Practice and Freewill

Monk Enō
Monk Enō
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

We all have a will and we assert it whether we are aware of doing so or not. One of the things I have learned to respect is that even an unaware player can swing a powerful bat. It is not a competition, but it can be perceived that way.

Many times, the competition is the accumulated social fear. Millions of unaware, but entangled, people propagating their anxiety. In my opinion, this is why things like world peace or even local peace or household peace are so difficult.

We all know people who can bring the juice and skills required to meet and change that kind of karma. On the recent Papal visit to Washington DC, the streets were lined with people and for a few hours, major cities seemed like a peaceful hopeful place.

You are one of those people, are you aware of your wake?

The tried and true method of discovering all this about yourself is practice. Practice takes many forms. From saying the rosary and chanting to extemporaneous writings and channeling; from meditation to ecstatic dance. I have been using the word practice so far as a global catch-all. Practice is better thought of as a method within a framework. Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Zen are all frameworks.

I have left out the majority of Christianity on purpose; when Luther split, he purposefully left the contemplative and mystical behind opting for the black and white of dogma. There is a place on the human development curve for the organizational benefit of systems and rules. In the west this is not the leading edge of our human development.

The great traditions of the world are frameworks, containing many practices to move you from novice to mastery. While you may pick a practice because it is intriguing, it is important to understand that any practice you take on will need to grow with you.

While meditation is initially about sitting still through your aches and pains and calming the mind, it matures to moving through life’s aches and pains and calming the world. Therefore, you need a framework (and all that comes with it) of practices, guides and teachers.

There are many frameworks and multitudes of practices. We live in a time, when you can mix and match, sample and taste practices from many frameworks. This makes it a brave new world. No longer are you born into a dominant culture and forced to follow its paths.

There are many teachers of practices, there are very few teachers of frameworks. As a monkess friend of mine says, choose your captors wisely …

May your life go well.

Ever Changing Views

Just as we start out as a baby, grow into a kid, wind through puberty, become an adult and grow old, our capacity, perspectives and worldviews change. The same is true for …. (next)


Thank you for reading! Please follow Everyday Karma and check out my other publication The Zentrarian.

If you do not want to wait for the entire series the starting draft is Here on Kindle.

May your life go well.

Everyday Karma

The Five Ways to Work with Other People’s Karma

Monk Enō

Written by

Monk Enō

Zen Monk | Transformation Facilitator | Technology Integrator | Pubs: The Zentrarian and Everyday Karma | www.fiveranks.org

Everyday Karma

The Five Ways to Work with Other People’s Karma

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