Inside The Upside-Down

Do not worry that your life is turning upside-down. How do you know the side you are used to is better than the one to come?
~ Rumi

In Zen Buddhism there is an old saying: The whole world is upside-down.

What this wisdom teaching tells us, is that the way the world looks from an ordinary or conventional perspective is pretty much the opposite of the way the world actually is.

Living in this world, yet ignoring spiritual reality and brushing aside spiritual laws, is actually much more perilous than, as a Zen mater once did, meditating in an eagle’s nest at the top of a tall tree overlooking a deep canyon.

While trying to avoid difficulty may be natural and understandable to the human condition, it actually does not work for us. We might think it makes sense to protect ourselves from pain, but our self-protection ends up causing us deeper pain. We think we have to hold on to what we have, but since we are mostly focused on what we do not like our very holding on causes us to lose what we have.

Counterintuitive as it may be, energy flows where our attention goes! So, avoiding the difficulties of life is actually not the path of least resistance. If we want to have a full and happy life, we have to engage and get used to the idea that facing making a mistake squarely is better than trying to avoid making it.

We may still perceive the world as upside-down, but we still have to live in this upside-down world. We do need to understand though that we are not of this world! We simply have to be practical on its terms. Our teachings of new thought and ageless wisdom support us in releasing the energies of narrow-mindedness, which make our lives unhappy, fearful, and small and transforming these into an attitude of certainty, confidence, calmness, security, love, peace, joy and happiness!

Affirmation:
Today I fully engage in life and I allow for Spirit to express in, as and through me! This is my pathway which makes all thing possible!