I've been doing some reading about the Buddhist idea that "Attachment to desire causes suffering." It is interesting to me because this is one of those often misquoted ideas. It's the same as the New Testament saying "the love of money is the root of all evil." People often forget the first part and just say "money is the root of all evil," when in fact, that is not the quote. The same is true here. I have heard many people say that one of the four Buddhist cornerstones is "attachment causes suffering." But this, too, is incorrect. It's not healthy or secure attachments that are at issue, it's the insecure attachments or the clinging or cravings that we have that lead to suffering.
At any rate, I started that trip down the rabbit hole of exploring this important Buddhist tenet because of my frustration with electronics. I know this has often been sort of funny, an amusing part of my journey in this lifetime that I zap electronics. But the truth is that while it can be amusing for those around me, it honestly is extremely frustrating for me. For example, I have tried everything I know how to do to transfer the pictures off of my phone onto my more permanent laptop. I've tried using iCloud, but the images end up teeny tiny. I've tried plugging the phone into the laptop and using the auto picture downloader, which just comes up with "error" messages. I've tried to open file explorer and manually move them. Most of the files it tells me are in an "incompatible format". For the rest, it very bizarrely will copy the file numbers of all the pictures, but they will all register as ONE photo: meaning that I will have a hundred copies of one image and none of most of the pictures. Finally, in desperation, I end up emailing myself the photos. This, too, usually ends up with teeny tiny pictures. We take the phone in to get fixed and are told the problem is with the laptop. We take the laptop in to be fixed and are told it's a problem with the phone. Does it cause suffering? Well, I wouldn't go that far. But it certainly causes frustration. What's the point in having a camera on my phone if none of the images are shareable or savable?
So it's caused me again to do another deeper dive: what do I need to learn here? And I think it does have to do with letting go of my attachments to certain outcomes, my attachments to specific ideas of the way things should go. Life isn't like that, or rather my life isn't like that. I can't dictate how things are supposed to happen. I make plans, but truly, they never play out the way I expect, and I need to learn a deeper flexibility around this.
Jonah calls this "Dudeism" which is apparently an official religion now. To quote their website: "Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man." For those of us who struggle with anxiety and perfectionism, this isn't easy. But I think it comes down to a couple things: first we just need to keep breathing through whatever happens. And second, in many ways it comes back to my own faith's call to trust. We have to trust that even death is not the horror we fear it to be, that wherever the journey takes us there will be beauty and lessons to learn, that God will be with us in everything we do and therefore if we rest in that Love that IS God, we will find goodness and joy.
On the practical side, here are two pictures I managed to email to myself of more plants I put in the other day. We are now traveling and visiting other gardens. But I'll have to figure out another way to get some of those pictures shared.
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