Simplicity.
Most of the answers we need are already right here inside us. Our life's experiences were the training ground for where we are now ... but why do things get so mixed up if we already know the answers? Well, that's simple too. Some of the information we have come to accept as GOSPEL isn't GOSPEL but our personal experience and past hurts and disappointments discolor the way we react to things that happen to us now!
I heard a story on tv ... An elderly blind lady was being moved to a new old folks home ... On the way there, they were describing her room, the bed covers, the curtains ... and she said, "I love it!" They said, "Are you sure? You haven't even seen it yet!" and she said ... "I don't have to see it to know that I love it. I have to decide to love it so that when I see it, I really will love it.!"
Simplicity.
I liked that story ... It was more than positive thinking ... It said to me that most of the things we fear ... even the things that hurt us ... happen inside us, and often with very little input from anyone else! Other people don't hurt us. WE HURT US!
Simplicity.
The world that invites profound transformation is the one we carry within us. The only moment that offers the possibility of transformation and simplicity is this moment.
We do not need to look further than this moment, this world, to find the simplicity we hunger for. Simplicity and stillness are born of transcending our life but of radical change in our hearts and minds.
Learning to cultivate inner calmness, to care wholeheartedly for the moment we are in, to learn to release anxiety and agitation; these are lessons we can only learn while living our lives.
The source of happiness and unhappiness lies nowhere else but in our minds and hearts. We can make endless journeys to find happiness and engage in countless strategies to rid ourselves of unhappiness, but the key traveler on all the journeys and the central player in all the strategies is ourselves, and it is to ourselves we always return. There is a wonderful Zen saying, "The only Truth you find on top of the mountain is the truth you brought with you." We discover happiness through making peace with ourselves and the circumstances of our lives, not through trying to escape from them. nor through living in fantasies about the future. Our lives will continue to present us with unexpected challenges and opportunities. Our bodies will age and become fragile, our teenagers will rebel, our colleagues may frustrate us, financial demands will continue to appear. We will meet with allies and adversaries. We will be asked to find room in our hearts for the needs of others, to embrace our own demons, and to respond to the changing circumstances of each moment. We make peace with our lives through learning to connect with the simple truths of each moment. We make peace with our lives through learning to connect with the simple truths of each moment. As the "graffiti on the bridge tells us, "We are not in a traffic jam. We are the traffic jam."
The present moment we are in offers everything we need to discover the deepest serenity and most profound simplicity. There is not a better moment, a more perfect moment for us to awaken and uncover the immediacy and well-being we long for.
Tolstoy once said, "If you want to be happy, be."
Tolstoy once said, "If you want to be happy, be."
There is suffering ... There is an end to suffering.
Love and loss, frustration and contentment, intimacy and separation, praise and blame, beginnings and endings - this is the story of life. For each person who meets life with joy and ease, there is another who lives with fear and conflict. The story of life offers us possibilities of entanglement and intensity, or simplicity and ease. To discover the peace of simplicity we are asked to see through the layers of misunderstanding and confusion that camouflage the serenity that is possible for us.
Serenity, compassion and stillness are not accidents but consciously cultivated paths. They are possible for each of us, born of wisdom, dedication, and the willingness to clear the dust of entanglement. It is there for all, born of wisdom, dedication, and the willingness to see clearly.
Just as moments of delight will touch our lives and hearts, we will also be asked to respond to encounters with loss, failure, blame and pain. There will be times when we are separated from those we love, face disappointed dreams, experience loneliness and tension, or we are hurt by others. Can we be at peace with all these moments? Can we find a simple, clear understanding within our hearts vast enough to embrace the variety of our experiences?
Anyone can be at peace when showered with praise, kindness or adoration. Show me the one who stays serene and balanced in the midst of harshness and blame, this is the one who is truly at peace. If we do not know peace in our hearts, it will elude us in all the areas of our lives.
Peace is not the absence of the unpleasant or challenging in our lives. Peace is most often found in the absence of prejudice, resistance, and judgment. Learning to live with simplicity does not mean that nothing difficult, unpleasant, or challenging will happen to us. Meditation is not an attempt to armor ourselves against life's realities. Instead, it is about learning to open, to discover a heart as vast as the ocean that can embrace the calm and the turbulence, the driftwood and the sparkling waves.
