Tag: Mark Nepo

• Not the Truth

  The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo, February 11th – Simplicity

  "So, what does it mean to be simple?  In a world that is complicated, we are often misled to believe that being simple is being stupid, when in truth, it holds the reward for living directly, which is that things appear, at last as they really are."

  "How many times have I seen the gestures of a loved one or colleague and then struggle privately to uncover what it all really meant?  How many times have I done everything possible but ask directly?  How often do I refuse to be direct; not saying what I mean, not showing what I feel, not letting the life around me really touch me?"

  "Amazingly, nothing else in nature is indirect.  The leopard trying to scale the mountain strains and shows its effort. The frightened squirrel in the tree hovers and trembles, showing its fright. The wave mounting toward shore saves nothing as it bows and spreads itself over and over against a shore that openly crumbles to be so loved. Only humans say one thing and mean another. Only we go one way and wish we were somewhere else."

  "Like so many other tasks that await us, the reward is hardly what we imagine.  It seems that Lao-tzu reveals to us a secret tool of living, kept secret by our unwillingness to accept its truth.  This ancient sage tells us quite openly that the act of simplicity – of living directly – is the doorway to the Source of all Being."

  "Imagine if this is true.  I implore you, when feeling lost or far away, try it – try being direct and the Universe without a word will come alive."  Mark

  Facing things directly will feel strange when you are used to hiding behind a self protective screen of being indirect.  The indirect screen is only there to keep your life at a distance and unclear.

  It is terribly frightening to lose the screen, while extremely exhilarating and wild.  You then are in life, with life as it is happening in the truth of what is.

  Indirectly approaching life will keep steering you off of your target. Y

  I know I lived for 46 years indirectly, by never seeing that which was there, and never saying that which I needed to say; had me living a life that was nowhere close to the one that reflected my feelings inside.

  If you live indirectly with your self, you will live a life that is not you, but steered away from who you really are.  Your life will indeed reflect that which you say, do and feel.  The distance between yourself and your truth, is measured by how direct you are.

  And the volume of how much you have to lose by being direct, is showing you how much of your life is indirect…or not the truth.

  February 11, 2012

  Mark Nepo, self, simply, truth

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• The Gift is in the Present.

  I am in a book club reading Mark Nepo's book, "The Book of Awakening".  It is written so that we read one reading per day.

  Today's reading I love.

  "So often we anticipate a reward for the uncovering of truth.  For effort, we expect money and recognition.  For sacrifice and kindness we secretly expect acceptance and love. For honesty, we expect justice.  Yet as we all know, the life of experience unfolds with a logic all its own.  And very often, effort is seen, and kindness is embraced, and the risk of truth is held as the foundation of how humans relate. However, the reward for breathing in not applause but air, and the reward for climbing is not a promotion but new sight, and the reward for kindness is not being seen as kind, but the electricity of giving that keeps us alive."

  "It seems the closer we get to the core of all being, the more synonymous the effort and its reward.  Who could have guessed?  The reward for uncovering the truth is the experience of honest being.  The reward for understanding is the peace of knowing.  The reward for loving is being the carrier of love.  It all becomes elusively simple.  The river's sole purpose is to carry water, and as the force of the water deepens and widens the riverbed, the river fulfills its purpose more.  Likewise, the riverbed of the heart is worn open over time to carry what is living."

  "All this tells us that no amount of thinking can eliminate the wonder and pain of living.  No wall or avoidance or denial- no cause or excuse- can keep the rawness of life from running through us.  While this may at times seem devastating, it is actually reassuring, because while the impermanence of life, if fixed on, can be terrifying, leaving us preoccupied with death, the very same impermanence, if allowed its infinite frame, can soothe us with the understanding that eve the deepest pain will pass."  Mark Nepo

  What I love so much about this is that I used to live solely in the reward system…and yet the rewards were often times not forthcoming.  I thought that I was giving wrongly, so I gave more and tried harder.  

  What I failed to realize is that the universal system had a logic all of its own…simply called experience.

  I was so focused on my just reward and waited and fretted and worried and hated and judged and stressed, that I long forgot the feeling of the experience.

  I lived, thought and acted all for a future reward.

  I literally gave for love and acceptance.  And when I stopped giving, the love and acceptance dried up.  It was an awful way to be loved…for it all depended upon me giving and they didn't have to give, all they had to do was give me love and acceptance. 

  I have said I was a whore for love and peace…and this is what it literally means.  I gave to get.

  When the justice system failed me and all the girls who were sexually abused by my father, it seemed that the universal logic was broke. 

  Yet our honesty worked supremely well. We got to experience how honesty and integrity feels.  

  If we put our focus on the 'just' reward, we would be sorely disappointed.  If you put your focus on the feelings and experiences of being honest with your past, it feels amazing.

  I can't even begin to explain the difference between living in the system of rewards compared to living in experience.

  To have zero expectations…

  When you remove the reward, all you are left with is the experience.

  And the experience is solely the focus.

  As Eckhart Tolle says, there are only three ways to experience life…Enthusiasm, Enjoyment and Acceptance….He says nothing about reward.

  I love that there are no rewards in living…that the gift is in the present!

  January 14, 2012

  awakening, book, choices, experience, life, Mark Nepo, of, rewards, The

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• A Lady with Borders

  I listened to Dr. Laura Berman speak about “Borderline Personality Disorder”. It sounded so similar to where I came from, where the lines between what is your life and what is my life are blended, and how you can flip between like and hate in relationships, blaming the other for your actions. She was speaking to a woman whose husband had this and the husband blamed the wife for his cheating.

  Dr. Laura’s advice to the woman was that even if you are the only one that is sane and all are calling you insane, you are still sane. That for her to grab a hold of reality and not let go for it seems we can get sucked into their twisted reality and get very confused. And usually these types of individuals are married to or in a relationship with co-dependents who live to make you happy.

  I was glad to hear of this Borderline Personality Disorder, and I feel that it mirrors own life in how I used to blame my poor behavior as a mother on misbehaving children and how I also have lived on the other side of the coin, being a good daughter to make a good mother.

  This was an interesting view of my family and how they still are using each other to behave.

  I will get a good sister IF I be a good sister.
  I will get a good mother if I be a good daughter.

  This conjoined way of living is very weird to me now, and the insanity that ensues mind blowing, for they literally believe that they can control another’s behavior by their behavior.

  I am stunned to know that finding reality and separating bodies is what is needed, to stop bleeding into others lives or having their lives bleed into yours, that we need to find a way to stay completely in your own power.

  I also listened to Mark Nepo who wrote “The Book of Awakening,” and he spoke of a time when he lost his job and found out he had cancer, and at the moment when his life seemed to all fall apart at once, he found his soul, a part of him that remained untouched by the chaos.

  I get that.

  I felt that at the time my whole world fell apart that inside of me my soul awoke or I awoke to my soul. It was the only thing dysfunction hadn’t touched.

  I can’t be certain what my overall mental status was for 46 years or what conditions all in my family have, but this Borderline Personality Disorder seems to explain the sense of guilt I had when I wasn’t able to make them better, or the shame I felt for my father’s deeds, like we were all one big ameba.

  I woke up as a woman without borders!

  The past six years have been constructing fences, separating my flesh from theirs, my emotions and feelings being shanghaied by their lives, and learning how to be a lady with borders.

  

  March 1, 2011

  blaming, Borderline Personality Disorder, childhood, Dr. Laura Berman, dysfunction, family, father, Mark Nepo, mental, sexual abuse, shaming, The Book of Awakening

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