This too shall pass

“Just be ordinary and nothing special. Relieve your bowels, pass water, put on your clothes, and eat your food. When you tired, go and lie down. Ignorant people may laugh at me, but the wise will understand” – Lin-chi

NOTES: The world can seem so problematic when we think too much but in reality “It is what it is”. We spend too much time thinking about things, thinking that there is a reason for things or that there is a deeper meaning. There is no deep meaning, there is no meaning at all, it just is. The Sky is blue and the grass is green. We need to breathe in air, drink water, eat food and stay warm to survive, that is it. “No-mind” – the paradox is for there to be no mind we have to have mind to understand no mind but in learning there is no mind we are really in mind and not no-mind and therefore detract from no-mind or what I also refer to as the absences of thought, a popular theme for me.

There is a tendency to over think things and or over think what someone else may be thinking or feeling and if we have a hard enough time controlling our own thoughts how are we to even consider the thoughts of others. Thoughts are like clouds, when we try to grasp at them they just slip through our grasp and trying to grasp at them is futile, oh, of course, there are those scholars out there that will tell you can fashion a reservoir of some type to trap the gasses in a cloud but, that is not the point here. Clouds do not effect out life most of the time, sure they may block out our sun every now and then but eventually they will pass and the sunshine through again. They may even come as a storm or even worse tornados or hurricanes but in the end they pass and with that passing they bring growth. We walk along our paths in life paying little attention to the clouds but they have so much to teach us. The clouds are so much a representation of our own thoughts that we need to treat our own thoughts just like we do the clouds. Watch them as they pass, maybe even laugh at the funny shapes they make and if they bring a storm just remind yourself that “This to shall pass”. Trying to control our thoughts is like trying to control the clouds, rather than control we should just observe and let them move on. For those that try to control there own thoughts will be like a dog chasing it’s tail (a short tail, for my scholarly friends looking for debate), around and around the dog goes until it is to tired to give chase anymore, never catching the tail and never achieving it’s goal.

Nature has so many lessons to teach us we are just too unaware to see the lessons. I often walk slowly when caught in a rainstorm, I even pretend that it is a bright sunny summer day, while walking in the rain. I do this to teach myself a lesson and lesson is it just doesn’t matter whether it is raining or sunny, the day is the same. No matter whether I move fast or slow I am going to get the same soaking. If we were to look at things in absolutes or black and white, it would boil down to; it is or it is not. I am alive or I am dead and everything in between is just a cloud passing over head. The basic needs of survival are shelter, water, fire (Warmth) and food, and outside from these basic needs, everything else is a distraction or waste of energy. In nature we learn “The conservation of energy”; if a deer was to expend too much energy in the winter it would mean certain death because a deer needs that energy to maintain warmth and bodily functions. Anger, hate, frustration, stress and many other “Passing Clouds” in our lives are energy wastes and nature teaches us not to conserve energy for our survival. Well, I am now starting to wonder in my mind and this is a good time to end this post.

Remember the passing clouds and how they relate to our own thoughts. Just let them pass by, even if it does blot out the sun. “This too shall pass”
Peace
GhostDog