Sesshin Time

I'm heading out the door ask we speak to Choboji for Sesshin, out in Seattle. That means I won't be blogging again until October the 4 or 5th. Until then, I how things go well for you and I appreciate that you come visit the website.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Taking Shape

"Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he/she requires, so may a person tend the garden of his/her mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts, By pursuing this process, a person sooner or later discovers that he/she is the master gardener of his or her soul, the director of their life. He or she also reveals, within themselves, the laws of thought, and understands with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of one's character, circumstances, and destiny."

Jaye Allen
Excerpt | As A Man Thinketh

Outside the Fear Bubble

I was talking with my friend Mitch last night and he stated an excellent point. He said, "Fear separates us from freedom." True, true, true.

Fear can separate us from freedom, because it has certain abilities and traits. Here are just a few.

1. Fear causes us to contract and pull back rather than expand and interconnect with other [where can have friendship and support]. As a matter of fact, fear can drastically alter the nature of our relationships that we have with each other.

2. Fear distorts how we interpret and experience our past and present moments.

3. Fear can sometimes generate so much anxiety that we can actually become immobilized.

4. Fear can alter how we act and re-act to circumstances.

Moving outside the "fear-bubble," requires real effort and work. Moving away from a "fear-based," model of living doesn't just happen on it's own. One pretty good tool for "living," our way out the fear is to rely on so-called "Spiritual Principles," as I've talked about many times before. They have a way of recalibrating our internal GPS (Global Positioning System), so that we can more authentically interact with our present moments.

Happiness,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Fatherhood Koan

I have two daughters that I love very much. It's through that love for them that I find myself struggling with a single question that has become something of a "Koan," (Japanese. Place where the truth is). "Was that the right decision?"

As a parent the decisions and choices that we make frequently have unintended consequences that are not always obvious at first. A great example is my thirteen year old. She wanted to wear fingernail polish. Her mother sent her to me, to get final approval. I don't know what I was exactly thinking at the time or how I visualized it, but I said "yes." After all, what harm could a little fingernail polish do?

She and her mom trotted off to the store and that was that. But later when I saw her with the fingernail polish on, I realized that somehow it made her seem older. Later when we went to the mall, I noticed a guy who was obviously older checking my daughter. That's when I got that same terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, from the koan Mu. You feel like you can't go backwards and you cannot go forwards and now you are in the psychological vise-grip trying to figure out how to properly respond to the situation. I felt like I shouldn't have said yes to the fingernail polish. It was only then that the feeling and thought fully clarified in my head about how badly wanted my kid to be a kid. There's plenty of time to be a grown up later. We only have one childhood and should enjoy it as much as possible, without all the outside pressure of image and feeling like you have to look like Paris Hilton.

The next part of this "fingernail polish that could do no harm," episode came when I went back to my daughter and asked her what it meant to her. Her response took me back a little bit. She said, "wearing it makes me feel better about myself." My mind was spinning at that point. My Buddhist Mind was saying, "Self-esteem and happiness comes from oneself, not things that are on the outside." But here's where that tricky "koan," part comes in. If that's true, why was I so worried about potentially hurting her feelings or putting her on the defensive. Pretty good trap, huh? Can't go forwards, can't go backwards. A red hot iron ball in your throat and your stuck.

And that's when I got angry with myself and them. It was because I didn't know how to respond. I felt incompetent and foolish. I was thinking, if what I thought was a little situation can influence me to feel like this, what about the bigger issues? All the stuff that I know intellectually was useless. And when all that so-called "logic," is taken away, what will you do then at that moment? Genjo Osho once asked during a teisho "How many zero's go into one? The calculator says error. What do you do then?"

