Trusting Life's Changes

We all seek the ultimate answer to what we can really count on in life. Many absorb the words and experiences of others and expect them to provide all they need. They hold onto these truth fiercely. But, what was real and true for us yesterday may make no sense a few days later. Conditions change, we change, our needs and understanding changes. So, what can we really count on, where can we put our trust? Come listen to this episode and find out.

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Good morning, good morning. This is Dr Brenda Shoshana returning for a next podcast, our next episode in our series of Zen wisdom for your every day life for your life. This is very specific to you. It's about ancient and present and eternals and wisdom, just the truth, just the simple truth of our existence which transcends time and periods and and which manifests in our every day life, moment by moment. This is not something abstract and distant, but it's about our lives today, right now. That's what I love about it so much that it's right here and right now, and our topic for today is trusting life's changes. That's quite a topic. Trusting, not just dealing with life's changes, not just enduring them, not just understanding that by trusting, trusting life changes. That word trust is quite a word because whether or not we realize it, whatever it is that we actually put our trust in our true faith or true trust in that will rule our lives. That will determine the quality of our life day by day, hour by hour even. And usually you know what we trust, what we really trust. We're not even aware of it. It's pretty unconscious. We take on different believes. We say we trust this, we have belief in that, but what we really trust, that's what we want to understand and look at and see how it's affecting us and our lives, so the top, but trusting life's changes. That itself is interesting because many people don't even want to think about life's life's changes lives in evitable changes. In fact, we spend all our time trying to keep things the same thing, our life secure, keep it stable, but you don't want things to change. That's a huge stream, not wanting things to change and returning, returning over and over again to the same person, the same moment, the same idea, the same experience because there's a comfort, but at least we know that or we think we know that and wanting to repeat it again and again and wanting to hold onto it, or maybe we returned to something again and again because we want to make sense of it. We just can't make sense of it doesn't make sense in psychology. That's called the repetition. Compulsion returning over and over again. To something that might have traumatized us so that we can finally gain mastery over it and make it turn out differently. Interesting concept, and that's the same concept as the wheel of Karma events repeating themselves again and again. So of course everyone seeks the ultimate answer to, well, what can I really count on in life? What is it I can really trust? How can I deal with these changes which we basically don't want, which we want to push away? Actually we want to live safely, but we also want to live fully and meaningfully could be a contradiction there, but nevertheless, this is the reality of how we're wired and what we feel now clues to the answer of where can I really find the answer to what I can really trust. They seem to be everywhere clues and most of us search endlessly through volumes of wisdom, teachings, guidelines, books, scriptures in whatever way received and these have been left behind for us through many, many centuries and it's only natural to absorb the words and the experiences of others. That's what we do. We feel we don't know what to do and we turn to others. We read, we listen, we want teachers, we want counselors. That's that's the way we function and not only is it natural, but it's inevitable because he was seeking a way out of these mazes that we often fall into and we really want certainty about how to proceed and we want true guidance and of course when we finally find something that makes sense to us, but do we do we cling to that fiercely, fiercely? Oh, this is it. I've got the answer. Finally, we think that we're not going to love it though. We're going to persevere. We're going to hold on. We're going to. We're going to support and defend that position with our life itself. Don't let go and we think we finally have found a direction that's not going to let us down. That's interesting. Sometimes we find a relationship that the, well, this one's not going to let me down, or we find a practice, a spiritual or religious or even in a splenic or artistic practice. This is it. This is my road to knowing how I can live with certainty and with meaning and with beauty. Often we also crave, but that's a whole other topic which I will get into and we think, well, if I continue in this, maybe maybe it helped us for a little while, our life, maybe it was good and we think this is it and it's going to continue to be good, and if I pursue that, then success will be inevitable, inevitable, but is that really? So that's a big question. Is that so unfortunately, what was true and real for us and useful and beneficial for us yesterday may not work at all. A few days later on, it may make no sense. It may seem odd even. How can that be? Well, conditions change. We change the words of the teachers change as our understanding and vision broadens and deepens. Can't hold on actually. As we move along, we see there's nothing to hold onto. That's pretty frightening for many of us. My goodness, if there's nothing to hold onto, but wait, that's not the final response. Let's go back to the point simply for the moment that will be counted on yesterday. It's no longer really here, now in this moment, if we're constantly return to what we counted on yesterday, we don't see that we're returning to a thought, a beautiful memory