{"id":952,"date":"2017-01-23T02:43:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T02:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zatma.org\/new-wp\/?p=952"},"modified":"2017-01-23T03:07:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T03:07:51","slug":"nothing-in-life-has-lines-around-it-we-draw-the-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/?p=952","title":{"rendered":"Nothing in Life Has Lines Around It We Draw the Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yao<\/a><\/p>\n

Yao Xiang Shakya<\/a><\/p>\n

What is true everywhere, for everyone\u2026all the time?<\/p>\n

We are born, we appear, we get sick, we grow old and we die. That is true everywhere, for everyone\u2026all the time. It is the cycle of life. Yet, in the propaganda of the mind, the ground of fabrication, we are drawn away from the true line of events over and over again.\u00a0 Instead, we look at the lines we draw, those imaginary lines drawn in the shifting sands of the material world of the mind.<\/p>\n

We spend most of our time drawing these lines, pulling on them, reeling them in, darkening them, and continuing them in order to maintain the ignorance of our puny view. \u00a0We insist. We prolong. We protract. We believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

We ask. Is this admonition enough?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

But our puny view wants more when we look, we want to look for some entertainment, we want to look like somebody, and we want to look acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

We look for more.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

No matter what the circumstances, we are advised to look, look, look.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

There is no direction given, no proposition, no hint of what to look for or what to look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is a story of a man in misery who goes to the sage for some advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so sad and unhappy,\u201d the man declares as he looks into the face of the sage.<\/p>\n

The sage nods his head and whispers, \u201cI see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I am miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again the sage nods his head and repeats. \u201cI see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man decides to define and draw out his sadness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am miserable because I want to go into business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d the sage begins.<\/p>\n

The man is uncertain, does not know what the sage means for him to do. The man decides to further explain his situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am miserable because I want to go into business, but I have no money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage again.<\/p>\n

The man wants to clarify further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am miserable because I have no money to go into business. If I had money, I could go into business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

The man takes a deep, coarse breath and begins to feel anger in his misery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you are listening to me. I am sad and miserable because I have no money to go into business and I have no way of getting any money to go into business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

Now the man begins to forget about his sadness and misery of having no way to get the money to go into business and begins to raise his voice at the sage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not listening to me. I am telling you I have no way to get the money to go into business!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

The man begins to feel a burning in his body and in his mind. His sadness and misery begin to be overtaken by the fire of anger and hate. He wants to yell and scream at the sage.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook!\u201d the man shouts. \u201cListen to me! You are not listening to me! All you keep saying is this stupid thing\u2026.look, look, look\u2026what in hell does that have to do with the fact that I am miserable because I have no way to get the money to go into business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

The man crumples over in an agony of rage, sorrow and misery. He begins to weep. His hands are on the floor in fists. He wants to pound something. He is as the saying goes, beside himself. <\/em>The sage looks at him and touches the top of his head and says,<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d says the sage.<\/p>\n

This is the Way to have a simple life. This is the Way of simplicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! Look! Look!\u201d<\/p>\n

What is true everywhere, for everyone\u2026all the time?<\/p>\n

Reference for Nothing in Life Has Lines\u00a0Mike Sibley, Drawing from Line to Life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a world that seems more complex, intricate and confusing, Yao Xiang Shakya offers the Way of simplicity in Nothing in Life Has Lines Around It…We Draw the Lines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-essays-by-yao-xiang-shakya","tag-essays"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}