Soft Center
Table of contents
- 1. Notes
- 2. Reflections
The theme for today is "soft center".
There is an idea,
an intuition, or experience
that at the center of a human being
there is an indefinable, indestructable soft spot or core.
Wisdom traditions have different ways of talking about it
different stories about what it is and what it can do.
It has many names and images.
The common part of the story,
the common sense,
is that this is something that we are born with,
something natural, and fundamental
that we cannot lose,
but carry "inside"
in a protected space
like a hidden treasure.
Do you have a feeling for this story?
Names for the "soft center"?
Ideas about it?
A sense of self in relationship to it?
Places it appears in your experience?
Ways of touching it or practicing with it?
(Or of releasing into it?)
In what ways do you connect with the "soft center"
in your moment to moment experience
and daily life?
Notes
- In Christianity: "If ye may not be turned and become as the children, ye may not enter into the reign of the heavens." Bible, Mathew 18:3. The infant Jesus in the Christmas story also seems to symbolize this quality of consciousness.
- In Taoism: “Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 76.
- In Buddhism: Bodhicitta may be interpreted to refer to an innocent, simple, compassionate state of mind (although the term acquires a complex range of meanings and attributes in the various schools).
- In Zen and martial arts, the concept of Shoshin (beginners mind) also carries some of these qualities of openness, enthusiasm, and creativity.
- A common, if implicit, theme in folk psychology is that humans are born innocent and later corrupted by experience and culture.
- ...
Reflections
It's no surprise that this contemplation takes us to various edges, and people are concerned with finding a balance between the possibilties that are presented
- vulnerable ... dangerous and/ or open, flexible, responsive?
- wild... shy and/or aggressive?
- intentional and focused and/or playful and creative?
It's the nature of life to live that way
To live on the edge sometimes,
and return to the safety of the nest or burrow at others.
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