Vulnerability and Nothing at Stake

This week I was reflecting on how we consistently misunderstand vulnerability and miss its promise. When we see it as weakness or brokenness, our energies move toward management, reactivity, or even shame. However, vulnerability actually points to the very heart of interdependence and impermanence. The experience of vulnerability in a human body is the reality of dukkha. So vulnerability is another way of speaking about the Buddha's Three Marks of Existence.  We are vulnerable because we arise together with all beings. We shape each other and are shaped through our relationships with everything. And, when we can drop our clinging to the illusion of a stable, individual self, we find we no longer have anything at stake. Nothing to defend. We have the opportunity to enter the flow of existence with nothing to gain and nothing to lose. Here are my brief reflections and the intimate Inquiry that ensued.

Inquiry recording:
https://soundcloud.com/appamada-zen/2014-04-15-inquiry-flint-sparks