Heads IWin

The theme for today is "Heads I Win"

There's a saying,
"Heads I win, tails you lose"

I once knew a guru who was perfectly happy
to explain what happened in his community in the following way:
When good things happened, it was because of his fine guidance and influence
When bad things happened, it was because the students were not following instructions.

But this is a well-known bias of individual psychology too.
When things turn out well for me, it's because I'm smart, capable, etc.
When things turn out badly, it's because the world is a difficult place,
or they are somehow cursed,
the world (or god) doesn't like them.

Feelings are the best we have in many cases;
they tell a story that is true, in part
or it's fine to start there and then keep looking.

Surely one doesn't intend or "choose" difficulties and suffering,
do they?

To answer that people choose to suffer
or to bring suffering to others
is to deny their essential goodness and innocence:
I think we have enough of that already:
Original Sin, in modern psychological garb.

Even so, we might learn something from that doctrine.

One of the sections of the Lojong Proverbs
a list of brief (but profound) guides to enlightenment practice, is

"Transformation of Bad Circumstances into the Way of Enlightenment"

Slogan 11 says
"When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi."

One shouldn't read that as making a generic statement about the world being evil.
I think we take it as such by relating, as in Shakespeare's dictum
"Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so".

Slogan 12, suggests one can make a choice, take responsibility for outcomes, regardless of what happens:
"Drive all blames into one."

Unfortunately, perhaps, this can't be done by "just thinking",
if that's how we might interpret the Bard's saying.

Slogan 13 rounds out the story about whether the world is "full of evil"
Be grateful to everyone.

I think that is a hint
about an alternative
to our tendency to focus on problems, on what's wrong,
rather than on the essential nature of things.

This tendency may be "hard-wired", as the evolutionists like to say,
and seems part of our cultural education.

And we can learn from reaching outside our local cultural bubble,
leaving aside the modernist assumption that past knowledge is automatically inferior.

Cultures value different human capacities
and so advocate different ways for them to play out
in the social sphere
but in doing so they create practical dualities,
losses to go with the gains.

Cultures that value action
valorize discipline and honor at the cost of conflict
cultures that value submission
valorize acceptance and adaptivity at the cost of social creativity and justice
cultures that value individuality
valorize freedom at the cost of belonging and social support.

Take, for instance, the concept of Honor.
Along with Discipline,
the older understandings of these ideas
offer something not otherwise available to us today;

the current constructions of these ideas
absolve the individual both of vulnerability
and potential benefit.

On the other hand, they resonate with
"Drive all blames into one"
and may shed some light on that proverb.

Chances arepretty good
this is not a separate topic
but is relevant to whatever you (or we) are currently most concerned with,
most wondering about or struggling with.

This is really about care and nurturance
of self, soul, and world.

Let's practice the act of understanding
in accord with the Slow Movement
(yes, there is such a movement, according to Wikipedia).

Short term memory... there's something there
about these ideas that offers itself to your focus
as more fertile than the others.

And wait, clear the mind,
pick up an aspect of these questions,
let it develop slowly through one, two,
even three rounds of your best current insight

(for that's all we ever have)
and see what it becomes.

- - -

We're an active part of reality; reality is relational.
The particular way
that choice and insight come together
change the nature of that relating.

There's nothing like some good, concrete cases
to make abstract ideas like these clearer.

What are some of the ways that you know
to practice this transformation?

Nice, that would sound good
and we legitimately enjoy our successes
and learn more by recollecting them.

Just as good, perhaps:
what are some examples
of how and where this is a difficult struggle?