Groundlessness

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Hand-drawn art by Rupali Bhuva
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Unbefangenheit
-von Meg Wheatley

Hoffnung ist das, was uns zum Handeln antreibt. Man hat uns beigebracht, dass der Traum von einer besseren Welt der erste notwendige Schritt ist, um eine solche zu kreieren. Wir entwerfen eine klare Vision für die Zukunft, die wir uns wünschen, dann legen wir eine Strategie fest, machen einen Plan und machen uns an die Arbeit. Wir konzentrieren uns strategisch darauf, nur die Dinge zu tun, die eine hohe Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit haben. Solange wir die Hoffnung am Leben erhalten und hart arbeiten, werden unsere Bemühungen die Welt schaffen, die wir uns wünschen. Wie könnten wir unsere Arbeit tun, wenn wir keine Hoffnung auf Erfolg hätten?

Von der Hoffnung motiviert, aber dann mit dem Scheitern konfrontiert, werden wir deprimiert und demoralisiert. Das Leben wird sinnlos; wir verzweifeln daran, die Dinge zum Besseren zu wenden. In solchen Momenten lernen wir den Preis der Hoffnung kennen. Anstatt uns zu inspirieren und zu motivieren, ist die Hoffnung zu einer Last geworden, die durch ihren Begleiter, die Angst vor dem Scheitern, schwer wird.

Wir alle müssen also die Hoffnung aufgeben und lernen, wie wir den Ort "jenseits von Hoffnung und Angst" finden können. Befreit von Hoffnung und Angst sind wir frei, Klarheit und Energie zu entdecken, aber die Reise dorthin erfordert Verhaltensweisen, mit denen wir nicht vertraut sind oder die wir aktiv vermieden haben. Hier sind einige Wegweiser für diese Reise, gesegnete Weisheiten, die aus den Erfahrungen derjenigen gewonnen wurden, die beharrlich und unerschütterlich am Ziel geblieben sind, auch wenn ihre Bemühungen wenig oder gar keine Ergebnisse gebracht haben.

RudolfBahro, ein bekannter deutscher Aktivist und Pionier, beschreibt den ersten Schritt: "Wenn die Formen einer alten Kultur sterben, wird die neue Kultur von einigen wenigen Menschen geschaffen, die keine Angst haben, unsicher zu sein." Bahro stellt die Unsicherheit als eine positive Eigenschaft dar, die besonders in Zeiten des Zerfalls notwendig ist. Doch ist es denkbar, dass Unsicherheit unsere Fähigkeit erhöht, an der Schaffung von etwas Neuem mitzuwirken?

Ich weiß nicht, was Bahro mit "unsicher" meinte, aber ich habe festgestellt, dass diejenigen, die ausdauernd sind, die einen langen Atem haben und mit der Zeit in ihrem Handeln klüger werden, nicht an Ergebnissen hängen. Sie suchen nicht nach Sicherheit in Plänen oder Ergebnissen. Sie tauschen Gewissheit mit Neugierde, Angst mit Großzügigkeit. Sie stürzen sich in das Problem, betrachten ihre Versuche als Experimente und lernen dabei. Diese Art von Unsicherheit wirkt anregend; die Menschen finden heraus, was funktioniert, anstatt Recht haben zu müssen oder sich Gedanken darüber zu machen, wie sie Misserfolge vermeiden können. Wann immer sie etwas entdecken, das funktioniert, gibt es einen riesigen Energieschub, der oft von einem Lachen begleitet wird.

Die Bereitschaft, sich unsicher zu fühlen, ist also der erste Schritt auf dem Weg jenseits von Hoffnung und Angst. Er führt zu dem weitaus schwierigeren Zustand: der Unbefangenheit. Das Wissen, dass nichts jemals gleich bleibt, das Lernen, mit der unerbittlichen Konstante des Wandels zu leben, die Erkenntnis, dass auch die guten Dinge nicht ewig währen, das Akzeptieren, dass der Wandel einfach so ist, wie er ist.

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Kernfragen zum Nachdenken: Was bedeutet Unbefangenheit für Sie? Können Sie eine persönliche Geschichte erzählen, in der Sie "Gewissheit mit Neugierde, Angst mit Großzügigkeit" getauscht haben? Was hilft Ihnen, die unerbittliche Konstante des Wandels zu akzeptieren?


Exzerpt aus: https://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/BeyondHopeandFear.pdf








Seed Questions for Reflection

What does groundlessness mean to you? Can you share a personal story of a time you exchanged 'certainty for curiosity, fear for generosity'? What helps you accept the unrelenting constant of change?

