Riding the Horse Backwards

Perhaps you can’t learn the “new” work, except through awareness—and then only for a moment. But notice how you forget it again, how you try, but fail to understand it, how you want to be wise and interpret, how you want to change and master the world. And finally, or rather, once again, when all else fails, realize that life itself teaches process

Everyone can choose what should stop in their own way. But certainly the vast majority of us need to “stop” our attachment to being who we think we are: sweet or nasty, ambitious or religious, cosmopolitan or materialistic! We need to be real in the sense of temporarily identifying with what we are doing and feeling at a given moment. And then we n

Why wait until we die to die?

We are especially attracted by the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, who says that “right understanding” comes from being in the stream, while previous “knowledge” acts like an “obstacle” to it. We must all be on the same Buddhist track, which stresses the importance of transcending our previous knowledge, even knowledge of ourselves.

Rather than place the emphasis on our present or future identities, dream images, fairy-tale figures, and problems, why not place it on our constantly changing eternal nature, which has its own innate foundations in awareness?

The old or new forms must include the Taoist wu wei, or “not doing,” to satisfy our need to relax and have a good time. But they must also include the Zen awakening, that is, living electrically alone with ourselves and with others on the streets.

Members of all organizations, countries, communities, you and I are forever imagining that others have the intelligence, insight and power to save us, to save our planet, to be neutral and fair. All groups have this tendency to want a powerful leader or savior, and thus repress their own innate powers.

What we learned at Esalen was that radical and innovative change may be possible in the shortest imaginable period of time.

If you are afraid of someone who is angry, then, once they’re in touch with it, ask them to stop moving and visualize it or hit a pillow or make angry sounds.