(For more about Non-Identification, you can refer to RAIN work here)
Macbeth, in
Shakespeare’s play, laments "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is
a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." More
than a few people find a certain recognition in Macbeth’s conclusion. Life can
seem dark, confusing, lacking meaning. Without some wiser intervening point of
view, people get lost in similar perspectives.
With mindful
practice, however, over time we can see quite clearly that life’s not a tale
told by an idiot but a tale told by our own often baffled, frightened, sincere
younger selves at various levels of development through childhood, adolescence,
late teenage years, early adulthood, etc.
Our DNA
powerfully inclines us to name and mark strong experience. If we experience
something as dangerous, the mind leaves a marker—avoid this, run away. Or if
that’s not possible—hide, cower, conciliate. Some of our most vivid stories
about ‘life’ were composed to mark what we found terrifying and
bewildering once upon a time.
It’s so wise
to learn to hold all our stories, our disturbing feelings and awkward thoughts,
with kind attention. Mindfulness trains us, over and over, to hold feelings
(that are happening in the present but are triggered by trauma experienced in
the past) like wise and loving grandparents hold their children’s children.
The voice
that names our storyteller an idiot is just another one of our own confused
players who has not yet understood that the play is still being written. We
have certainly been poor players at times; we’ve strutted and we’ve fretted.
But it ain’t over yet.
Wise and kind attention is the only audience fit to
review the play as we’ve lived it so far—and the only author fit to discern
what’s yet to come.
