Positive Intelligence method
Posted on April 03, 2024 by Kseniia Gasanova, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
“Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water.”
Zen Proverb
“My main motivation is shame,” says Anna. “When someone is supposed to come over, I clean the apartment as if my life depends on it. I’m obsessed with washing my hair every day so it doesn’t look greasy. Sometimes I eat a bucket of ice cream in one go, but I don’t do it in front of other people. Nevertheless, even then, I feel terrible shame for behaving like a pig. It seems to me that if there were no shame, I would really turn into a pig.”
The voice of the inner Judge sounds impressive, and it makes sense: it wants to convince us that without it, we would not cope. We would not cope without its iron fist and sharp remarks about our silly and helpless nature. Years of experience doing things “under the lash” lead us to forget that we can just do.
In daily routine, there are always unpleasant tasks: cleaning the apartment, talking to an annoying relative, etc. Nevertheless, while performing them, we do not necessarily have to suffer emotionally. All the suffering we experience is our own voluntary initiative.
There is a legend that once a Zen master was asked how his life changed after he attained enlightenment.
The master replied:
“Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water. After enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water.”
By training positive thinking, we learn to notice not so much what we do, but “where” we do it from. When performing a specific task, are we in a state of harmony with ourselves and the world? Or do we do it out of fear of the Judge – our own and those living in other people?
Nothing will change if one day we stop listening to the inner Judge and suffer emotionally. Yet, everything will change.
