Sincerity Versus Seriousness

I've been busy all week with back to back students at the college, all coming in last minute, (actually, after the fact) for their priority registration, wanting to know what classes they should take next semester. Many of the classes they want have already closed because registration started 9 days ago. Oh, the life of a student. I remember the days.

I've also been working on the schedule for the Enlightenment Intensive that my friend Patrick and I are co-mastering on May 1st. I finally have that finished. Yeah! Twenty things down, fifty to go! It's all good. I'm excited.

Tomorrow Jerry, Patrick and I leave for an Enlightenment Intensive at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in SoCal. It will be the perfect space for me to clear my mind and move closer to the Truth. I'm really looking forward to the work. Yesterday, when I mentioned to a friend that I was taking this Intensive very seriously, I was told that Charles Berner, the man who created the Enlightenment Intensive, said there was a difference in being serious and sincere. I got that immediately. Here's the difference, dictionary wise.

Sincerity: freedom from deceit, hypocrisy, or duplicity; probity in intention or in communicating; earnestness.

Seriousness: showing, or characterized by deep thought; of grave or somber disposition, character, or manner; a serious occasion; being in earnest; sincere; not trifling; His interest was serious; requiring thought, concentration, or application; giving cause for apprehension; critical.

Since being earnest was in the definition for both, I looked it up too.

Earnest: Marked by or showing deep sincerity or seriousness: an earnest gesture of goodwill. Of an important or weighty nature; grave.

Ha, "deep sincerity or seriousness". When we were discussing sincerity and seriousness I thought of being earnest and how this was a quality I possessed a lot of in my younger years. Everything seemed so important, weighty and grave in nature. I'm not really so fond of "being earnest" these days, although surely there are worst things to be, like glib and cynical. These were words I actually used to describe myself with some sense of pride. My nature is really not glib or cynical but I have learned to take on these qualities in a superficial way. I've learned to appreciate glib and cynical attitudes in a very non-serious, non sincere and non earnest way. Maybe the term I'm looking for here is "feigned glibness". Perhaps it's a coping mechanism for dealing with the sometimes unbearable harshness of the human condition. My way of being in the world reflects a preference for taking things a little lighter now--a sweet lighthearted sincerity sprinkled with some feigned glibness.

So, with all of that, I'm heading off to this Enlightenment Intensive with sincerity of intention to know the truth of What I Am. I'll hopefully we weeding out some lies. I'll be back on Monday.