On Worries

Yes, just like you, I worry that I cannot for see what it going to happen. Whether all that I hope for will play out just right. I prepare and try to set permanence so that I have some certainty in the future. Because without it what's left? It feels so empty to be planless and very, very scary to put faith into something that's not under our control. Yet what control do we truly have? None really. One friend once said that even our next breath isn't promised. And so with that why worry? If you can give yourself the knowledge that nothing is promised there's nothing to expect after that. Whatever plays out will be. With worry, you deny yourself the opportunity of living your moments in freedom. I find that if I ever get caught up in that vicious cycle playing in my mind of what will be and how will I ever deal with it, all it takes is a change of perspective. Best of luck to you that chose the wiser road of the non-worrier, you truly are a warrior.

“Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand – relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.”

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, -- act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-Henry Longfellow

I Just Want to Go Home

Do you know that feeling when you've been lost and finally you find your way?

Whenever you do feel lost just stop. Stop searching, wanting, controlling, needing, doubting, praying, keeping, dreaming, desiring, manipulating, forcing, grasping, fearing, using, wasting, lying, seeking, moving, believing, holding, imagining and thinking.

Whatever is left, when you stop, is who you are. It is silence, pure, real, unnamed, gentle, loving and filled with serenity. In this and from this is joy and freedom.

If you do this right now, I promise you with all my heart, you will be home.

That is where I am calling you.

Please come home.

A Good View from Rock Bottom

It just hasn't been my past few weeks. From getting sick, to spraining my foot, to the long awaited Dalai Lama cancelling his lecture, to spending my birthday mad studying for a physics exam, and finally finishing off the craziness by slicing a chunk out of my thumb while at work yesterday it really seems like nothing wants to go my way. Or maybe life is pulling me one way and I stubbornly refuse to go where it prods. To put a little perspective I'll recall my favorite folk tale that goes like this:

There was a disturbance some distance from the village. The people did not know what had happened but a young and beautiful stallion appeared one day unexplained in the yard of a poor peasant family.

“Oh, you are so lucky! “The villagers all said to the farmer.

“We shall see,” the peasant farmer said, “We shall see.”

The farmer had a son, a dashing young man, who tried to break in the energetic stallion. The young man fell off the beautiful horse and broke his leg in several places. He was incapacitated for an extended period of time.

The village folks commiserated and told his father how sorry they were that such a bad thing happened to his son. “Such bad luck,” they said.

“We shall see.” his father said. “We shall see.”

A few weeks later recruiters for the Emperor’s army came through the village, conscripting all of the able-bodied young men. The farmer’s son was passed over, as he was still recovering from his broken leg.

“Oh, you are so fortunate!” said the villagers.
“We shall see,” said the farmer. “We shall see.”

And so it goes.

Right now I only have two choices. To stand stubborn where I am letting whatever is thrown my way beat me black and blue or just roll with the punches, although they still might hurt I'll face them in my own light.

Metamorphosis

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson

Its been an interesting two weeks back after coming back to school from spring break. Some things I though I lost but I'm now realizing that nothing ever really is. Things become transformed. Even the bad can turn into a lesson learned and in that way help one grow and understand themselves better. The "should have, could have, would have" doesn't belong in anybodies life because its done and happened. One can dwell and beat themselves up even more or one can face it, learn from it, and then let it go. With that I must let you all go until the next post.