I don’t know about you but sometimes I just need to be reminded.
“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.” Mohandas Gandhi
Nice one. Thanks Mahatma Ji, for this “common sense is uncommon” perspective you left us, because it does seem that so much of what I do is unimportant and in many ways, it is indeed, but I must do it anyway.
I get up; attend to my physical needs; retired now so not running off to work but still have “people to see, calls to make, errands to run, this ‘n that.”
Where, in all that, is my life, because I know for sure none of that is, not with a capitol “L” anyway?
(I do know what my real life is, not asking for advice, thanks anyway; just sayin’ how easy it is to get distracted. The question is rhetorical.)
Heard of Mirabai? She was, apparently, a very wealthy princess centuries ago who left her family, her comforts and her title to look for that “big L.” Legend has it, she did find that, in an incredible way. When her family begged her to come home and return to “normal” her reply was:
“I have felt the swaying of the elephant’s shoulders; and now you want me to climb on a jackass? Try to be serious.”
I see no reason my own experience, here in 2010 on Planet Earth, cannot be just as profound and powerful as a gal who lived hundreds of years ago, considered to be an ecstatic poet; someone whose life was permanently altered when she discovered a reality apart from what had always been presented to her.
Because of that discovery, she’s still talked about today; we turn to her, when we need our own reminder. I do anyway because I can relate. She was human. I’m human. Nothing’s changed, not really.
I also need to be reminded that just because the nutballs of this world get a lot of attention, just because we tend to see and hear them more via media in no way proves they are the majority. I guess that’s what Jon Stewart was trying to say with his “Restore Sanity” rally on October 30, and what sweet Gandhi again left us:
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
Stewart’s description reminds me of exactly the same thing:
“Ours is a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) — not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence… we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point.”
http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/
When I start to look too closely at world leaders, be it political, religious, or spiritual, to help me out of the latest trench I may have dug for myself I need this reminder, a nice one from a guy who happens to still be alive and kicking, Prem Rawat.
“Who are we waiting for? We look up to the sky, waiting for the angel to come down and fix all of our problems. You are the angel that can fix your problems.”
Kabir, an Arab born in 1440, is someone I would love to hang with today. I’d not be the least bit intimidated by him. What he wanted, I want. What he felt, I feel. He’s held in high esteem for his understanding but I’m sure if I met the guy today, I’d not consider him more special than many of my other lovely friends.
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty,” he’s famous for saying. What does that mean? Is it something so enlightened those of us alive today can never understand it?
Hell no. It’s simple. Not easy, but simple. All he’s saying is that I search for what will fulfill me, what will bring me contentment and sense of completion, but where can it be found?
Duh! Where we all know it is, and give lip service to, but still find ways to forget about: inside of us. We’re swimming in all that good stuff, every single moment.
“You don’t grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house; and you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look,” Kabir continues.
Man, talk about a reminder. That’s me, for sure, way more than I’d like to admit when I’ve once again gotten distracted by distractions; wandering around unconscious, forgetting the most important thing.
So what’s the solution? To renounce? Head to the hills? (Himalayas of course) Move to a monastery/ashram or other version of a group home so none of the big, bad delusions of the world can get to me?
Not my style.
What I can do, though, is hang out for awhile each day with the true reality of who I am and what I’m doing. I can take some time to put my attention on that before I go flying out the door.
Sound too spiritual for your tastes? It’s not at all. It’s so damned practical. I’d never do it if it wasn’t; not into “spiritual,” myself. Not good/bad/right/wrong…just not for me.
I can’t stand recipes when I’m hungry. I want the food, and I can have it, when I choose to.
So what’s all this have to do with war, people starving, economy crumbling, environment being trashed and on and on and on? How selfish to talk about personal fulfillment when all this crap is still going on around us!
That is how some might react to this discussion. It sure is how I used to respond when people talked about things like personal peace and contentment.
Now, though, I see the absurdity of thinking I can’t find my own satisfaction until the problems of this world are ended because as much as I care, it’s just not going to happen. Problems will always be with us.
I can do my bits here and there, and I do. I care. I try. I know my strengths, but also my limitations.
“My cup runneth over.” That’s a good reminder I especially like from Jesus. (Another guy I’d have enjoyed meeting, I’m sure)
To me, he’s saying, you can either pour yourself out to give love and caring, tip yourself over to get every last drop out, or you can do this: You can be so full that it’ll just splash out of you.
What an image and yet moreso, it’s what I experience.
So thanks to all of you nice folks who not only wanted what I do, but found it and left me hints, some encouragement to find all those goodies for myself.
Off now to restore my own sanity. How?
“The Kingdom of Heaven is within.”
Lots of reminders in every great scripture about that sweet fact and when I do go there, within myself, sanity is exactly what I find.
What a nice discovery.
