Innit though? It is ...

Not many updates lately because I’ve had a bit of a pain in my face in work [VERY unusual for me] and when I’m not on form, the old creative brain tends to switch well and truly off. So, without covering all the ins and outs of what’s annoying me, I wanted to post a slightly more philosophical update than usual!

In the last year or so, loads of people have taken to saying “It is what it is” and it’s been REALLY irking me. It’s not the phrase itself that bothers me, but the way that people are using what is a pretty profound statement in such a throwaway fashion – usually at the end of a big long moan, when they reach a kind of “ah, feck it, there’s nothing we can do about it anyway” point in their thinking. Now maybe I’m being an arrogant dick and actually they’ve ALL gotten the depth of what they’re saying, but really, for the most-part, I think they’ve just adopted it as the latest bit of cool business-jargon.

The other day I happened upon a web-page, which led me to another one where a guy I kind of know had made numerous, very intellectual, posts about his thoughts on someone called Eckhart Tolle. I had never heard of him and although this chap seemed to be following Tolle’s teachings in a fairly earnest way, I was interested enough to spend the next half an hour watching some very thought provoking YouTube clips (including some featuring the brilliant Jim Carrey singing his praises) and then some of his video podcasts on iTunes (can be found through his official website too).

And what did I find at the core of what this guy was teaching? Yep – the simple truth that stuff just …. is! Whether we take is as good or bad is down to our own thoughts and the habitual, learned mindset we bring to it. He also commented a lot on the fact that we tend to catastrophise and imagine the worst possible future, getting carried away with ourselves in a big way.

His solution? Get practiced in being “in the now”. What happened in the past is no longer happening and therefore not directly influencing current events – it’s only your thoughts (which can tend towards the negative) and memories that are playing it out. The future will never arrive; it’s always in the future. So that only leaves the now and, without wanting to sound too trite, that can be anything you want it to be. So, as a hypothetical example (no, really, it’s not a cloaked confession lol), someone pisses you off in work and you go home and are brooding about it all evening and this is affecting your mood and the people around you. Fact is, that person is not even there with you – fact is, you are with the people you love, in a comfortable house, with a lovingly prepared dinner in your belly … and yet you ignore those positives; you ignore the reality of the “now”.

It’s simple stuff, as old as the hills, and I’ve even referred to the same principles dozens of times, in various ways, when coaching or counselling people, but it all just clicked with me at the right time and in the right way, so I figured I’d try and spread the word a little bit.

On top of that, this evening, on the drive to Cork, I listened to some CDs that were talking about the writings of Shanti Deva that drove a lot of these messages even further home, as well as bringing lots of new perspectives and ideas [in fairness, I’m not turning into Adrian Mole - the cover was totally misleading and I thought it was going to be more of a management type CD, but there you go – serendipity at work again]. Specifically, the author was talking at length about Chapter 6 of the Bodhicaryavatara, which focuses on patience. At first I thought it was going to be a load of wank (pardon my Francais) but after sticking with it, the message had soaked in both conceptually and physically and I no longer needed to expend so much – or in fact, any unnecessary - mental energy on the people and situations causing me stress.

I drove the remaining 45 minutes into Cork city in the car I love, at a speed I love, in cracking weather and arrived in a surprisingly smashing hotel, where I had been upgraded to, of all things, one of their relaxing spa rooms! LOL! Brilliant!

So, anyway, that’s my bit done for spreading the spiritual word; give those links a click and maybe they’ll be of use / interest to you some time soon.

I’m off now to download “Now That’s What I Call Spiritualism 1” so I can have a bit of me-time in my room.

See, I couldn’t even do one update without trying to be Mr. I’m So Funny.
Ah well, I suppose I(t) is what I(t) is!