I'm Still Learning

I tend to read a lot of books, go to workshops whenever I can and do self-paced training. On top of that, I frequently and as often as I can strive to remember to put myself in what I call "listening" mode. That means listening to people carefully and see what I can learn or discover in that encounter from them. People teach me so much, especially people who think they have nothing to offer.

In doing all of these activities, what surprises me is that "I'm still learning." That's a trip. After forty-two years, even in my chosen profession, I'm still "expanding" and still...still...still... "in the process of Becoming." How is this even possible? So mysterious is the nature of "Being."

I've found in life, we are either going "forwards" or "backwards." I have not really seen any such thing as "standing still." It's kind of like walking towards (or with) a moving target. It's important to remember that so-called "life" is very much alive and has the ability to operate independent of us. What that means is that in order to stick with it, I need to keep moving, keep walking, keep meeting so-called "It." Otherwise I or It might start moving away from each other. I strive to keep pace with It, to maintain a "harmony."

So what am I saying? Push! Learn! Absorb! Assimilate! Weare not out of school yet! Know that when we "think" we have mastered something that there is always something more that we may not have noticed initially. In this instance, I like to recall the koan (place where the truth is), "You are at the top of a hundred-foot flagpole. How would take one more step?" There is also another expression that I have heard in Zen. "When you get to the top of a mountain, keep on climbing." These things may not make sense to us, but if we are listening carefully, we will hear not just with our ears, but our entire Mind and Body and continue learning and climb onward.

Happy Day!

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO