Tea with the Muse

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Beyond Punishment and RewardWhen 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 separationThis has resulted in a way of thinking and being that could be an illusionWhat 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 personEven 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 countriesas if that somehow impacts the soul of each personDoes 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 rocksWe want to think that, what? What do you want to think about those activities? Have you even made that and either/orhas it informed your activism? The riddle of being is hereWe 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 familyand 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 otherwiseWhat 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 fatherWhat 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/theregood/bad, left/ rightand the punishment and reward structures that have been seeped so deeply into our consciousnessSuch that we can barely get out from under it to think an original thoughtWhen 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 forAn approach, an approach I call intentional creativity, which isn't just a way of making art, but actually a way of living lifeAnd 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 allFor 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 peopleI 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 enoughI must learn to think my own thoughtsI 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 hereThere's a morphic field been building many, many, many, many years, many thousands of people practicingAnd 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 youSo 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 existif we weren't always trying to avoid suffering in this life or the n

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Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Tea with the Muse at teawiththemuse.substack.com/subscribe