My current answer is simple. Do my very best in each moment. Be the best parent I can be and know that there are going to be moments and times, whether I like it or not that I will fall short of where I'd like to be, but understand that it's my responsibility to make "Right-effort." Make every effort to look for the best, rather than the worst. Be aware of and clear on my motivation. Do everything that I can to embrace my Buddhist vows. Be prepared to change my mind about some things, because nothing is certain.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Decisions, Not Conditions

"More than anything else, I believe it's our decisions, not the conditions of our lives, that determine our destiny."

Anthony Robbins

The Defensive Crouch

I've recently been reading "Hot, Flat and Crowded," by Thomas L. Friedman. If you haven't picked it up yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. It's a great piece of work and will get your brain thinking and moving in a positive direction.

I want to paraphrase something he said early in the book. "When people are in a defensive crouch," trust and honest communication don't happen. "Ideas are not shared, stereotypes are not dropped, and people don't connect."

The operative expression here is "Living in a defensive crouch." If we are living in a defensive mode, then to some degree with are going to hold back from the people that we are around, because we as individuals feel the need to protect ourselves. Why? Because we only feel defensive when we feel fear. We fear the attack or of somehow being run over spiritually, psychologically, emotionally or physically, because it negates who we believe that we are. And that my friend is frightening.

This line of thinking brings me to some questions. Do I live or act in such a way that I put people in a defensive crouch? Conversely, am I living or working somewhere that I feel like I'm in a defensive crouch? If the answer is yes to either or both of those questions, we are living in a kind of prison cell and it's time to figure out how to get out of it. Why? Instead of living, we are actually having what Viktor E. Frankel calls the "temporary existence," which can feel like a kind of limbo or purgatory.

If we are to be fully human and we want to live beyond the self imposed limitations, then we have to start looking at the choices that we make. For honest communication and trust to thrive, we have to find a way to move outside of the defensive crouch. Mind you, there will always be moments of fear, so what I am talking about are situations where it's a constant state.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change that you would like to see in the world." In this instance perhaps we could strive towards being "mindful," enough that we are aware when we are putting others or ourselves on the defensive and look more closely at that situation. Maybe we can find something to change.

Once we find something that we can change, we need to do five (5) things:

1) Build motivation for change by getting clear with ourselves why we need to change. And we can ask ourselves, "what is the price of not changing."

2) Get some "fuel." What I mean by this is positive information and feelings that we are putting into ourselves. A great example is Friedman's book. A lot of times I use the Choboji podcast or listen to Wayne W. Dyer, Joel Osteen or Guy Finley. It offers different information to act on rather than some of the negatives that are in our head.

3) Develop an action plan. Be clear, specific and hopeful.

4) Take MASSIVE ACTION. Follow through on your action plan and consistently act in ways that will move us towards our goals.

5) Meditate. Practicing some form of meditation can be the path to unifying your mind, adding clarity and stability to our "Mind."

If you use any of these ideas, comment back and let us know what you did. Your is a benefit to others.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

At A Crossroads

"You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully."

Anthony Robbins

What We Carry

One of my favorite Zen stories is about two monks returning to their monastery. On the way, they came to a wide river that was swollen, because of heavy rains. As they started across, the senior monk noticed a young girl a little ways up. He instantly understood that she would not be able to cross safely, because of the swift current and physical distance. The senior monk went to the girl and talked with her. She was trying to get home to her village, but as he suspected was not able to cross. He took the young girl and put her on his back and the three waded across.

Once they reached the other side, the senior monk placed the girl on the ground. She thanked them and then headed off to her village. As the two monks continued their journey back to their own monastery, the junior monk stopped in his tracks. The senior monk turned to him and noticed, just by looking at his face that he was very angry and upset. The senior monk asked, "Why is your mind so clouded?" The young monk replied, "You broke a rule! You carried that girl. You know full well that we are not supposed to touch women and yet you did. You should feel ashamed." The senior monk responded, "I left that girl, back there by the rivers edge. Why are you still carrying her?" Immediately the senior monk marched on.

