Feeling Hotei
I‘m spending a lot of time with my thoughts these days.
I know I keep mysteriously alluding to all this stuff in my life, and it’s not my intent to be opaque; I honestly haven’t figured out how to blog about some things, some things are too raw, some things are too private. But when that’s all that’s going on with your life, your posts dry up, then all your readers send you worried messages. I love you all, guys, thanks for the concern.
I spent this afternoon printing out images for a collage which is to be the focus for a creative visualization (CV) exercise. I’m a huge believer in CV; I’ve visualized myself into stuff before, both good and bad, and hey, if you watch "What the Bleep Do We Know?", you’ll realize that we all are performing CV all the time, just with varying levels of success and satisfaction in the days that we create. So anyway, we make these collages, to help keep us focused on what we want, on the images that are most powerful towards a most beneficial outcome for everyone involved.
This particular CV is about getting our house sold. The town we live in has been rough on me, and the last four years, frankly, have sucked a whole lot. Despite doing my darnest to bloom where I’m planted, this place has bested me two falls out of three, and left me bitter, disillusioned, and disheartened. I knew what I was getting into, so it’s not like there was a great fall or anything… it’s just been a really, really long four years.
So now, as you know if you read my other blog, we’re on the boat, living in the lovely San Francisco Bay. Already, I feel my energy returning, my spirits lifting, my heart returning to my body. And for some reason, I keep stumbling onto images of Hotei, or the Laughing Buddha. He makes me laugh, he makes me rethink, he makes me stop in my day and realize that yeah, despite my angst, I’ve got it good.
L, I’m so glad to see this post! I’ve been wondering about your silence too, but didn’t want to ask or cause you more angst by showing you mine…
I know you’ll let us know more as you can, and as appropriate, and I ask no more than that. Obviously, some of it is none of our business at all and we can handle that
Sending you all the hugs, prayers and positive vibes I can for everything you’re needing right now…
The best compliment I ever got was when a friend’s husband who is buddhist said I was a living Laughing Buddha….
sweet, you deserve the peace.
laureen — what?!? you’re on the boat already?
how very wonderful! i didn’t get that from your other blog so it’s great to hear.
-jessica in sf
http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/tonglen1.php
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, Emptiness is emptiness, and form is form.
“What do you like to do best in the world, Pooh?”
“Well, said Pooh, “What I like best-” and then he had to stop and think.
Because eating honey was a very good thing to do. There was a moment just before you begin to eat it, which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”
How can we cultivate our sense of interest to the point that it becomes a habit to be interested? When we are genuinely interested, we are not crowded in by thoughts of “what if,” “I hope that,” and “if only.”
Instead we are poised and open and receptive to what will arise. We are simply interested in life.
When we are genuinely interested, there is an openness in our being which allows space for answers and information to come to us.
Buoyancy is a metaphor easily associated with this process of creating spaciousness in our being. We want to remain afloat in a sea where difficulties might drag us down. If we are so heavily weighted with our desire for the situation to be better, we are closed to discovering options.
The spirit of openness, inquisitiveness, and interest creates a sense of buoyancy.
Take a moment to stop and think: What would that be like?