Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Under the Parkway — Blue Ridge Parkway, Aho Valley, Boone, North Carolina
Acceptance is not saying yes to all things--it is accepting the responsibility of saying no to what needs to be met with no.
Like the Buddha met suffering, and posited the 4 Noble Truths, emphasizing NO SUFFERING!!!
Equanimity is not being fine with everything. It is being fine with doing what needs to be done in every situation as it arises-- and allowing the situation to dictate what response we make here, now.
And not reading from some script, or acting mindlessly/heartlessly doing what we are "spozed" to do, when what we are supposed to do is decide in the moment what needs to be done here, now, and do it here, now and in every succeeding here, now that follows.
When Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind that blows where it will," he was saying that we cannot plot out before hand what we will do when and where and how.
We have to meet the moment free to do what is called for then and there the way it is called for then and there, without creating a tradition to serve in every moment that follows.
Do not become a slave to the past! Become servants of innovation, creativity, possibility, opportunity... Alive to the moment, free to do whatever our intrinsic intuition leads us to do--no matter what! That is equanimity! The freedom to act as needed in every moment. Not bound to act as we are supposed to in any moment.
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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One thought on “September 03, 2024 – B”
A subtle, but fundamental distinction, in what can be commonly (mis-) understood by ‘equanimity’.
I agree, it all comes down to acting from the wisdom of the moment, in each moment, without the memories of the past or imaginations about future, intervening to control what is done ‘now’.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
A subtle, but fundamental distinction, in what can be commonly (mis-) understood by ‘equanimity’.
I agree, it all comes down to acting from the wisdom of the moment, in each moment, without the memories of the past or imaginations about future, intervening to control what is done ‘now’.
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