"Life is full. In fact, life is so touching, curious, sad, exciting, scary, and bittersweet it's almost unbearable at times. But as human beings, we need to ask ourselves: 'Must we turn away from life's fullness?' To turn or not to turn — to stay open — this is the question. And this kind of questioning takes us deep into the heart of personal inquiry and shows us how to fully embrace our humanity," writes Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, the wife of Tibetan Buddhist master Dzigar Kongtrul, and the editor of two of his books (It's Up to You and Light Comes Through). She has studied and practiced in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for 25 years and now leads solitary retreats at Mangala Shri Bhuti's retreat center in Crestone, Colorado.
Mattis-Namgyel points out that one of the purposes of meditation practice is to witness the tug-of-war we have with our reactive mind: "When we exaggerate experience, we see what isn't there. And when we deny it, we don't see what is." In both cases, we are disengaged from the present moment. The author salutes the art of embracing all of our experience and that means not excluding things, people, or places that we find disagreeable or disgusting. Mattis-Namgyel also suggests that we embrace complexity. Part of this practice involves an honest admission that the world of things is basically unfixable. This frees us from dangerous messianic desires and liberates the mind from the stifling rigors of judgment and fundamentalism. A far better course is engagement which takes us beyond ego-centered fixing or the trap of complacency. In each of these paths, the emphasis is on the wisdom of the Middle Way of the Buddha.
Other topics covered in this edifying examination of openness are the practice of emptiness, not believing everything we think, dealing with he culture of truth, enjoyment beyond preference, the meaning of boundryness, meeting the perfect teacher, beyond "Blindism" and "Doubtism," and walking by faith. For more information on Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel go to www.ThePowerofanOpenQuestion.com.
