Living the Zen Life

Radical amazement

Radical amazement

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
– Abraham Joshua Heschel

Y

es, AND…

…be aware and beware of the voices in your head that hold high standards and expectations of you. They may just be trying to set you up for “radical amazement” as a way to “radically abuse” you. Do you know what I mean?

Picture this: You get up in the morning, look at the world and you experience less than radical amazement. What happens then?

Well, “There’s something wrong here,” the voices will proclaim. “This isn’t the way it ought to be. You’re here working on personal development and spiritual practice and look at you, you’re still not where you ought to be. You’re treating life too casually…”

So instead of the possibility of radical amazement, you get radical abuse. Bummer.

A better practice, in my opinion, is to see how radical amazement happens (or doesn’t happen). What’s going on? If I’m not experiencing everything as incredible and I’m taking things for granted, what’s happening instead? Where is radical amazement? What is getting between me and radical amazement? When was the last time I experienced radical amazement? What was going on? Where was I? Was anyone else there? How did I see the world when I was looking at it through the lenses of radical amazement? What does radical amazement feel like?

Suddenly, without anything being different, I am there in radical amazement! Simply because my attention went into an inquiry about it.

Now that’s radically amazing!

What I love about awareness practice is it doesn’t require you to have a different experience than the one you’re having. It only asks that you look into the moment innocently and with much more depth than you ever have before. It asks you to get curious.

And in that curiosity, possibilities emerge.

Abraham Joshua Heschel’s quote reminds me of this Louis C.K. video. Enjoy! 😂

 

 

In lovingkindness,


If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume One).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Two).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Three).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons by Alex Mill.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Meditation and Reinventing Yourself.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, The Zen Life: Spiritual Training for Modern Times.

 


  Alex Mill trained in a Zen Buddhist monastery for nearly 14 years. He now offers his extensive experience to transform people’s lives and businesses through timeless Zen principles.

He is the creator of three powerful 30-day programs, Heart-to-Heart: Compassionate Self-Mentoring, Help Yourself to Change, and Your Practice, as well as the online Zen meditation workshop, Taming Your Inner Noise (now offered as The FREE Zen Workshop).

Alex has also written seven books on Zen awareness practice. The latest are entitled A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons (Get it for FREE here) and the 3-book series Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness.

He is a full-time Zen Life Coach who offers guidance and life-changing support to his private clients worldwide. Book a call.