Continuing on from part 7. The skills and talents we have and our ability to be rewarded for demonstrating them determines how others will value us within our communities.
When we deeply learn a skill through years of experience, our understanding within that field of endeavour, allows us to demonstrate our art with complete competence and confidence.
There is little fear involved so long as we do not become attached to the rewards.
What is Attachment?
Security and guilt can both arise from the quality of past actions, from the story we believe about what occurred.
Masters are the ones who actually manage to relate to situations and the people around them directly and freshly, rather than through the filters of memorised opinion.
Remember, when we do not understand, we will search our memories for a strategy to apply. We learn strategies from others that we trust, but we can never apply force the way a maser can. Not because we lack head memory, but because our sensitivity is not as finely tuned. We do not have the body memories.
From this perspective, attachment can be seen as fear, or insecurity from what is present to craving for that which is not. Attachment is the non acceptance of what is, what is un bearable, is not so much, what is happening, as our resistance or inability to stay present to it.
What adds so much to suffering is the concept of time - the idea that the this pain will be here forever, or we will "never get what we want. Religions may use the concept of an immortal soul that can be punished or rewarded through eternity to leverage this fear/desire.
In short attachment is preference of memory based concept over present reality - it is HUGE, and why even masters such as the Dali Lama or Gandhi may of needed to sit for 5 hours a day in silence to stay with grace. Toaist masters who hold zero concepts may find it easier to simply allow, but they are not trying to "change" the world.
Embodiment vs "In-mindment"
When I cling to the little scraps of wisdom and clarity that I do experience, by turning them into concepts. I am in effect taking body memories and trying to store them as head memories.
Functional body memories take time and rich experience to develop and refine. They are tuned to reality and are constantly being "improved upon with each instance of application. Opinions can be formed in seconds and last a lifetime.
Creating an item of knowledge to be remembered and re-applied later, may feel like a clever idea. What actually happens though. Is that I end up turning what may have been a sensation of understanding, into "an opinion".
Skills are updatable able response-able they allow us to balance or mould our actions to gravity and forces.
Opinions are static and react-able, which is why they "upset"us and make our actions non-graceful.
Is focus, the greatest challenge of our species?
By trying to store and share the understandings of masters, as items of transferable memory or knowledge, we de-tune ourself from the sensitivity that makes such wisdom valuable.
The more turbulence and conflict this creates, the more likely we are to seek extra "knowledge", even more strategy.
What we need is a reality check, its not so much about being reasonable - as about allowing a full appreciation of the situation as it is - minus the reasoning, the meanings and the assumptions. We tend to assume that without thinking there is no intelligence, what I find is the exact opposite. Ideas arise un-forced and complete when we "open" the filters of our bias, often fear based limited views.
Specialisation - Adaptation - Abundance or Scare City
Is specialisation about collecting head memories that can be repeated back succinctly as beliefs that we do not all share?
Or is it about developing real skills that remain sensitive and able to respond to threats and opportunities present in the dynamically changing reality we do share?
Belief ends up with us trying to adapt habits and habitats to the rigid conditioning of ideas not present - perpetuates conflict, fear, scarcity.
Skills end up with us becoming finely tuned to the current and changing conditions actually present - building trust, confidence and true abundance.
This concludes chapter 13 - Adaptation, thank you for reading, I hope you will join me for part 14 - Balance and Leverage
Wisdom as Action Series
Act 1 - Do you remember?
Act 2 - What is Love?
Act 3 - Feeling Swell
Act 4 - Bound to be Free
Act 5 - Trust Issues
Act 6 - Knowledge
Act 7 - All you Desire
Act 8 - Virtue Reality
Act 9 - @tension
Act 10 - Rote learning vs Understanding
Act 11- Morality Paradox
Act 12- Body Language
Act 13 - Adaptability pt1 - survival
Adaptability pt2- attunement
Adaptability pt3 - focus
Adaptability pt4 - nutrition
Adaptability pt5- sex and intimacy
Adaptability pt6 - shelter
Adaptability pt7 - beauty