I needed to work on my elasticity today, so I thought I would take a couple of minutes between working on regression testing and attending a meeting to write an entry for my blog. It’s been a pretty ordinary morning here at the office. Once every three weeks a vendor releases upgrades to their software so we run through a fast cycle of regression testing to make sure that all of the core functionality still works as intended. My portion of that testing passed with flying colors this morning, so it was time consuming but fruitful.
Last night was not a good night for sleep. I spent most of the evening in family calls and they were not the most fruitful. One of the things that happens to people, as they go through any sort of crisis, the crisis allows our better angels to rise up. Then, Maya begins to rise up and counter whatever action they took or planned to take. I know from the years of dealing with Maya in my lifetime that Maya is unrelenting and unforgiving and, like water, seeks every crack and crevasse, worms its way in and cracks things open through its relentless pressure.
As the people around us succumb to Maya, then the pressure on us becomes greater and greater as well. The people around us are one of the entry points for Maya in our lives. It can certainly be a struggle to not allow that to happen. Recognizing Maya for what it is remains a huge part of that journey. Recognizing Maya does not free us from reacting or acting because of it, but the awareness gives us the glimmer of hope.
On the wall next to my desk I have a white 3x5 note card. On it is written one of the things I learned in “The Buddha Walks Into A Bar”.
“May all beings enjoy happiness and be free from suffering.”
*Maya - in the zen tradition, maya denotes that it is not a form of self-deception to acknowledge the physical world as real, however, the deception occurs when one assumes the physical world to be the only permanent reality.”
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Maya#Maya_in_Buddhism
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