Reading the Label From Inside the Jar
It can't be done. The challenge is knowing it can't be done. We are all in different jars at different times for different reasons and each and every time we are in a jar we seldom are aware of it. It's a phenomenon we all experience. We give advice, good advice, that we seldom follow ourselves not because we don't believe in it but because we are unaware of the jar we are in at that moment.
The latest cosmological science speaks about dark energy and dark matter and how these comprise most of what is in the universe. Even though we know they are there we haven't quite been able to clearly define exactly what they do or why they exist. Humans find themselves in similar situations with their respective jars. It's why hindsight is always twenty twenty with us. The mechanism that enables us to grow is to mindfully approach learning.
I once had a friend who was a capoeira practitioner. At his promotion ceremony which they refer to as their batizado, there was a young master from Brazil in the jogo, the game in which two capoeiristas were playing. This is capoeira's form of no contact sparring. The beauty of the jogo is something to witness particularly in person. Apparently the jogo became very intense and contact was not only made but one participant received the other player's actions as an intent to harm. It was at that moment the two players found themselves in an old school rough and tumble street fight with any remnants of the years of capoeira training dismissed for wild punches, elbows, shoving, and head locks. The senior instructor broke up the fight and proceeded to reprimand them not for fighting but for losing their discipline and resorting to non capoeira tactics.
Emotion has a way of doing this to all of us. Whether they are the survival emotions of anger, fear or anxiety, or the creative motions of love and lust, the feelings we experience will have us behaving in ways that make it obvious we are not reading the label of ingredients of the jar we are in at that time. It is only when we exit the current jar for another that we may examine the label but how many of us actually do this?
The practice of reading the labels after the fact is the only way we can ensure ourselves that we don't make the same choices the next time around and this is important because we are going to inevitably make new mistakes. To make the same mistakes is a waste of our time. This is done in the approach, the mindset. Start to create the habit of asking yourself what can I learn from this experience and situation. There is always something to learn from a situation. It is up to us to create this frame of mind so that we may be able to get in and out of our jars with minimal effort.
The latest cosmological science speaks about dark energy and dark matter and how these comprise most of what is in the universe. Even though we know they are there we haven't quite been able to clearly define exactly what they do or why they exist. Humans find themselves in similar situations with their respective jars. It's why hindsight is always twenty twenty with us. The mechanism that enables us to grow is to mindfully approach learning.
I once had a friend who was a capoeira practitioner. At his promotion ceremony which they refer to as their batizado, there was a young master from Brazil in the jogo, the game in which two capoeiristas were playing. This is capoeira's form of no contact sparring. The beauty of the jogo is something to witness particularly in person. Apparently the jogo became very intense and contact was not only made but one participant received the other player's actions as an intent to harm. It was at that moment the two players found themselves in an old school rough and tumble street fight with any remnants of the years of capoeira training dismissed for wild punches, elbows, shoving, and head locks. The senior instructor broke up the fight and proceeded to reprimand them not for fighting but for losing their discipline and resorting to non capoeira tactics.
Emotion has a way of doing this to all of us. Whether they are the survival emotions of anger, fear or anxiety, or the creative motions of love and lust, the feelings we experience will have us behaving in ways that make it obvious we are not reading the label of ingredients of the jar we are in at that time. It is only when we exit the current jar for another that we may examine the label but how many of us actually do this?
The practice of reading the labels after the fact is the only way we can ensure ourselves that we don't make the same choices the next time around and this is important because we are going to inevitably make new mistakes. To make the same mistakes is a waste of our time. This is done in the approach, the mindset. Start to create the habit of asking yourself what can I learn from this experience and situation. There is always something to learn from a situation. It is up to us to create this frame of mind so that we may be able to get in and out of our jars with minimal effort.
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