Vulnerability

I have run a thread such as this on various Forums. With mixed results.......😀

I was just looking back. Way back in fact, 2009. Interesting reading through. In a way I recognised my contribution but there were a few "Krapp's Last Tape" moments where connection to the past was lost.

But fortunately my vulnerability remains. I haven't gathered a collection of "beliefs" and "justifications" to blot out the wonder of Mercy and Grace, of unexpected gifts; or Beliefs that shut out others who do not share them. I am still able to see that [i]the earth brings forth fruits of herself.[/i] And I am grateful. Or as we say in the Pure Land:-

Namu-amida-butsu! (Or, "thank you, I am grasped, never to be abandoned, and things - everything - will [i]become so of themselves beyond my calculation[/i])

Looking back at a previous thread I saw that I was up to my usual tricks of quoting quite often. Here are some words of Jack Kornfield, who learned his trade amongst the various meditation masters of the Theravada Forest Tradition in Thailand:-

[i]Underneath all the wanting and grasping, underneath the need to understand is what is called the "body of fear." At the root of suffering is a small heart, frightened to be here, afraid to trust the river of change, to let go in this changing world. This small unopened heart grasps and needs and struggles to control what is unpredictable and unpossessable. But we can never know what will happen. With wisdom we allow this not knowing to become a form of trust. We rest upon what has laughingly been called "the Firm Ground of Emptiness"...........giving up the ego's territory and trusting in groundlessness.
[/i]

In other words, remaining vulnerable. Not trusting in "ourselves" or any "decision" or "choice" we have made for whatever "god" our conditioning, culture and circumstances have created for us.