Joy, peace and what’s it all about Alphie? Yesterday on my drive into the office I was still working with my meditation from earlier in the morning. I had been doing my best to sit and watch my breath and be present. As usual I hardly could, and started fighting with myself about what’s the point. I have been reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche and have been embracing the idea that our mind-essence lives forever, and that this is a great time to get on with the karmic implications of that. I believe this stuff. Check out this excerpt from the book: In the Sufi Master Rumi’s Table Talk, there is this fierce and pointed passage: The master said there is one thing in this world which must never be forgotten. If you were to forget everything else, but were not to forget this, there would be no cause to worry, while if you remembered, performed and attended to everything else, but forgot that one thing, you would in fact have done nothing whatsoever. It is as if a king had sent you to a country to carry out one special, specific task. You go to the country and you perform a hundred other tasks, but if you have not performed the task you were sent for, it is as if you have performed nothing at all. So man has come into the world for a particular task, and that is his purpose. If he doesn’t perform it, he will have done nothing. I love this task! But, it came to me, on the road to work, that I really don’t know if I can believe all this. As much as I do, or want to, it’s certainly an act of faith. Even with the limited understanding I have of the underlying science (nothing dies, it just keeps changing), the detailed description of what’s really happening after this life is a stretch, lacking any proof if you will; like the heaven we talked about in Sunday School when everyone called me Bobby. It takes what we call faith. And as much as this faith is something I embrace and value, it is no more than that. I believe that there is an after life, good for me, and if I really do believe then this is a great day/time to be preparing myself (working on my purposeful task). I love this stuff. I could go on and on about it, but not right now. So, who am I, and what am I doing here, and why am I doing it? If I throw out all the faith-based ideas and searching for ways to get my Karma-ON, and still manage to become still, and ask myself these questions quite seriously, I often come to “what am I to do?” And if nothing else, I decide that I should be joyful! At least that! And you know what else; this is pretty easy stuff to take care of! So, what makes me joyful is where this goes. And I currently find myself with the following list:
- To be utterly kind to absolutely everything in my universe
- To enjoy every single moment I am alive
- To be helpful to everyone that I encounter
- To wonder at the fantastic display of life that is around me all the time
- To take responsibility for my happiness and the things I love
- To embrace teachings and a faith that helps me accomplish my particular task!
And the ever most profound mantra!
Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
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