Monika's weekly inner voice drawings:
Q: What is today's wisdom?
Q + A: Are you ready to break out of the box?
"Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight."
- Orison Swett Marden
Posts
What drew me to Buddhist philosophy (which is a beautiful mix of phenomenology and psychology) is its crystal clear understanding, not only of suffering, but freedom from suffering. The historically mysterious aura in Eastern religions around nirvana (“blown out”), for example, the cessation of suffering, is no longer mysterious. It simply means freedom from all negative afflictive emotions. Herein lies your freedom. And though the actual process of this freedom from all negative emotions is quite complex—not to say, exceedingly difficult—once you understand it, it is still exceedingly difficult! :)
ReplyDeleteMonika’s new drawing is angry, that is, in a frustrating kind of way. Imagine being stuck in a box, restricted in such ways as to be able to see but not move. You literally cannot enact your vision, imagination, and dreams. You’re so angry out of frustration and fear that your hair is on fire! And what’s especially frustrating, in addition to being able to see what you can’t actualize, only one of your wings is outside the box. That means to me that there is some awareness. Now, to your left, on the corner of your box, there is a bird, kind of like the sparrows in `The Tale of Peter Rabbit,’ who fly down to “implore [Peter] to exert himself” when Peter gets trapped in a gooseberry net protecting Mr. McGreggor’s fruit. Unlike Peter, however, the main figure here is angry, even chiding the bird for not getting him out of the box. I would call this figure a “help-rejecting-complainer.” And so we have our main character, a box, a friendly helper, and an attitude! And here’s the rub and key to this visual narrative. The box, so solid, secure, and tight, is an illusion; that is, it exists but is not real. The box is mind. In fact, the box is this character’s negativity, his “refusal to be free.”
And this is where the therapeutic begins. The royal road of inner transformation, from the refusal to be free to the understanding of the refusal to be free, though the most beautiful journey of one’s lifetime(s), is the most difficult choice and task one could make in life. For it means change, letting go, giving up, sometimes giving in, and always giving—to oneself, to the other, to all beings without exception. The argument for freedom is always intellectually compelling and leak proof. And the desire to be free is quite exciting. But, the motivation to be free from one’s box is where the curtain of hope drops. Faith has not yet germinated. Relationship has not yet arrived to draw out the drive to live. Not that it’s not there; it is. But, the awakening out of sleep’s slumber is yet to occur. So close, so close, I am rolling out of sleep. I will awaken, I will awaken. The conversation will soon begin. It is called caring. Om mani padme hum
I love your interpretation of the drawing, the characters and their attitude. As you point out, the secure/tight box, that we feel stuck in but are more than reluctant too leave, is an illusion. That's why the box is not fully drawn, there is the empty space between the annoyed figure and the bird. The bird seems to know it all, which annoys the main figure even more. We all know on some level what keeps us back from soaring to our highest potential but boy how difficult to get out of our habits. I think we often try to hard or want a complete makeover and then we fail, how about just a little bit more of a good habit and a wee bit less of a bad habit and some humor with ourselves, and we feel the breeze of accomplishment :)
ReplyDeleteCheck out this great video by Khandro Rinpoche, "What Impedes happiness?"
http://www.videosurf.com/video/jetsun-khandro-rinpoche-on-what-impedes-happiness-1336476132