The Ugly Truth

Truth



In truth, Being is very simple; it's the only uncontrived, unplanned, unconditioned thing we do. And we do it without doing anything. We Are without Being anything. In Being we are all one and the same — both figuratively and literally. Being is the basis, the foundation, for our existence. It flows naturally, without preferences, without hopes, without regrets. As the sounds flowing from the oboe simply appear as long as the player provides the breath on which it rides, as long as breath flows through our lungs who we are appears and affects all those around us. Being is beauty in all its graces and all its purity. Being is everything. It is nothing. Yet it is all we "truly" are.


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In fact, though, life isn't that simple. Life and Being are two separate animals. Life has its ups and downs, its peaks and valleys, its beautiful clear days and its dark stormy nights, peace and violence, harmony and dissonance, love and hate.

We all know this, every last one of us, yet not all seem to understand that it is our choice whether we live in the valleys or on the peaks, whether we focus on the ups or the downs, whether we we live for the clear days and see the dark ones as only temporary, or expect it to be overcast and are amazed when the sun comes out.

It's our choice whether we bring harmony to the dissonance of our lives. It's our choice whether we live on the surface or find the silence, the still point, around which that surface swirls. It's our choice whether we focus on the beauty that Being is or the chaos that Living can be.

Don't get me wrong, Living and Being are not two separate issues. They are, but they aren't. As Dōgen pointed out, spring and the beauty of the cherry blossoms are separate, yet without one you couldn't have the other. Does spring herald the coming blossoms or do the blossoms herald the fact that spring has come? Neither. And both. The beauty of the blossoms is spring and spring is the beauty of the blossoms.

Life implies Being. Being implies Life. Even though frightened out of our gourds as the roller coaster plunges down and around another curve we have the ability to hold our hands high in the air and shout in exhilaration — fully alive; not as the conditioned person you have become but as the Being that you are.

Treat life the same. Accept the twists and turns. Accepts the climbs and the plunges. Accept the thrill and the devastation. Search until you see the common denominator in that silent, still point found between your thoughts. There is always beauty to be found amongst the chaos.