That story has taught me a lot and is a good reminder. I have the capacity to carry so much stuff (e.g. baggage) in my mind that A) doesn't belong to me and B) is not helpful. I sometimes remind myself to "release, release, release the burden. It will be okay." And guess what? It always is.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Dream

All composite things
Are like a dream, a fantasy, a bubble and a shadow,
Are life a dew drop and a flash of lightning.
Thus are they to be regarded.
-and so you should
Think in this way of all this fleeting world:
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A dewdrop, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.

Excerpt | The Diamond Sutra
Translation | Eido Shimano Roshi

The Second Step

When it comes to navigating a coarse through our life, it pays to have constellations that we can steer by that can and will lead us forward to healthier places. These so-called "stars" I term as "spiritual principles." Though these are

Living though principles like "hope, honest communication, trust, compassion, etc..." are amazingly valuable if we are really engaged in making the relationship with our self and others better. It means learning to live in the solution and not the problem.

Unspiritual principles are things like, "selfishness, dishonesty, closedmindedness, mistrust, etc..." The result is obvious. Operating on those principles brings anxiety, depression and a sense of hopelessness, where people feel like we are not in control of our life. And quite frankly, there's no hope of having a sense of stability within ourselves.

Sometimes, I like to think of "spiritual principles, kind of like the "knob," on a radio, that helps us get on the "right," frequency with ourselves and others. The more we work to apply ourselves to "tuning-in" to spiritual principles, the easier it is to navigate though the day-to-day stressors and difficulties in our live, especially in the area's where we are our own "crisis creators."

Someone once told me, "The more and more that you listen, the more and more that you will hear." The more effort that we make in finding ways to steer by spiritual principles, the healthier we can become, physically, mentally and spiritually. We may also come to learn that especially when there is a lot of turmoil and difficulty in our lives that "Living" by spiritual principles given us shelter from the storms we may experience in our lives.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

To Write Love on Her Arms

There is a really nice video piece that MSNBC did on Renee Yohe the Social Movement, "To Write Love on Her Arms," who focus is helping people struggling with issues such as "cutting," and "drug addiction," and the barriers that can get in the way of people getting treatment. It's work the look.

Namaste'

Jaye

September 11

I wanted to take a break from the normal storm of activity and take a moment to remember a tragedy that has touched and effected us all. Not only here in the United States, but across the waters towards our neighbors. With that in mind, I offer this prayer...

"With a wish to free all beings,
I shall always go for refuge,
To the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,
Until I reach full enlightenment
Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
Today in the Buddha's presence,
I generate the Mind for full awakening
For the Benefit of All sentient Beings
As long Space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain
May I too remain and dispel the miseries of the World."

May All Beings Be Happy and Free,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

A First Step

Step One starts out, "We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable."

I'd like to start with the premise that the gravitational center of negative additions is based on "self-centeredness" and "self-obsession." While this core "operating system," is consistent, the ways it expresses itself aren't. There are alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, co-dependency and emotions, just to name a few.

While there is the wide expression as shown above, what's interesting is the results tend to be the same. Just a few examples are anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, anger, frustration, demoralization, desperation, self-condemnation and loneliness. Sometimes we have the distinct impression that we are somehow "defective," and we reach outside of ourselves to fill what I sometimes call "the black-hole."

What can re-enforce our "addictive behavior," is our inability to see the destructive nature of how the self-obsession and self-centeredness plays itself out. In psychology and psychiatry the most difficult wall is known as "defense mechanisms." Common "DM's" are minimizing, rationalizing, externalizing, displacement, regression and reaction formation (saying you are going to do something healthy, but acting in ways that aren't)."

This state of being is Anti-Zen or disunification and it hurts a lot to live this way. This is not only true but for the others that we are involved with. What we do impacts others, because the truth is that we are all interconnected.

In building unification within ourselves and others, it requires a very different operating system. I have only been able to define this operating system as "Spiritual Principles. A few key one's that I've heard people express are "Hope, surrender, honesty, openmindedness and willingness." These tend to be critical to having a foundation that can grow and sustain the unification.