Peace is not a denial of life but the capacity to be wholeheartedly with each moment, just as it is, without fear or avoidance. We learn to simplify; to strip away our expectations and desires, to let go of our fears and projections, and see the simple truth of each moment. Out of this simplicity is born an understanding and wise responsiveness that manifests in our speech, actions, and choices. We discover what it means to embrace our lives.
We need to be willing to be changed by the insights that come to us.
Understanding the rhythm of change, the beginnings and endings intrinsic to life, is an insight that invites us to let go more easily. To try to hold onto, maintain, or preserve anything in this life, inwardly or outwardly, is to invite the experience of depravation, anxiety, and defensiveness into our hearts. Learning to embrace and live in harmony with all the changes, the births and deaths, beginnings and endings that life will inevitably bring to each of us, is to invite stillness and serenity into our hearts.
Understanding the rhythm of change, the beginnings and endings intrinsic to life, is an insight that invites us to let go more easily. To try to hold onto, maintain, or preserve anything in this life, inwardly or outwardly, is to invite the experience of depravation, anxiety, and defensiveness into our hearts. Learning to embrace and live in harmony with all the changes, the births and deaths, beginnings and endings that life will inevitably bring to each of us, is to invite stillness and serenity into our hearts.
Simplicity is a journey that involves both our inner and outer worlds - they are interconnected, endlessly informing each other. Our lives are simply our hearts and minds taking form, made manifest. Our words, thoughts, actions, and choices are born within our hearts and minds. Untangling the knots of complexity found within our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, we learn to untangle the knots of our lives. We learn how to be at home in each moment with calmness, balance, and the willingness to learn. Simplicity is not passive, a benign detachment from the turbulence of life; it is a way of placing our finger upon the pulse of our life and discovering the way of liberation.
Patience is a gesture of profound kindness. We all have moments when we stumble and lose ourselves in our stories, fears and fantasies. And we can all begin again in the next moment, recovering a sense of balance and openness. Patience teaches us to seek an inner refuge of simplicity, balance, and sensitivity in even the most turbulent moments. It is about learning to be good friends to ourselves. Blame, judgement, and avoidance only divorce us from ourselves and exile us from the moment. Impatience always leads us away from where we are; wanting to jump into a better, more perfect moment. Impatience is the manifestation of resistance and aversion, it is the face of non-acceptance. Impatience never leads to the calm, simple contentment of being, but to perpetual restlessness and frustration. Patience is one of life's great arts, a lesson we learn not just once, but over and over. In the moments we find ourselves leaning into a future that has not arrived, we can PAUSE and learn to stand calmly in the moment. When we find ourselves frustrated with ourselves or another, we can remember that THIS is the very moment we are invited to soften our resistance and open our hearts ...
Compassion is another essential companion on the journey to simplicity. Simplicity is not only a gift of compassion for ourselves, but also for the world. Deprivation, poverty, and hardship will not be eased by ever more strategies, councils, or prescriptions. As Gandhi once said, "There is enough in the world for everyone's needs, but not enough for everyone's greed." Each moment we lay down the burden of endless need, we become a conscious participant in easing the sorrow of the world.
Of what avail is it if we can travel to the moon,
Compassion is another essential companion on the journey to simplicity. Simplicity is not only a gift of compassion for ourselves, but also for the world. Deprivation, poverty, and hardship will not be eased by ever more strategies, councils, or prescriptions. As Gandhi once said, "There is enough in the world for everyone's needs, but not enough for everyone's greed." Each moment we lay down the burden of endless need, we become a conscious participant in easing the sorrow of the world.
Of what avail is it if we can travel to the moon,
If we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves,
This is the most important of all journeys
And without it all the rest are useless.
This is the most important of all journeys
And without it all the rest are useless.
~ Christina Feldman, Author of
The Buddhist Path to Simplicity
Spiritual Practice for Everyday Life
Simplicity.
When bad things happen ... Don't fight it. Don't run away. Do what you can, if you can, when you can, and after you have done all that you can do, trust that you are where you are NOW to learn what you need to learn for what happens NEXT.
Simplicity.
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