In the tradition of zen I shall use it during practice. As a glass half empty I need to learn how to understand.
Great!
I remember getting a riddle in my teens I later learnt was a kind of kōan, similar on happyho:
"A great philosophical official, Riko, once asked this strange Zen master, Nansen, to explain to him the old Koan of the goose in the bottle. ” If a man puts a glossing into a bottle” said Riko, ” and feeds him until he is full grown, how can the man gets to goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?” Nansen gave a great clap with his hand and shouted, “Riko!”
“Yes master” said the official with a start
” See, ” said Nansen, ” the goose is out!”
It is only a question of seeing, it is only a question of becoming alert, awake, it is only a question of waking up. The goose is in the bottle if you are in a dream, the goose has never been in a bottle if you are awake. and in the dream there is no way to take the goose out of the bottle. Either the goose will die or the bottle will have to be broken and both alternatives are not allowed: Neither the bottle should be broken nor has the goose to be killed. Now a fully grown goose in a small bottle … how can you take it out? this is called a Koan.
A Koan is not an ordinary puzzle, it is not a puzzle because it cannot be solved. A puzzle is that which has a possibility of being solved. You just have to look for the right answer. You will find it – it only needs intelligence to find the answer to the puzzle, but a puzzle is not really insoluble. A koan is insoluble, you cannot solve it you can only dissolve it. And the way to dissolve it is to change the very plane of your being from dreaming to awake fullness."
To me in that kōan sense, your glass is half full. Building on that it is full.
Dissolving the problem is one way of seeing it, looking back to it. But in my life the problem dissolved best and automatically when I was able to take a leap of faith to the solution. I'd long known of being in the Here and Now. But it was the image of standing safely on firm ground before a chasm that suddenly brought it home and finally relieved anxiety in 15 areas, starting with my fear of height (now down from 80% to 1%). Only after that clicked did I realize it was the concept of Here and Now.
Dissolving my fears = inner films of what happened in the past or what could happen in the future can work, but done in the wrong way we get triggered and stuck. Like do NOT think about pink elephants. Do NOT be afraid. "Just relax!" "Be spontaneous!" Yeah, sure!?
There are ways I do manage and even have to dissolve inner films: One is submerging myself into my pain, which I learnt when coping with social anxiety (face - accept - float - let time pass), and is very useful now - it then loses all meaning and suffering, realizing that distraction made it worse, when I concentrate on it. Another is decelerating my chatterbrain at night like turning a spool of film slower and bringing it to a stop on a frame, but holding it there. A third is after I've dreamt or imagined a catastrophe to turn the spool backwards again. A fourth reimagining and reframing (nightmare therapy: seeming sharks become dolphins, someone chasing me becomes someone bringing me my wallet back etc., falling becomes flying etc.)
I'm now trying to think thru why I was plugging "the leap of faith to the solution" first and now have found many examples how I try to "dissolve the problem"....:
In the case of direct fear of what might happen (fall etc.) I can do this as well, I can face and 'surf' on the panic and dissolve it (or partly). But usually now I try to concentrate more on the sensation that I am safe Here and Now. And Now. And Now. That's reminding and practicing and habituating at the same time.
Ah, I think there's a time when this is too late, when the panic is too big, maybe that's when I go into dissolving mode. And then swing back to the faith/mindfulness.
Many things need to be learnt, practiced, become a habit, but it's much accelerated when the solution to a mind screw suddenly "clicks", we finally make a firm unwavering decision to see it that way, and then can work thru it and refinish all the bits left by practice and habituating. The fundamental one there is probably again Radical Acceptance.
That may be why I nowadays am able to implement new habits after 3 repetitions instead of 30. What hampers self-discipline somewhat is all the flow in my head, all my new ideas, which is however very useful for enjoying life to the full, good days or bad, so that's OK for me.
May our internal glass always become so full that we can dissolve the external ones some day...
❤
- I've already got 3 ideas what you might be referring to... 