Of all of these principles, the one that I've found the most interesting is "surrender." I've heard a lot of definitions, most of them implying a loss or defeat. How I define surrender is not about defeat, but rather making ourselves available to the process of life... some might say recovery.

Here's an example. Visualize yourself in the middle of a lake. It's about 50 feet deep and your in trouble, your drowning. But then all of the sudden a life guard comes out. They are there to rescue you. But as they approach you continue to thrash about. The life guard tells you, "calm down, relax and I will be able to save you, please accept my help and I will be able to bring you into shore." You then have a choice to make. Do you continue thrashing around (psuhing away help) or make yourself available for rescue (and embrace support)?

Using spiritual principles as an updated "operating system" for our brain, provides an interesting window of opportunity for ourselves. We can move out of the 8x10 prison cell we may have been living in psychologically, emotional and spiritually. In living with and embodying spiritual principles we begin a process of waking up in our lives as opposed to kind of muddling through, simply hoping for the best. The key is committing ourselves to them. This is a practice/process and not an event. It takes time.

You thoughts and feedback are encouraged. I prefer discussion, because I can learn so much from others. Just click comments, if you'd like to post something.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Twelve Steps to Unification

Since Zen is the process of "unifying oneself" physically, mentally and spiritually, I find what people refer to as "Twelve Step Programs," as one possible concrete path to do so. Over the next couple weeks, depending on how things play out, I will explore how the "Steps,: can be useful to anyone seeking to change or improve their life.

The "Twelve Steps," originated with Alcoholics Anonymous, but now has been used not just for Alcoholics or Drug Addict, but other issues as well. There are groups like Parents Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Sex-Aholics Anonymous, etc... I think you get the idea. Instead of delving into all these various directions, I think there is a word that easily covers most problems dividing people within themselves. Addiction.

Addiction is an interesting word. There are actually about 75 different definitions for it. I tend to like the original latin root and translation "addictus," which means "what one gives themselves up to." In these sense I'm thinking more about the life limiting elements or things and the driving force (self-obsession and self-centeredness) that compels some to given themselves to something even when it continuously impairs or is harming the quality of their lives.

A great example is that yesterday a friend of mine told me that "________ is coming in to town. I get to have a couple days of bliss." I asked, "Isn't this the same guy that you told me was emotionally unavailable and basically ran you into a brick wall and you had been depressed for about 2 months? She replied, "Yes, but it will be okay, this time." I and another friend looked at her and told her, "It sounds like this guy is your drug. Why would you connect with someone who is just going to assist you in undermining your self-esteem?" She responded, "I don't know, but I will deal with that later." I left her with, the difference between someone who is mature and immature is the capacity and ability to act on self restraint.

So the question becomes, how do we move from being divided to genuinely being unified. As I said before, the "Twelve Steps" is one viable solution.

The Twelve Steps
1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Each step is a principle that can be built upon in the same way that one build a house. You dig and lay a foundation, put in rebar, put in plumbing, lay concrete and so-forth. Over the next couple weeks we'll look at the different Steps and discuss how they can be used to unify our sense of self, increasing personal happiness and effectiveness.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

In Our Nature

A monk be a rivers edge was being carefully watched by a young boy. The monk scooped up a scorpion from the water and put it back on the bank of the river, saving its life. As the monk put the scorpion down, he was stung by the scorpion. The boy watching thought it must have been painful.

Moments later the scorpion walked back into the water and was drowning again. Soon the monk was once again saving the scorpion and was again stung. After watching this dance over and over, the boy approached the monk. Puzzeled he asked, "why is it that you bother to keep saving the scorpion? Every time you save him, he stings you. That makes no sense to me. Why keep it up?" Smiling at the boy the monk replied, "Just as it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting, It is in the nature of Human Beings to save.

