Got a story? write in!

How is your own practice going? Feel like sharing your own experiences?

The site is open to any reader submissions, so I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Markeu

Struggling with awareness

I remember a year ago on my return to Japan, coming back from Europe to an country just starting to come to terms with an economy in recession. Getting on a train some days meant a precarious balance of coins in a pocket, at times coming home only to argue on the way with some train inspector because insufficient money was on my card and I was using too small coins for the automatic fare adjustment machine. My mind would travel through the day ahead, checking off money needed and that already accounted for, trying to prepare myself for unexpected costs that could derail my efforts at finding suitable work to pay the bills.

I remember worrying through most part of the day, and somehow making it, little by little, to the reality we call today. Day in, day out.

 

A year has passed…

Many learned that a Black Swan world event could be just as detrimental as good. I am sure the Buddha would have enjoyed that book, but perhaps for different reasons than we may have.

Not that these days are not filled with concerns, worries and fears, but I have a year behind me of successful struggle behind me that marks the possibility of survival. Friends and relatives rebalance themselves on the sea we call life. Jobs change, people move house, some move on, new friends and workers arrive.

Change….A year ago, Thanksgiving day in America was spent unknowingly celebrating the end of the “good times”. Black Friday 2008 woke many people up to the fact that disposable income has been disposed, and that many now had to back pedal and pay off excesses that were taken on, often in a sort of mindless bliss like state we call consumer society.

Recession. The tide had finally decided to turn back on itself.

Thanksgiving this year I am sure hosts a different and slimmed down menu for many… weakening some relationships, strengthening others in that big lottery we call life.

Winners or losers? It is all path.

What can we learn from all this? That paying attention to the world around us and remaining mindful of our habits and tendencies can protect us against our own stupidity. That true friends reveal themselves at crucial times as others thought of as friends disappear just as quickly into the ether of life. All in the nature of balance.All in the nature of cold, hard truth. Simple, clear reality, neither good, nor bad. But constantly changing. Within this, we swim.

Black Swans still swim around us…….

 

 

 

*pictures taken at Takao San in Tokyo in November, 2009.

**Black Swan- a book written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Seeking perfection and the natural beauty of being flawed

How many of us can recount a time either recently or in the past where we were trying to be perfect at something?

Was it to impress a new friend, or the boss, or just the mastery of some skill that we wished we were better at. Whatever the reason or cause, we struggled with the task at hand and achieved, for better or worse, our goal.

This skill, this perfection however, is constantly changing. The game changes, or the situation changes, we get older, and new parameters are set around us. Struggle sometimes sets in to maintain something that naturally has its own path of course.

We are left with, then, a dilemma. Do we stop trying? Is effort ultimately worthless?

This reality could also apply to a relationship, which constantly changes and grows, bringing some people closer together, others gradually more and more apart.

How we react and what we do in these situations is all part of the human struggle.Often we struggle against change, resist it, fight it, hate it, until in the end it ultimately overwhelms us with its own reality, that of the now.

Whether we choose to see it or not, everything around us is constantly changing. Forest for tree, tree for forest. Each stage of this change is genuine- and in its natural, clear transition, it is teaching us something, whether we choose to see that reality or not.

All phases, the gaining and losing, as a whole, are a part of the legitimacy of life. The legitimacy of our existence being reflected in the passing of time.

The key to all of this is awareness and appreciation. That within the change, gained and lost, is a chance to live.

Maybe more important still, is that the criteria with which we live our lives can deepen over time to allow more subtle appreciations to occur. To see the perfection within the imperfection. The mud on a flower on some mountain glade.

That mud is the stuff of life.Without it, our existence is sterile, puerile, and missing a depth which can liberate us from the childish sufferings of our often superficial modern lifestyles.

Live your life, and as much as possible, maintain your awareness and humbleness within it.

The whole journey, from first baby’s cry, to last eventual sigh, is the palette upon which our lives are made. You are the artist. What you choose to do is your canvas.

Life? The end result does not judge us- only we judge ourselves.

Peace

M

Nature as healer

I often get off one train stop early and walk about 5-6 km to work in the mornings.Its a way for me to slow down myself and touch base with the natural elements that are always around me, yet often forgotten.

For this is modern day, high speed Japan, where every little convenience is though of, and people try to insulate themselves from their surroundings as much as possible. Its an accepted norm; hunched over a portable game on the train, headphones never removed from ears, a movie or tv show watched studiously, ears held shut to catch a few extra moments of sleep before the high speed day whisks them away.

As I walk across the Tamagawa bridge, gray clouds above whip up a strong wind which sweeps over the water and around me. The people I pass are in various stages of resistance, facially tensed, or bracing their bodies against the invasion that nature has once again successfully launched against them. I smile to myself, because if is for that very reason that I choose to walk and brave what may be rain, what could be wind, what could be a steadily increasing biting cold as winter rapidly approaches.

As a young man, I often struggled with emotions. Waves of them, that often inundated me to the extent that their lingering effect could last for weeks and months.When that happened, I would walk myself out into the streets, but more often than not to the beach to let the sounds and smells of the sea comfort me, and let me lose myself in its infinite depths and receptive nature.

When I lived in the mountains of Colorado, a bike ride or a short car trip or motorcycle ride would take me out into nature where I could be alone in the woods or near some mountain stream, only to be overwhelmed by the presence of nature. Thougts, emotions could then be recognized, and then shed/let go.

In Tokyo Japan, I have to hunt for nature. It wont come and find me, I have to make efforts to place myself in its path, or I could go a life of plastics and concretes, which would be such a shame.

Place yourself in nature’s path sometime soon.

Cheers,
M