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20 Past Reflections
MA
Nov 12, 2022
"Groundless": when what I was standing on has been completely swept out from under my feet! Feeling a huge unknowing that is unsettling, like being shaken by an earthquake.
It helps to think that "There is nothing from which I cannot grow and learn."
AN
May 9, 2022
My desire is to surrender to what is, to "let Thy will be my will". It requires being in the present moment and keeping my heart open.
May 8, 2022
“Your work will bear fruit in 700 years or so.” (From the longer article, quoting advice the Dalai Lama gave to Westerners.) Wow. That’s a new time scale for me - I’m only 1/10th that old.
ME
Meha
May 5, 2022
Most of our anxieties are routed from insecurity and ultimately out of fear. The moment you start manipulating outcomes you start messing with the balance in life. And there goes the HOPE in thin air. If one starts addressing the fear and let things happen without worrying of the outcomes and just concentrating on actions that one has control over, you will notice all falls in place as it should be. This is the principle that i try to follow and it brings hope and content for me.
FR
May 5, 2022
I have often reflected on Chogyan Trungpa's quote on groundlessness: "The bad news is you are falling through the air with no parachute. The good news: there is no ground." I may have paraphrased. I continue to care for my husband who has been in decline the last five years and is now on hospice. Here, there is no hope; only love (along with exhaustion and grief). I have no idea how much he will suffer or how his death will occur. I don't know if I'd call this curiosity but I am attentive. The generosity also resides in that attentiveness.
DD
David Doane May 5, 2022
Thank you for the Chogyan Trungpa quote or paraphrase which I think we are all living to some extent and with some awareness. I am moved by what you shared. Thank you. I hope what you suffer also brings you great joy.
May 3, 2022
In my youth I felt groundless more often than grounded. I strived for certainty and it turned me into an anxious and unhappy person. Then death came for a beloved one and there was no thing I could do. That was the gift of my opening to a different way of being. Embracing (sometimes just allowing) uncertainty and breathing a lot and seeing beyond certainty and uncertainty to the many names for god. Light, generosity, beauty, truth, life, joy…the list goes on!!! With deep love to all beings, May you be well.
ME
me May 3, 2022
🌱
DL
May 3, 2022
As with most pieces like this, the"how to" of going beyond hope and fear is not dealt with, and humans are hardwired to those two emotions, as well as resistance to change! Getting comfortable with groundlessness and unpredictability takes much internal work, through presumably meditation and the courage to embrace, rather than push away, the uncertainty or "undesirable" condition. Much hard work, and much time; it will not happen overnight. It's complete overhaul of one's though processes.
ME
me May 3, 2022
🦋
AD
Adi
May 3, 2022
I am not sure what Germen word was translated as "insecure", but I think he might have meant "vulnerable".

Like the Fool in the tarot deck, walking toward the brink of a precipice leaving the safety of the ground behind.
JA
May 3, 2022
To me groundlessness connotes something frightening. To be grounded even in groundlessness is what I aim towards. Groundlessness is a feeling of anxiety. What helps me confront such an existence and experience is accepting it and finding a space of steadfastness during the experience by way of deep breath, by allowing attention to be over some object for a time, by watching the world as if for the first time. I am more of a visual person. Seeing the benign nature of objects. The world is truly beautiful even in its changing and spiralling-out of control-nature. This Beauty found in practice of Suchness helps me to find roots even in chaos. It is denoted best in a Zen Story known as Tigers and the Strawberries.
DD
Apr 30, 2022
Groundlessness means lack of ground or foundation, lack of anything to count on. As I see life, the ground we have is constant change. We can count on that. No change is an illusion. Actually, I exchanged certainty for curiosity a long time ago. There is no certainty. We live in the unknown. For me those are simply facts of life. As for exchanging fear for generosity, I'm working on it -- my fears have greatly dwindled, and I practice being more generous. What helps me accept the unrelenting constant of change is not seeing it as unrelenting which for me has a negative and oppressive connotation, and seeing change as 'that's life'. It helps that I've become pretty good at being in the present (we are alive only in the present), trusting what I believe to be right action in the present, and letting go of outcome.
ME
me May 3, 2022
Amen.🌷
JP
Apr 29, 2022
In my relatively long life journey ( I am 96 years old) I have encountered many ups and downs and there were a few times I felt groundlessness, a sense of sinking down without bottom, darkness without rays of hope. In such dark times of my life I felt and saw the light of based on the ground of unvaering faith. Faith is the light that hardly gets extingwished.
I felt dense darkness and groundlessness during the second stage of my lie. I felt helplessness and hopelessness. They were dark periods of my life. Light of Faith in the higher power helped me go through dense darkness and see the light. Keeping my mind open and curious, accepting myself as imperfect, mindfully reducing the noise in my mind, and being grateful to my family and friends for holding my hands when I was falli
ng down have been very helful to me.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
MA
Maja May 3, 2022
Thank you
VA
Apr 13, 2022
Wise and well-said. In the throes of mid-life, as I acknowledge that I’ve likely lived more than half my life, maybe much more, I’m awakening to the truth that peace and meaning now, as well as in coming to terms with death, depends on “accepting that change is just the way it is.” No easy task, but your clear and kind article helps a great deal in that process
Apr 12, 2022
I still wish that bad things won't last forever
BD
britt densford
Apr 12, 2022
When I hit this wall and experience the groundlessness, that is when I go to courage. I must dig deep and honor my willingness to experience failure and move forward anyway.
LB
Apr 12, 2022
We should be curious about what the day will bring. It's all impermanent.