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The Daily Dharma – September 21, 2021

Closeup Through a Dried Leaf Photo by Ralph (Ravi) Kayden

Continuing from The Naked Now . . .

We See What We Are Ready to See

The great teachers are saying that you cannot start seeing or understanding anything if you start with “No.” You have to start with a “Yes” of basic acceptance, which means not too quickly labeling, analyzing, or categorizing things in or out, good or bad. You have to leave the field open. The ego seems to strengthen itself by constriction, by being against, or by re-action, and it feels loss or fear when it opens up. Spiritual teachers want you to live by positive action, open field, and conscious understanding, and not by resistance, knee-jerk reactions, or defensiveness. This is not easy; it often takes a lifetime of work and honest self-observation to stop judging or starting with “no.”

Richard Rohr
from The Naked Now; Learning to See as the Mystics See
Chapter: But We Have to Make Judgements, Don’t We?

To be continued . . .