Daily Quote, March 17, 2009
Hi everyone,
Here is the quote, finally here from there!
To understand the actual requires awareness, a very alert.
The what is is what you are, not what you would like to be; it is not the ideal because the ideal is fictitious, but it is actually what you are doing, thinking, and feeling from moment to moment. What is is the actual, and to understand the actual requires awareness, a very alert, swift mind. But if we begin to condemn what is, if we begin to blame or resist it, then we shall not understand its movement. If I want to understand somebody, I cannot condemn him - I must observe, study him. I must love the very thing I am studying. If you want to understand a child, you must love and not condemn him. You must play with him, watch his movements, his idiosyncrasies, his ways of behavior; but if you merely condemn, resist, or blame him, there is no comprehension of the child. Similarly, to understand what is, one must observe what one thinks, feels, and does from moment to moment. That is the actual. Any other action, any ideal or ideological action is not the actual - it is merely a wish, a fictitious desire to be something other than what is. So, to understand what is requires a state of mind in which there is no identification or condemnation, which means a mind that is alert and yet passive....
Collected Works, Vol. V - 50
By chance I was having this related thought today as I was doing errands.
ReplyDelete"When you answer a question you are reacting to what is; the answer is actually resistance though it never seem's that way because it looks like we are trying to be so polite and helpful. In contrast, when you ask another question and take yourself deeper into what is you are actually responding, even though you might appear to be not very helpful or polite!"
Asking questions takes you deeper into what is and requires a very swift mind, not a reactive mind. A reactive minds seems to just answer, as if giving an answer is a defence of the self-image of the answerer? You have to really observe what is being said, and so have great awareness, if you want to ask questions, if you want to understand was is actual.
I was thinking about this in the context of teaching yoga to beginner students.