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO"

60 Days

Now that the RNC and DNC conventions are over, we have some work to do. This is our moment of "social responsibility." What happens in this election will not only effect us, but effect literally millions of other people. Here are some of the things that we need to think about:

The war in Iraq. We are spending billions in a financial blackhole.

We need to redouble our efforts and bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice. He's still out there because the republicans dropped the ball. McCain keeps saying he will chase him to he gates of hell, but Obama is correct when he says "they won't even chase him to a cave."

Straighten out our economy. If you a little checking on factcheck.org, you will see literally dozens of misleading statements and lies about Obama's economic policy made by McCain. Most of use would get a tax cut.

Bringing new types of jobs to America. As Thomas L. Friedman says in his book, "The World is Flat," countries like China are not racing us to the bottom, they are racing us to the top." If you don't believe that, go look at the opening and closing footage of the Bejing Olympics. Focusing on building and exporting green technologies is good for American workers and good for the world, in terms of positive environmental policies.

We need to consider defending the Constitution. I think Denzel Washinton in the movie called "The Siege" has it about right when he says, "What if what they really want is for us to herd children into stadiums like we're doing? And put soldiers on the street and--and have Americans looking over their shoulders? Bend the law, shred the constitution just a little bit? Because if we torture him, General... we do that, and everything that we have bled and fought and died for is over, and they've won. They've already won." The way the Bush administration has functions has been an actual expansion of governmental power over it citizen and have reductions in personal rights.

Reproductive rights for women. I have two daughters and love them very much. For Deb and I it wasn't even really a choice, it was more like a moral imperative. But that doesn't mean it has to be the same for you. I am especially opposed to forcing women who have been raped to carry a baby to term. McCain and Palin are okay with doing this. They are wrong, wrong, wrong.

The Supreme Court. To enable McCain to become President, is to jeopardize our nation of laws. Things will be so upside down, you would think it was 1901. It will be ugly and draconian.

If we allow McCain to win, the average American will suffer greatly. They attack Barrack Obama for only one reason, They have no actual polices that would improve our lives. Personally I'm a little burnt out by the Republican's always being in anger/attack/hater mode, though I am impressed that they've managed to sustain it this long. They will help their corporate buddies, but not you and I. Look at the records of McCain and Obama and what they have actually voted for and supported. This is very serious. We need to be engaged and we need ever vote to be counted. We don't need 8 more years of George Bush. We have suffered enough.

P.S. I would love the Republicans to take responsibility for 9/11, instead of always blaming Democrats last night. I believe it was George Bush was the one who received he brief that said "Bin-Laden determined to Strike the United States of America."

You can also check out Deb's Obama Blog Here

Sincerely,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Sustaining Mind

For me, two key elements in merging with my life effectively is one - To have a sense of hope or be able to see the light at the end of a tunnel and two is messianic determination or put more simply - never giving up. Without these to principles, I'd probably be in a lot of trouble, because I would be rudderless.

Hope is important. Why? Because our minds so easily notice so-called "negatives." We often find it easy to express what's wrong with a person, but find it more difficult to identify what's "right" with someone. We have the capacity to see the thorns that are on the stem, but if we look further and higher, we can see the flower that is above the thorns. I myself encounter people who frequently say, "I can't change, I've always been like this." And I consistently respond, "The past does not equal the future. You can decide something different for yourself."

Within Messianic determination that is the notion that all things which need to be accomplished can be. As Robert A.F. Thurman once said, "All people can be fed, all people could have healthcare, All people can fully express their Buddhahood." It's easy to be steadfast when everything "seems" to be going right, but what about when things are "not so right," or there is a kind in emotional, psychological or physical climb that we need to make? Never give up, no matter what happens. Whether or not we believe it, the miraculous can and does happen. And if we are fortunate we have opportunities to be a part of that process, if we allow it. It's not abstract or vague, we just have to continue moving forward, with our best intentions, attention and motivated by compassion for ourselves and others.

