learning through our experience

During the past few years I have been making a big mistake. I have always felt that we have made modern day life too complicated which is why it is so stressful for so many people, and that I must make every effort to simplify it by cutting out all those things which seemed to me to be irrelevent and wasteful of my effort and energy. So, in an effort to achieve what I felt was simplicity I turned my back on opportunities and, in a sense, negated life in all its rich hues, falling into a hole of stagnation and negativity. In fact, I rather turned my back on life itself which is a dreadful sin to commit as I feel we have been given life to live it. John O'Donohue writes (in "Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World") "... we were never told that one of the greatest sins is the unlived life. We are sent into the world to live to the full everything that awakens within us and everything that comes towards us... We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny." And then later he quotes the 2nd century philosopher, Irenaeus, who said: 'The glory of God is the human person fully alive'. This all makes me shamefully realise that I have not really embraced life in recent times. Why? Well, fear, apathy and a silly misunderstanding that in order to simplify life I must turn my back on many of the things that would have allowed it to flourish and prosper. After all, there's no good without bad and sometimes we must experience both in order to find out which is which. I now realise I was turning my back on both.

One test on whether or not one is really living life with a passion or just allowing it to scrape along is whether or not one is bored and having to think of things to do. If you are living life, you are buzzing and you never have to think of something to do in order to pass the time as there is always something you want to be doing. After all, by nature we are creative beings. Maybe this blog is a good example. For 5 months I wrote nothing as my spirit ('shen') was stagnant and I had no motivation to put fingers to keyboard. Life was dead and I had nothing to say, or at least that is what I felt at the time. I now realise it was quite wrong. If we are awake, there is always something to say as life is such a rich tapestry which can always inspire comment.

I now realise that the way to a fulfilling, simple life is the path of mindfulness and the giving up of dislike and desire. Be where you want to be, do what your heart tells you to do, and love everybody. That seems to be the recipe. I'll try it.