Really? is always bright and colorful even in the middle of things falling apart. Can YOU say the same? She knows how to handle the incline that goes up or down. She has a simple formula.
Don’t get entangled! Whatever the situation is at the moment, it will change!
Lesson 5. Seek Inner Peace
Sounds good, but it is difficult to accomplish. Most human-seeking is external. We are always looking out, hearing what’s up, smelling the scent, tasting the goodies and feeling our way in the dark.
What this means is that our sense doors are focused on what we see, hear, taste, touch, smell & think. Our senses serve us by keeping us free from danger. The senses, however, also can be used in ways that bring us painful thoughts. AND worst than that, our sense doors can misinterpret what is sensed.
We mistake a rope for a snake!
We mistake the ice to be thick when it is thin!
We mistake a lie for the Truth.
Each mistake we make brings up some type of conflict or irritation. Sometimes we continue to believe the lie as Truth which is called ignorance. We need to develop the mind and the senses to discriminate what leads to peace and what leads to ignorance.
Really? knows the game. She does not get tied up with anyone or anything. She’s an independent sort who relies on paying attention to what is not real and what is real.
Really? looks different than most of us. Standing on her tip toes with her hands behind on her back on the downhill. Her dress is colorful and unique and she is always happy. It is all due to her capacity to watch the world go by. Her fingers and hands are not sticky - she’s not trying to get anything. She never worries what others think of her and isn’t trying to get what she wants from anyone.
Really? is at peace!
To seek inner peace we must study and know what the self is seeking from the world and let it go. We stop grasping at a world that is constantly changing and go with the flow. When we do this we get an experience that changes us. What is that experience?
We stop identifying with our body.
When we stop identifying as a body, we begin to find peace with the body. We stop worrying about the body. We begin to understand we have a body, that we are embodied for a period of time and then we leave the body. The body dies.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Mary Oliver
Yes. Everything does die at last…but we have a tendency to think and believe we are not included as part of that everything that dies. The other guy will die, not me, not “I.” WE live as though we will never die. The proof is our incessant getting, having, keeping, measuring, fighting, wanting, hating, believing the world is real and permanent.
The body dies. Most of us worry and fear that Truth.
How about YOU? What catches you and drags you down? Are you someone who does not have any interest in a spiritual path? Do you live by the rule of just getting by? Is survival all there is? Or are you on a spiritual path and you are stuck? Bored? Anxious? Just barely practicing?
Maybe a question will help you begin to study being at peace within yourself.
What do you depend on?
That’s it. When you know what you depend on you can determine whether you are ignorant of the Truth or you are aware every moment of the Truth that your body will die.
Don’t give up! Keep going.