As I said when I started, These are the key elements that help so-called "me," to sustain my Mind and keep me moving in a direction that I am comfortable with. Your ke principles or elements may be different. What remains most important is that you have them in the first place. Define what they are and then we focus our entire being in living through them. Then we are a ceaseless part of a solution for ourselves and others.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

The Loss?

Yesterday my Uncle, David Morris was laid to rest. He actually passed away last Tuesday. I didn't talk about it until now, because to be quite frank, I've been through a lot of death this year and feel a little turned upside down. People that I love who came to this life and left it as effortlessly as a cloud moves across the face of the sky. In an odd way though we where not very close, he was one of the last links that I have to my father. The other link, my sister June is very ill and doctors are weighing whether or not to make the effort towards a kidney transplant.

It's been crushing, to say the least. To say the most, I have these moments where I'm in my car and I just want to scream. What does come out among the tears is Mu. Some of you will understand and others just won't, but that's what's there and that's okay.

When I was talking with my mother over the past few weeks, she has said something troubling to me. She said, "the pain that you and I feel is the recognition that the past is melting away." I've been struggling with that sentence and haven't been able to digest it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm not sure if it's a true statement. Something inside is causing a kind of pause on that notion.

Last week Genjo Osho shared the teisho "Kyozan asks Sansho his Name." During the teisho Genjo Osho said something that stuck like crazy glue in my mind. He said, "When you experience the wind chime singing, you begin to realize the wind chimes True Nature (is) within you. It's as though the wind chime is ringing right within your heart. (From an everyday view) It's as though because our rational mind says that the wind chime and you are separate. But from the Zen prospective there is no separation whatsoever. So when then the wind chime rings, if you open yourself to 'what is it', you ring too. You experience the ringing from inside (yourself)."

If I put it in the context of my current experience, when I am unified with myself, Uncle David, Aunt Polly, Uncle Ben and Robbie ring within me, "from the inside." This is not as a memory but something which is much more than that. I don't experience melting, I experience interconnectedness, no gap and no separation.

As I continue to navigate what seems like an ocean of emotions, I do feel fortunate that I have the support and love of my family as well as the guiding words to Genjo Osho that servers as a rudder in this difficult moment.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Come Here, But Go Away

As human beings we have the odd capacity to have the ability to ask for help and yet at the same time refuse it. I've even observed where people will sometimes "pick and choose" the type of help that we are will to accept. I sometimes refer to this mentality as, "come here, but go away."

This contradiction in behavior largely stems from what we call, "divided-mind." And it's because the mind it so divided (against itself) that we can sometimes continue digging ourselves into a hole, long after we could have stopped. A certain part of our mind may even see that we are doing so, by not accepting help and continue to dig any where.

Thinking about this subject, I recall a story about a person who is caught in a flood. As the water rises, they move higher and higher in the house, until they can no longer stay inside. They climb out onto the roof, praying and pleading for God to save them. As they are out on the roof with the water still rising, a boat comes by and the boat-pilot says "jump in, I'll save you." The person on the roof says, "no, I've prayed to God and he will save me." The water continues to rise and they climb up a litle higher on the roof and another boat comes by and the people shout to get in, so that they can be saved. Again the person firm in their faith say's "no God will save me." The water continues to rise, now almost covering the entire roof. They climb to the very tip, top and a stroke of luck happens. A helicopter appears and drops a line. But the person refuses shouting, "No thanks, God will save me." The waters continue to rise and finally the person dies." When they enter heaven, they meet-up with God and ask, "Why didn't you save me?" God replies, "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, but you refused the help."

On one hand the story is kind of funny, but on the other is a very serious point about how we live our life. The only thing it really takes to ask for help is desperation, but what it requires to accept help is often humility (the absence of false pride and ability to know oneself). Instead of saying "come here, but go away," we can express, "come here please and I thank you for your willingness to help me."

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO