Photo: ‘Seed Ball Harmony’ by dewdrop157 – Pixabay
https://tinyurl.com/vqxy4yv
INQUIRY INTO THE POSITIVE
TSK students have an opportunity to expand not only their concepts and ideas about space, they also work with exercises that gradually expand their ‘experience’ of space. This conceptual AND experiential expansion can be deeply profound. The shift from ‘idea space’ to a more active participation of and with space has a FEEL, it can be experienced… something like the way a ‘mental’ bubble containing air might pop to then merge with surrounding space… so that ‘mental enclosures’ set up between inward and outward are seen as non-restricting or more open. Habitually unnoticed narrow focus on living can then expand exponentially. Rinpoche suggests a practice…
“Review the history of a present situation that is somehow unsatisfactory. What are the positive elements in this history? How do they influence the present? What forces counteract them? Once you are aware of both the positive and the negative, imagine that the specific sequences that comprise the history of this present moment could be ‘rewound’ in time, like a film… being taken up on a cassette. Let yourself experience this rewinding, and then imagine that the same elements play themselves forward again toward a new and more positive combination. Do not worry about where precisely this new unfolding will lead; be ready to leave the world as currently given behind. Let the manifestation be its own reward, observing it with appreciation.â€
“In this new unfolding, you are the partner of a newly available knowledge—an honored guest of the cosmos. As the familiar advances toward the positive, your own nature can become positive. Not guided by a fixed way of thinking or acting, you can cherish this present life as luminous. Let your positive attitude be a treasure that you can use to benefit yourself and your fellow creatures, effortlessly improving the whole.â€
….’Dynamics of Time and Space’, by Tarthang Tulku, p. 319-20
SPRING AIR 2020
By Ken McKeon
Elegant fluff of seed ball airy harmony,
Wind and sky,
Ground and growth,
That’s how spring arrives,
How it shows
Above the silent yards
Of this nervous town,
It’s a windblown careless wrap,
It’s as right as April,
Would that it were our way too,
A blowing of a fresh kiss out,
A taking of a sweet tongue in,
After all, it’s Spring,
Even though we’re under
A thoughtfully imposed
Necessary quarantine.
