Natalie Goldberg: Catching Your Insight

“Sometimes it’s good to just shut up and pay attention.” Natalie Goldberg reminds us that it’s important to know human suffering, to not run away from it. Zen is about experiencing ourselves in the world as it is. “The world is us and the world is painful and crazy.” Natalie implores us: Don’t ignore the news. And when engaging the news, don’t expect things to be fair. Don’t look in the circumstances of the world for logic. Human lives don’t work this way. There is no ground of logic or fairness because most of us humans are run by desire, aggression, hatred, and delusion. It can be terrifying to drop the self-protective structures that our culture so happily provides for us. Spirituality can function as yet another means to run away from pain. But true practice, Natalie insists, is about opening ourselves up to the pain of the world and allowing creativity to flow. She quotes her beloved Bob Dylan: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Or finding anything. Life is about creating yourself and creating things.” It’s not enough to boycott or cancel people, products, events. This can be another way to avoid suffering. It’s about paying attention, being confronted by reality as it is, and creating the world we want to share.