all under heaven

A thought came to me, regarding the tale Brian frequently tells in the PhilosophersNotes, about how S.N Goenka tells a story about My.

“The reason why such acute suffering occurs is concealed in the words “my.”

“My.”


My toy. My car. My house. My spouse. My country. My life. My, my, my.

S.N. Goenka, the teacher who led the silent 10-day Vipassana meditation class I took, had a hilarious story about “my.” Imagine someone else’s watch got stolen. Someone else’s car broke down en route to an important meeting. Someone else’s order was messed up at the restaurant. Someone else’s spouse cheated on them. Unfortunate, but not that big of a deal for you, right?

Alright.

Now imagine this: “My watch was stolen.” “My car broke down.” “My order was messed up at the restaurant.” “My spouse cheated on me.”


Takes on a whole new meaning when we add the “My,” doesn’t it?!?

It’s time to quit taking ourselves quite so seriously. Let’s witness our reactions to things, develop the ability to see ourselves as an actor in this game of life and loosen our grip on all things “my.”  (Big thanks to Brian for sharing this, from several PNs and especially the one on A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle)
 
Now - I caught a thought of this as I went about my stuff today... then I recalled verse 13 of the Tao te Ching.

 

 To whomever treats all under Heaven

as he esteems his own body,
All under Heaven may be entrusted.

To whomever treats all under Heaven

as he loves his own body,
All under Heaven may be given.

 

This made me think of combining the two ideas...

 
So if you think of everything as yours, you will be able to experience mudita on a more regular basis. Because if all under heaven is as your body - then every time something great happens anyway you will rejoice in that because in effect it is happening to you.
 
That is a good learning for me today. I enjoyed it.