“Just do this,” the way of Confusion

"Just cease having opinions." Someone said wisely at the last internet meeting, in response to someone who struggles with relationships, as a way to "Clear her mind." It's this simplistic, but impossible to do advice, that keeps us wandering in circles. Opinions rise without any conscious manufacturing. They are heavily conditioned reactions that we have...

The Tale of a Story

Although there is no intellectual permanent self, there is an ongoing narrative that creates a thread. Well, yesterday's post created a lot of questions. Sigh, I have no answers, only what experience offers. What appears to be an "I" continues to apppear, fade without attention, and then reappear when attention returns. But that doesn't mean...

Self, No-self, or Self Concept

"I am, until I'm not, attention wanders onto other interests, until I appear again in attention, Oh, there I am again." - A Monks commentary on self. I love it when people start examining the self. Not in the sense of reading what someone else says about the subject and rambling on endlessly in opinion...

The Tao of Boundaries

"In a very real sense, there are no boundaries that delineate or define me. In reality we are all permeable from skin to streaming thoughts, and we are woven into life." - Unknown There are no boundaries in woven cloth. Everything interacts and is connected, there's nowhere to isolate and all threads are the whole...

Staying with Experience

"In any given situation, when present and in attention, the next thing to do rises without baggage or doubt." - Unknown In living life sometimes personal decisions need to be made. And we all will make a variety of decisions based on a lot of different things. Most of the time in the past I...

Moments of Fall

Sometimes, a perfect moment, comes and goes, in the span of time it takes for you and I to experience, an autumn leaf, falling in softly relentless spins, to brush and embrace the earth, a returning home. Every single moment contains something worth noticing, whether alone, or with someone you love. Bryan Wagner

Waiting Patiently

Lately I've noticed most of the time things answer themselves, resolve themselves, find direction, and supply meanings, without me having to do a thing besides wait, breath, and experience stillness as the entire universe evolves swiftly. Flowing along like a leaf in a stream, no resistance, no new drama, just enmeshed in the experience of...

The Genuine Genuine me

"Never allow another person to define you. Always listen carefully, they may have useful information about your blind spots, but that doesn't mean they know how and what you are inside." - Summer Spiders I had taken vows in the past that deal with the nature of conditioning and trained hard to be able to...

Caring isn’t Free

"Caring about others is easy until it starts to cost something." - Summer Spiders It's insanely easy to talk about caring, to "say nice things" about someone, complement or encourage, and all of it is free once I get past conditioned personalities self obsession. How nice. And it's good to offer people something positive. It...

Steel or Gold? The Conditioned Self

Physically, the two spoons were like any other spoons except for color. Outside of that, they appeared the same from a distance, but getting closer, it became clear that there was a difference, one was jewelry quality gold, the other steel. Which one to choose? That's the question about use, desire, and need. A steel...