How do I use this?
How do I use this?
Notice where this question comes from and where it takes us. How do you use a sunset? A poem? A smile? A moment of joy or love? Why not “How do I appreciate this?” Or “How can I be with this?” Or “How can I accept this with gratitude?”
I’ve been exploring and sharing ancient Chinese wisdom from the five-element acupuncture tradition. Not to learn healing or Chinese culture, but to be inspired by this different worldview to new perspectives relevant for our lives today. It is reshaping my experience of action, future, and life.
I asked a fellow learner how this exploration was landing for him, and he said, “I love it. But I do have the question of how do I use this.” This struck me as revealing one of the dominant contexts of our current culture – utility. Utility makes everything raw material to be used. Even ourselves.
In the explorations of Journey Into Wisdom, we are exploring new wisdom for life and living, for being alive, not just for utility. Not just to sell more, coach better, or lead better. But to live more deeply.
There is nothing wrong with utility in its proper place. But it can be the enemy of life, living, nature, and connection with the sacred if it becomes our constant context. It has become a cultural whirlpool for our lives. What can be our foundational context, instead?
With awareness, we can hold this question and look for choosing our context for living instead of the dominant default of utility. We can journey into wisdom. We can find meaning, value, satisfaction, and life. And aliveness.