In stretching the benefits of ambiguity, or at the very least, the appreciation of it, I’m reminded of the practice of Sitting. Sitting is primarily a zen practice in which one . . . sits. The references are numerous: sit and you will benefit. Depending on who you go to there are different levels of sitting. sitting while mulling over a health concern; sitting while ruminating over a family issue; or a work related problem. What occurs during the sitting (typically) is the opportunity to take a problem apart. Break it down. Make it work. Understand it. Most people cannot do that: Sit. But I’m not talking about most people – I’m just talking about the process – with no expectation or request that this should be done. I think my attitude is pretty clear on it. At any rate, what develops is a laundry list of solutions ranging from Inspiration to Psychotic – and this is good. Ambiguity can arise from these sitting observations. I believe sleep can reach these levels – as we get those moments at 2 a.m.: Now I remember that actor’s name – it was Robert Redford who played Death in the Twilight Zone!
There is Sitting or Zazen or Empty Meditation (as I sometimes think of it) that is more expansive than the rumination of a problem. The trick here is to:
1) Sit
2) Be (think of nothing)
3) As long as possible
Now there are many books which describe the process, but for me the main thing is keep the body relaxed, let the blood flow, and let the inner organs do their work. At first Sitting and Thinking of nothing – just Be - is near impossible to accomplish. Fine. But what happens after a certain amount of success is phenomenal. One discovers (at some point) that the mind or spirit or mind-spirit begins to do on its own what the rumination process was creating: an answer to our concerns.
Expect nothing; Accept everything
To see how our minds work in this regard, get a hand held electronic poker game (Blackjack would work, too). They usually come in funky red sparkly plastic for some reason. Play the game. What happens? The mind – wanting to win points (and how many times do we see people who play this game think of the numbers as money?) begins to anticipate wins and losses – usually in the form of new cards.
Example: I get [A A J 10 A] for my hand. My goal is to get four aces, so I “dump” the ‘J’ and the ‘10’ in the hopes that I’ll get another ‘A’.
Before I even press the new “deal” button for two new cards, my mind has calculated a number of scenarios: I could get another ‘J’ and ‘10’ or two low cards or another ‘A.’ See what happens? Within a tenth of a second the player now has available to her a dozen or so scenarios as to what will come up.
Often times we’ll hear players say: I knew I wasn’t going to win!
True. But – there were just as many other options available to draw from. We could’ve just as easily heard her say, “I knew an Ace was going to come up! I’m so lucky!”
The mind works that way.
It also can be reflective of our own personal nature, attitudes, experiences, etc. All of these things play into it, of course. And there are those who are gifted/natured/capable of playing without expectation – but there is still within all of us this nature to grab from a list of internal expectations which assist in our interpretation of messages that come to us.
A A A 2 A
