Monday, January 17, 2011

the warrior's way

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There comes a time for those seriously involved in spiritual endeavor when intensity and fervor rise up. No more religion-lite. This is serious. This is war. This is no-more-bullshit. This is to-the-death. No more holding back or maintaining a safety net. If not here, where? If not now, when? If not me, who?

I'm not saying the phenomenon has to  happen or that a person might count themselves as less of a student if they too do not feel as if their hair were on fire. But it does seem to happen naturally for those who vow to "break the lacquer bucket" and get beyond their own delusions and confusions and uncertainties and fears.

Perhaps, from a slick-analysis point of view, this intensity arises based on the degree of suffering anyone might be suffering from... great sorrow and great doubt kindling a great effort. I don't know -- maybe it's so. And I do know that various teachings and teachers encourage such intensity: Stop fucking around! Do it no matter what!

Yes, OK, for those who find themselves backed into a corner of their own making. Go for the gold and let nothing dissuade you. Don sword and breastplate and enter the fray.

Go for the gold, but don't be surprised if the old saying comes true in your life and "all that glitters is not gold." If you cannot avoid a time of intensity, don't try to avoid it. If you cannot embrace it, don't try to embrace it. And ...

Please don't listen to me.

Please.
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3 comments:

  1. can u please tell me why, when i see a female manifestation of Avalokitesvara Boddhisattva, I cannot bring myself to scold profanity at Her, but when I see a male manifestation of him, despite all the respect I have for him, if you just prick my toe, I will happily scold F*** U at Him?

    So, Adam, please don't listen to me.

    Please don't listen to me.

    But. Because I cannot bring myself do this, and because I still wish to protect the woman whom I love the most, also your age, hence, to you instead, the holy samurai: FUCK U.

    JUST DO IT, NIKE.

    THANK U.
    _/|\_

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  2. Genkaku,

    Thank you for these words... they are what I needed to read this morning.

    And thank you for your practice.

    Tom H.

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  3. I looked into the eyes of a mother of a dying girl, there was nothing I could say to change this. Tears fell to the earth. There were no smiles, no words.

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