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These blogs are a way to share my thoughts and insights with you. Feel free to comment and share.

The gaping void ahead

22/3/2015

8 Comments

 
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HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (1908-2004) Srinagar, Kashmir, 1948
Relaxing beside the fire last weekend, watching even more snow fall, I wrestled with whether I should call or not call an acquaintance I suspected to be in a deep funk. I was worried about whether my call would be perceived badly.  While over-thinking the matter I picked up a magazine - Tricycle, The Buddhist Review, Summer 2013 - and read Dessert of Divination: The Fine Art of Making Fortune Cookies by Noa Jones.

I am no cookie chef, but I am very sensitive to the gut-wrenching process people put themselves through to arrive at the divine truth of what they should do next, so I loved this fine passage:

"Unlike gluttony or lust, the desire for prognostication may seem like an innocuous thing, but it can be just as insatiable and crazy-making as any other addiction. The suffering of not knowing what's next is especially acute when love is in the air or evaporating from the air, or when standing at a crossroads, pulled in two directions, a decision pressing, a gaping void ahead."

I imagined an image (like in the photograph above) of soul-searchers cloaked in robes, looking up to the heavens, some reaching up with their arms and begging for divine intervention — a sign —  about what to do next. I thought to myself when looking at the photograph, 'if only those outstretched arms and seeking eyes would signal to the gods that these despairing people mean business, and an answer must be produced.'

I remember my own youthful desperation and then endless search for answers to my many questions of, 'what should I do?'

At 21 or 22 I was deciding on whether I should stay in Montreal or move to Toronto. I tried beta versions of the problem solving techniques I discussed in my previous blog, Making decisions.  When no answers surfaced, I threatened myself with a form of punishment for someone hooked on movement:  'You are to sit with the feeling of not knowing what to do, and not move until the answer reveals itself to you.'

It was summer, so I moved a mattress onto the back porch of the apartment I shared with friends, lay down, and waited for the answer. I figured it should come in by dinnertime.

No such luck.

After a couple of days, I began to negotiate with the god of decisions:  'I don't need the ultimate truth, the absolute TRUTH, but please give me at least a small truth, a sign!'

A day later, I announced I was moving to Toronto, and did so.

A year later, I was back in Montreal.

A year after that, I was in France.

You get the picture. I was searching and seeking the true way, the next best thing, and asking the gods to deliver me wisdom.

Of course, it's impossible to have divine understanding of what comes next. You never know. Better to think out your next move as best you can, then act with all your heart. Even at the very best of times there always will be, as Noa Jones wrote,
"a gaping void ahead"

Be well,
Coach  Minda

8 Comments
Monica
24/3/2015 05:22:46 am

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Monica
24/3/2015 08:27:36 am

I found this blog both comforting and inspirational. Thank you Minda.

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Minca
25/3/2015 10:27:16 am

Thank you for stopping by and glad you liked it!

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oog link
26/3/2015 01:42:22 pm

Another fine , clear blog , with a great musical selection . How are things ?

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Minda Miloff
27/3/2015 07:33:18 am

A beautiful day ahead. Glad you appreciate this and other blog posts.

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Walter
27/3/2015 05:40:30 pm

beautiful weave of someone else's stories and yours...loved the image of your lying on the mattress waiting for the answer. I have found that we need to use the heart and brain. Some of my best decisions came from following my heart and I also lost all my money twice because I followed my heart and not my brain. Cultivating the warm glow of the heart pumping its passion to the brain (which uses far more blood than any other part of the body) while we fill the void with our many scenarios and wait for the emptiness to absorb all that which is not important, the residual or perhaps the regurgitated being that which we somehow feel is our temporary beacon forward

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Mag
1/4/2015 05:04:56 am

I've been attempting the mattress divination method for more than a year now, although I've been knitting instead of lying down while waiting on the gods. Which reminds me, I have a pair of socks for you. (The gods of knitting have been quite communicative. And the other stuff is working itself out in the background.) Thanks for the post.

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Coach Minda
5/4/2015 02:48:12 pm

A pair of socks are welcome. Thanks Mag

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