Heather Martin in Port Townsend, Jan 24-25, 2009

As I posted last month, Vipassana teacher Heather Martin will be in Port Townsend to lead a two-day non-residential retreat on the weekend of January 24 and 25 of 2009.  Please note that the location of the retreat has changed from the previous posting!

Details on the retreat location, times, and transportation are in this post.

(As before, I am reposting Selden’s email about retreat details.  Please respond if you plan to attend the retreat and have not yet let Selden know you are coming or if you need any help in getting here.)

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Honesty

One of my tasks at the end of 2008 was to choose a word that encapsulated my intent for the coming year.  The way I “chose” a word was simply to watch what arose.  Then I sat with the word for a while to see if it fit, or if something else arose.

The word that came up for me was “honesty.”

What does “honesty” mean?  For me, it includes mindfulness; perhaps the best summary is “clear seeing.”    To me, being honest means seeing what is actually true, and to be clear about the difference between what is true and what I want to be true.

I was asked whether I was talking about deception.  My answer was “no, deception was not an issue for me.”

Inevitably, if I see what is actually true, and sees how that differs from what I wish, I will sometimes discover self-deception.  However, the focus is on seeing clearly, and if that seeing includes seeing self-deception, well, so what?  That’s just another thing to see.

Seeing clearly can bring pain, as it highlights how reality differs from how I want things to be.  And that difference leads to the need to make decisions.

I’ll be revisiting this issue in future posts.

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