The Elephant

From the Dhammapada:

"Patiently I shall bear harsh words as the elephant bears arrows on the battlefield.  People are often inconsiderate.
Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts.  Pull yourself out of bad ways as an elephant raises itself out of the mud."

Be patient. Be persistent.

What Am I Afraid To Lose?

Spent today in NYC at the Buddhist Zendo.  One of our topics for study today was anticipatory grief.  It's how we rehearse or prepare ourselves for an event: the death of someone or a loved one who is very ill, possibly our own death.  One of the exercises was to write a poem in 15 minutes and then read it out loud.  The topic of the poem was: What Am I Afraid To Lose?  Here's mine:

Sitting here safe, warm and full with beautiful people.
What am I afraid to lose?
Projecting thoughts of gloom and doom.
What am I afraid to lose?
Looking back at things long gone.
What am I afraid to lose?
A functioning body and dreams unfulfilled,
Memories and cognitive skills.
To know you are there with no words spoken,
Lying here, promises unbroken.
What am I afraid to lose?
To share my thoughts, to pick and choose.
To be in the kitchen, not the dying room.
What am I afraid to lose?

What's Behind the Curtain?

If you have the opportunity to be angry it can provide a lesson.  If you can detach from your anger for a moment (let it keep swelling on it's own...it will stay without much prompting) try to discover what is underneath or behind the anger.  Ask yourself why you are angry.  "Well, that guy cut me off!  Doesn't he know how to drive?  How rude!"  Is that really it?  Were you truly in danger or did you just feel offended that he did not show you proper respect by encroaching on "your" space.  Did he violate one of your pet peeves, was it an act of aggression or simply an unaware person in a hurry?  We may not know without interviewing them but what we do have is our response.  Why did I get angry?  How long should I stay angry?  How angry should I get?  "Let's see...we were driving at 40 mph...he passed me in a no passing zone...cut back in within about a car length...ummm...okay, I'll be moderately mad for about 10 minutes."  I don't think that we are that analytical about our reactions most of the time.  We let it continue as long as we can derive something from it: justification, superiority or just enjoying our rage at the stupidity of mankind.  It doesn't mean that his driving was appropriate or that you should not have emotions...I'm suggesting that we take all of these things (fun and not-so-fun) and explore what lessons are behind the curtains of our experience.