Beyond Punishment and Reward

Beyond Punishment and Reward

When you think of the word

and the meaning of up,

what's the very next word

that comes to mind?

Is it down, or something else?

And if it was something else,

what would it be?

When you think of the word…right?

What do you think of next?

Do you think of the opposite?

Do you think of left

or do you think of wrong?

Where does your mind naturally go to

when you consider words that have meanings,

that appear to have opposite potentials

When you think of the word here,

As in I'm here,

then where are you?

Or where am I?

Are we also here?

Are we there?

Are we over there?

When you think of suffering,

What comes to mind?

What comes to heart?

Is it pleasure

or the release of suffering?

We've largely been living in

an enforced either/or construct,

even though we're all aware of AND.

Every concept has a spectrum of possibility.

Yet humans through education

and certain religions have come to

create a kind of forced polarity

competition and separation

This has resulted in a way of thinking

and being that could be

an illusion

What do you think?

Does it feel like an illusion,

the vacillation between the either/or?

For this politician or not for this politician,

for this vaccination or not for this vaccination,

a good person or not a good person

Even when we generalize

about regions of the world,

this state is that color, this state is that color.

and that means what?

Generalizations about entire countries

as if that somehow impacts

the soul of each person

Does it? What do you think?

How much sovereignty does

the individual have

in determining their identity

and their outcomes

and what is the path of practice

or the way to determine one's relationship

with one's identity?

Can we truly author it

or are we just simply stuck with

what ended up happening

based on our life story?

Do we truly reap what we sow?

We want to think so,

but then we wonder how people who are sewing,

terrible things like the poisoning of water,

the extraction of gas

through the blowing up of rocks

We want to think that, what?

What do you want to think about

those activities?

Have you even made that and either/or

has it informed your activism?

The riddle of being is here

We can't understand how someone

who could be a part of extraction

that leads to collapse…

How could they do that?

Don’t they also have a family

and why are they not

reaping what they're sewing

or experiencing the karmic wheel sooner?

Why aren't they stopped

before they do more damage?

Sometimes we wish it's more quick,

whether we acknowledge it secretly or otherwise

What way do you live?

Do you go about your day

from waking, to dressing, to eating,

to walking, to working,

to being with the pets and the children,

and your lover, your mother, your father

What approach

is it chosen

or a default setting?

I don't know about you all,

but I'm interested in exploring

something other than

up/down, here/there

good/bad, left/ right

and the punishment and reward structures

that have been seeped so deeply

into our consciousness

Such that

we can barely get out from under it

to think an original thought

When I think of my path of practice,

starting with leaving the corporate world,

leaving the corporate education system,

going to the mountain to study at the age of 24

now being 52 and

what have I got to show for myself

other than a chosen approach,

but I guess that's what I was looking for

An approach,

an approach I call intentional creativity,

which isn't just a way of making art,

but actually a way of living life

And at the root of it is inquiry

to question ourselves, our thoughts,

our defaults, our hopes, our dreams, our desires,

our relationship with suffering,

our very relationship with up and down

and not just to arrive at a middle path,

a place of neutrality or even inner peace

when the rest of the world is at war,

but actually to just be at cause

for doing the thinking at all

For asking the question,

How might I free my own identity

from the punishment and reward structures

set up by power-over systems,

by people I wouldn't invite to my dinner table?

Why would I allow the worldview of people

I wouldn't want to share a meal with,

to shape my consciousness any further

than I absolutely had to..?

There comes a point

a reckoning in all of our lives

where we simply say

enough

I must learn to think my own thoughts

I must discover the way to compassion

on my own terms,

but not just own as in alone, but on your own

within the context of community itself,

there's a continuity here

There's a morphic field been building

many, many, many, many years,

many thousands of people practicing

And there's an opportunity

for the kind of discovery and waking

and being that I know many of us seek

because you tell me and because I seek it with you

So let us go forward together

on a path of practice, an inquiry, discernment,

the awakening of true compassion

and the exit in each our own time

from punishment and reward.

What fertile deep, delicious place might exist

if we weren't always trying to

avoid suffering in this life or the next

or achieve reward in this life or the next,

what is there

when you remove that illusion

and you sit right in the center of self

or in my case,

I meditate standing

So when I stand right in the center of my myself,

it helps me stay alert to be in standing meditation

and inquiry and ask the impossible questions

of my heart and invite those along my red thread

to journey with me

I know there are more places for us

to explore together

and I'll be with you providing encouragement

for our journey

Big love, big love, big, beautiful love

coming to you from right where I am here

to right where you are, here, in my heart

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Blessings!Cloud Temple Painting by Shiloh Sophia

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