Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The Way Things Are

The Way Things Are is the title of one of the chapters of the following book:

Title: The Art of Possibility
Authors: Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press. Boston, Massachusetts.

I was trying to flip through this book today and I think this chapter is quite worth a read. The chapter speaks of the concept of being present to everything that is happening, without resistance, and how doing so could create possibility.


It creates possibility in the same way that, if you are far-sighted, finding your glasses revives your ability to read or remove a splinter from a child's finger. At last you can see. You can leave behind the struggle to come to terms with what is in front of you, and to move on.

According to the authors, the practice of being with the way things are calls upon us to distinguish between our assumptions, our feelings, and the facts - that is, what has happened or what is happening.

Being with the way things are could mean that one has to consider:

  • clearing the "Shoulds"
  • closing the exits of escape, denial and blame
  • clearing judgements
  • distinguishing physical from conceptual reality

This is a chapter worth some pondering upon. I think I shall reread it again.

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