the game of enlightenment

enlightenment
has a fine reputation
as something kind of cool

and maybe it is

maybe not

light is good

shedding light on the real
is good

shedding our suffering seems
a worthy way to be

shedding our grasping to be better
than others
or to be right
or to not have to shift to see the next thing that
is coming along

shedding
letting go
taking it easy

waking up to the moment

all that seems like a good thing

and is it?

Who knows?

and the who that knows or not knows
is .....?

what if our experience is
a nice indicator of our life
right now

and what else could it be

experiencing this moment
can have all sorts of concepts about
how cool that that is

but just the moment
the experiencing
the whatever us/ not us experiencing the
flow

that works as a life
that is lived
without moorings
but with lots of joy
and juice

and is that true?

who knows?

try living this way
experiencing this way
juicing into all this
chunk by chunk
breath by breath
laugh by laugh

nowwhere to go
no where is better
and now
waits
and is already here

and it's over

good

Being in Action: Chapter 14 from the Book: Happy vs Unhappy

Happiness and unhappiness.

This book is about moving toward and living in a state of “Almost Enlightenment” we could call the Tao of Now. Living there for our own bliss, yes, and also to increase our effectiveness in being useful to ourselves, others and the Earth.

Enlightenment plus acting in the world. Acting in the world to increase enlightenment. Being in our being to improve our action.

When we discover ourselves, present moment by present moment, we get our lives and our freedom back. Writing can help us focus our self-witnessing. So let’s start this game today: writing about times we are happy vs. times we are unhappy.

Especially useful is to begin to find times we are unhappy that we “blame” on other people. “If so and so would just respect/ like/ listen to/ love me more/ be nice to me more, THEN I could be happy.”

Writing down is slowing down and can really help wake us up to how we give away to others the power to make us unhappy.

Much “aha” can come from noticing when we fall into the “sleep” of “carping” about others, of “blaming” them for our unhappiness.

This can be a beginning to enlightenment: seeing how often we fall for the sad old, same old story – “If only so and so would shape up, then I could be happy.” (Which means: as long as so and so stays the same/ unshaped up, I have an excuse to be unhappy).

(Which means “so and so” is in charge of my happiness/ unhappiness, a weak place for action; a failed spot for enlightenment)

Noticing this giving away of power can be bracing or amusing or dreadful or a relief. Whatever it is, our waking is on the way.

For, whose job is our happiness?

Whose life is it, eh?

Which moment is not a grand one in which to wake up?


Write two lists. Times you are happy. And times you aren’t, with special emphasis on sentences, short sentences, like: “When so and so does such and such, I feel unhappy.”

Try to have a rough balance between happy and unhappy sentences.


Don’t use this as an excuse to feel bad. Instead “get into” the difference between when we feel “unhappy” and when we feel “happy.”

Notice the big differences, and then more and more differentiation: inner voice tone, breathing, sensation patterns, where we put attention (unhappy usually doesn’t
leave room to look out at, or listen out to, the world), how we structure our posture, and so on.

REAL INTELLIGENCE IS NOTICING DIFFERENCES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Experience deeply your emotional power, your ability to set up your own happiness and unhappiness.

Keep connecting to the results of where you put your attention: this is me happy, this is me unhappy.

Real intelligence is increased skill in noticing differences. Increase your intelligence.

Enlightenment is to be present with whatever is. Increase your enlightenment.

Good.

See Links at top of the page for buying the book.
Four prices, same book: $13, $27, $54, $108
108 meditations/ games/ learnings.
What is the value to you?
What is your value to yourself.

Good

Extra for Tuesday, chapter 76 from the book

Chapter 75 was thinking about the difference between

what is Reality, and what I want from Reality,
and can there be healthy, non-grasping "wanting."

Here's chapter 76:

Who am I?

If we aren’t the wanting, wanting, “having to have it” thing, if we “do” but aren’t that activity that seems obsessed with filling and getting, who are we?

If we aren’t some image that wants to be filled and fortified and propped up, who are we?

Without our story, who are we?

If we go very quiet, quieter than any words to explain or say it, and get some experience of “ourselves,” what is it that we are experiencing?

Who are we?


A good fine immense question: Who am I?

And can the answer ever be in words?