{"id":539,"date":"2010-10-03T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T21:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/?p=539"},"modified":"2010-10-09T10:36:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-09T16:36:59","slug":"escape-from-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/?p=539","title":{"rendered":"Escape from Paradise?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(from travel journal dated Friday October 1, 2010)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/strong><\/a>

My writing spot in Villa #1<\/p><\/div>\n

Got up early today and happy as I assumed that the Internet was back up and that I could get a ton of work done.<\/strong>\u00a0 Very eager to get some of the women’s conference work done but foiled again!!! No Internet still!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

8:15 PM <\/strong>I <\/strong>was just\u00a0berating myself for having not written today when I realized that this is all I have been doing! Blogging, journaling, facebooking and documenting everything\u00a0with pictures with captions!! Ok this begs the next question\u2026what am I doing all this for?\u00a0 Who am I writing to?\u00a0 Okay perhaps more importantly\u2026why am I hearing drum beats and loud singing\/chanting near my cottage? I am finding the sound of the rain very unnerving.<\/div>\n

<\/a>I realized I came here to face my fears.\u00a0 I keep trying to be in denial of it because\u00a0it just doesn\u2019t seem to make sense\u2026this is not what I came for.\u00a0 I came to write and to escape but am slowly beginning to accept that there is no escape.\u00a0 Suffering is everywhere\u2026even in paradise.\u00a0 Buddha says suffering is inevitable,\u00a0this is one of the\u00a04 noble truths<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Waiting out the Storm<\/p><\/div>\n

I also just realized how once again my fear exists in my ego. This is not supposed to be about me.\u00a0 I forgot that my job as an artist is to sacrifice myself on the altar of creativity. When I look at it like this I am unafraid I am on a mission and prepared to die. I\u2019m living my vision right here and now by being here and I don\u2019t even want to realize this.\u00a0 I had a vision to travel and write and paint. I\u2019m sitting here in a little hut in the tropics with no AC with my laptop\u00a0on this\u00a0small wooden table.\u00a0 It is raining steadily outside.\u00a0 It seems that it has been raining for 10 days straight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sitting with yourself can be very challenging.\u00a0 I continually want to change my situation but am learning that this is futile so\u00a0I’m considering the below…<\/p>\n

The Four Noble Truths<\/strong>\u00a0were the first teaching of Gautama Buddha<\/strong> <\/a>after attaining Nirvana. They are sometimes considered to contain the essence of the Buddha’s teachings:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering\/uneasiness (dukkha<\/a>) in one way or another.\n

  2. Suffering is caused by craving. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness. Craving also has its negative aspect, i.e. one craves that a certain state of affairs not exist.<\/li>\n
  3. Suffering ends when craving ends. This is achieved by eliminating delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state<\/a> of Enlightenment (bodhi<\/a>);<\/li>\n
  4. Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path<\/a> laid out by the Buddha. (Wikepedia)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are your thoughts on the above?\u00a0 Is suffering an inevitable part of life as a human and do you accept this or attempt to change it?\u00a0 Drop me a line <\/strong><\/a>and let me know your thoughts.<\/p>\n

    To participate in my non-fiction book about\u00a0women living their visions, by answering\u00a0 a brief survey and telling us your story, please visit The Vision Quest Survey<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    (from travel journal dated Friday October 1, 2010) \u00a0 Got up early today and happy as I assumed that the Internet was back up and that I could get a ton of work done.\u00a0 Very eager to get some of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nicolecutts.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}