The Mind is a Skilful Painter

Life is about self-expression
Expressed through beliefs and assumptions
Choose your label for they are nothing but thoughts
Created by the mind and projected by the mind
Onto the canvas of consciousness
Empty of an inherent or independent existence
Void of meaning and yet full of meaning
Forming everything and nothing but dreams
The mind is a skilful painter
From which our own realities are manifested

Life is about interconnectedness
Painted on one another's canvases with compassion
Choose your path for self-expression for it is nothing but love
Created by our minds and projected by by our minds
Onto the infinite universe
So too our minds must have no limits
Imagination is what creates my life and yours
What you wish to experience is here but a thought away
Why choose suffering when there is joy
Polish your skills and step up your game - recreate

Predictability and Impermanence

The search for security seems to be ingrained in the human DNA.  Imagine you tripped over and were about to fall, your natural reaction would be to hold onto something - something that you could have a firm grip on.  Now imagine further and suppose that this was played in slow motion and someone coaxed you to let yourself just fall and assured you that you would land in one intact piece, you would most likely be unconvinced.  Deep inside us, we all crave for a safe haven.  We wish to be somewhere or in a certain state of mind that can give us peace and safety, just like a mother's embrace.  Well this desire sounds totally natural and logical as survival is a human instinct.  But it becomes problematic when we mistakenly think that what is predictable can give us security.  When we look for predictability we are also seeking for permanence, or in other words, some kind of confirmation that an event or patterns of events will unfold in a presumed way.

Yet what is true is the complete opposite - there is only impermanence in life.  Searching for permanence is a distant mirage.  When you can truly embrace impermanence, there is nothing to predict and impossible to predict.  Once we have lifted the veil, we are only left with what is right in front us here and now and we can no longer be hijacked by any fearful thought of the future.  For where is the future?

All is Fine

Stop fighting when you do not agree.  Does that sound paradoxic?  Only because the reverse approach might well be what you have been adopting all your life, albeit unconsciously.  Here is the real picture: When you are fighting with something that you do not wish for, you are resisting your own reality.  So in a way, you are also inviting and accepting that negative "product" in your life because of your focus, energy, and more importantly your emotional reactions to it.  Whether you are drawn to something or away from it, you still leave an imprint on your mind every time you become emotionally involved; until it reaches a point so profound that you are trapped in a dissatisfied loop with repeated encounters of the same scenario.  If you can bear no judgement, you will see that it is all to do with your personal preference of like or dislike, desire and aversion.  So the antidote is to let it flow like water and allow yourself to accept what is.  As Lao Tzu reminds us, "Highest good is like water.  Because water excels in benefitting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it comes closes to the way."

Like your heartbeat, it will happen even if you do not order your heart to do so.  Have faith.