start up the words again.

Experience that world.

And shift. (Learning is about noticing differences that make a difference).

go the BEING PRESENT CHAIR

Hang out there.

One more time:

The SUFFERING CHAIR

and

the BEING PRESENT CHAIR

And then smile, stand and take a walk.

Notice your feet touching the ground as you walk. Notice when you mind wants to talk in a way that causes suffering. Notice when you are present and enjoying the world as it is just now.

There is not the “right” way to be.

And most of us would rather be happy.

And, the choice to suffer is always one of our options.

Hmmm.

Keep walking.

Keep aware of those feet and that sky and your breathing.

What’s that like, to be you, or this planet right now?

To be experiencing your experience in the moment, in all moments, as if everything is “meditation,” that’s one way to enjoy the possibility of “enlightenment.”

So, your choice: enjoy it if you want to.

Cheers

Chris