perhaps, but it's simply a memory instead of turning full on to the moment to now, to the life we're living today, what do we do? We run back to memories that we once loved or people that we once loved who are totally different now or we're totally different. We returned, we go backwards, backwards. We're refusing the moment right now as it is, we're refusing to accept or acknowledge who we are now. We're not who we were a year, even two years ago, even 10 minutes ago, were refusing to acknowledge what is truly needed right now and when we do that, it's inevitable that we're going to stumble and fall because we're clinging to the past and to dreams or to memories and we're abandoning ourselves and our lives and what's here right now. We do that because we believe that our security late in the past, but the truth of Zen teachings and the truth of life and all teachings are that that is not where our security light, it does not lie in the past. Confusion and disappointment must set in. If we turn in that direction over and over, when we put our faith in a moment of and love in the past, we really come up disappointed today because today is not the past. Yesterday is food, something that gave us great nourishment yesterday. It's stale now. The juice has gone. It might've tasted good then, but it doesn't feel are hungry. Hearts now what are we doing? We're simply putting our faith in the ever shifting sands of life, those truths, those experiences they're written in the sand, so let's come back and I trust we ask. Some people really feel very defeated and very disturbed when they realize that what was so wonderful before isn't really presently now what it was disturbed, defeated as if they fail. No, they have not failed. It's just that life is a series of continual continual changes and it cannot be otherwise. So the question always comes, well, what can I count on now? Now, today, that question is the beginning of freedom. It's a beautiful question. It's a wonderful important question. What can I truly count on now in order to answer that, we have to be brave enough to let go of what we have clung to and deeply trust the moment itself as it arises and as it passes away, each moment, each experience, each person arises and then passes away, leaves our experience changes as we see this clearly and as we begin to develop trust in that itself is now a movement of change itself like the ocean, high tide, low tide with many waves, with many moments, with many movements. As we develop trust in that movement itself and as we allow it in our lives, as we enter it, we see that there is a larger wisdom and guidance right here for us. Every moment it's right here, something we can really count on in the moment appears and arises and that kind of wisdom that appears right now cannot lead us astray or ever fail. In fact, when we enter that movement of change and allow it and trusted even, we see that failure and success are really beside the point. It's beside the point. Everything is a moment teaching, illuminating, arising, falling, and this very life itself just as it comes and just as it goes, is entirely sufficient unto itself. That's a beautiful thought, entirely sufficient, entirely complete. Actually, it's wondrous, magical. It has everything we need, everything will ever need. So I would like to take this idea, this, this teaching, this, this, this opportunity to look a little differently at our lives and I'd like to help find a way to take it as I do every week and let's apply this to our everyday lives. Let's really see how does it work? Let's live it. Let's not leave it as I listened to something nice and that was interesting and that's nice to know. Let's take these words and teachings and make them into our very flesh and bones, so I'll give you a little exercise and perhaps it will be helpful. I hope so. So I'm asking you what memory, belief, or hope are you holding onto from the past that may not be relevant now it may be gone. I'm not saying that the wisdom that you receive from it or the teaching is gone, but the actual experience itself, it's gone. Take a moment to see where you're really putting your trust. Is it in a person, a belief, a practice you may engage in? Now, what is the outcome of this particular trust in your life? Has It guided you to a fuller life? Has it given you true security? Has it increased your ability to withstand life's inevitable changes and flow? Now, this question is the most important of all. Has it intensified your ability to be kind timed just for today? Let go of holding onto something that may be stale and outdated just for today. Give yourself to the truth of the moment and of who you are now. Respond to what is here and what is truly wanted. Have you, and that's the exercise and I really thank you for listening to it. Please come in and thank you also for the beautiful, beautiful emails I receive all the time from you. I appreciate them. I love that. I love your questions. I love answering. You can always reach me@topspeakeratYahooDotcomandyoucanhearallofourpodcastsonZenwisdomtoday.com and it's a great joy to be with all of you. I'm going to be doing more workshops both online and in person very soon. I'll be offering to zen talks pretty soon in person on Sunday, September 30th at Malloy College. That's his at Hempstead Avenue, Rockville Center at 8:30 in the morning till 10 and on Wednesday, September 26th in Manhassett at the UNITARIAN church. Searingtown road, manhasset. This is for the wonderful in his father Zen community who I love very much and I thank you very, very much for listening and being with us. And until next week, have a beautiful, beautiful week and I look forward to seeing you and being with you again soon. In the meantime, try it. Trust whatever change comes. Don't fight it, don't love it, don't hate it, trust it, and you will be amazed to see something open and flow in your life. Until next week, this is Brenda Shaw, Shannon. Bye Bye.