Why Life Isn’t the Problem (…we are!) Posted by amoyaan The problem really isn’t life. The problem is our attitude to life. Life is simply what it is and it does what it does. It’s value neutral; a machine that just churns out experiences and events based upon an unfathomably complex chain of cause and effect dating all the way back to the origins of the universe and space/time. There’s nothing personal about what happens. The problem comes when we expect life to match up to our likes and dislikes, our wants and desires. We want life to be what we want it to be. But life doesn’t care what we want. Why should it? It’s so inconceivably vast and it’s got a heck of a lot on its plate, so our petty little likes and dislikes simply don’t factor into the equation. It gives us what we need and our experience is based upon innumerable factors and the fructification of so many past events, actions and karma. That’s the nature of the machine–and this was a pretty horrifying realisation for me! I didn’t really want to hear that. It’s certainly not what they told us in The Secret. But since I don’t suddenly have the bank balance of Bill Gates, the sales figures of JK Rowling or the blissful radiance of Ramana Maharshi…I can conclude that the universe doesn’t quite work like The Secret would purport. It would seem a more mature perspective is this: life is what it is; and we can get with the program or suffer. Ouch. There are certain little things that I can change, but most things I cannot, and that includes my basic nature and the basic nature of life and others, which I simply have to accept, embrace and find a way to work around. Life is pretty amazing. It’s given us everything. We were provided with a body, which is simply the most incredible feat of engineering in the universe. We were given a lifetime supply of oxygen, water and food…and we don’t have to do anything with it; our bodies know precisely how to distribute oxygen through our bloodstream and how to digest food and poop and sleep and all the rest of it. We were given parents and taken care of during our formative years. We were given people to love us, take care of us, as well as people to challenge us, force us to grow and learn and become all we can be. Yeah, life isn’t always easy, to put it mildly. But we’re never given challenges we can’t deal with. Speaking for myself, I have recently seen how the most difficult things, people and relationships in my life have been like the grit in the oyster that in time alchemises to create something beautiful and precious. I was walking down the road the other week and it was raining. I noticed a neighbour had left out their washing, which was now soaking wet. I mused how twisted life can seem that way: we want one thing to happen (dry washing!) but life has other ideas. Then I saw that some little red tulips had seeded themselves in a flower bed outside my front door. And I realised how incredible life is; always sending beautiful little surprises our way, unbidden, unexpected — and sadly, for many people, often unnoticed. Next time it’s a clear night I recommend taking a look up at the starry sky. If that isn’t one of the most amazing gifts, then I don’t know what is. So life gives us everything. It does everything. We don’t own any of it, either. It’s all just on loan to us, including our bodies. Realising that everything we have, and everything we appear to be is just a temporary loan and NOT something we’re ‘entitled’ to, not something that belongs to us, really shifts our attitude to life. For me it has helped cultivate a real sense of wonder…and gratitude. Knowing that I’m not owed anything and that I don’t and can’t own anything here, makes me grateful for all the simple, everyday blessings that are all around. We have so much; more than we could ever realise. We actually need very little to get by in life, infinitely less than our hyper-consumer culture would have us believe. It takes a clear mind to see things this way. When my mood gets low I might start to slip into seeing things through a darkened lens again. It’s easy to do that when the media feeds us nothing but the darkest and most disturbing aspects of human life and society via news outlets. That exists, sadly, yes. But it exists largely because we don’t know who we are…we don’t know how blessed we are to be alive…and because we buy into a vicious consumer mindset that conditions us to believe that no matter how much we have, we need more and better, leaving us perpetually dissatisfied, unfulfiled and empty. To me, the deluded mindset of materialism, consumerism and the unbridled capitalism that is causing such destruction to the planet, is no less than a crime against the human spirit. Even just seeing this, however, allows us to begin to transcend transform it. Life is beautiful. We are beautiful. That’s the simple truth. Remember that, and have a great day.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:10:58 +0000
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