Saying Yes To Life As It Is
Zen teacher Ed Brown is a brilliant cook and founder of the
Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, famous for its natural foods cuisine. But
during Ed’s early days as a cook at the Tassajara mountain retreat center, he
had a problem. No matter what recipes or variations in ingredients he tried, he
couldn’t get his biscuits to come out right.
His unreachable standard, as he discovered, was set years
earlier—growing up he had “made” and loved Pillsbury biscuits.
Finally
one day came a shifting-into-place, an awakening: not “right” compared to what?
Oh, my word, I’d been trying to make canned Pillsbury biscuits! Then came an
exquisite moment of actually tasting my biscuits without comparing them to some
(previously hidden) standard. They
were wheaty, flakey, buttery, “sunny, earthy, real.” They were incomparably
alive, present, vibrant—in fact much more satisfying than any memory.
These
occasions can be so stunning, so liberating, these moments when you realize
your life is just fine as it is, thank you. Only the insidious comparison to a beautifully prepared,
beautifully packaged product made it seem insufficient. Trying to produce a biscuit—a life—with
no dirty bowls, no messy feelings, no depression, no anger was so frustrating. Then savoring, actually tasting the
present moment of experience—how much more complex and multi-faceted. How unfathomable…
There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about
saying Yes to our entire imperfect and messy life. With even a glimmer of that
possibility, joy rushes in.
Yet when we’ve been striving to make “Pillsbury Biscuits”
for a lifetime, the habits of perfectionism don’t easily release their grip.
When mistrust and skepticism creep in, we might be tempted to back down from
embracing our life unconditionally.
It takes practice, learning to bounce back each time we’re
dragged down by what seems to be wrong.
But as Ed points out, when we stop comparing ourselves to some assumed
standard of perfection, the “biscuits of today,” this very life we are living
right now, can be tasted and explored, honored and appreciated fully.
When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say Yes to our life
as it is.
From Radical Acceptance (2003)
For more information go to: www.tarabrach.com
For more information go to: www.tarabrach.com
