Doing and undoing

Doing is easy. Undoing requires skill and deliberation.

Have nothing

This is a hard sell in a culture where the answer to every problem is more. But consider: Our basic biological needs are few, modest and easily met. If we have more than we need, we have too much. Craving sensory stimulation, we chase more and better experiences—more of what we don’t need. Craving is slaving. Every form of wanting, every anticipation, alienates us from the beauty and power of the inexhaustible now. Jesus to the cultivated rich kid: “Sell everything, give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven.” Which is nowhere other than now.

Ready, set, accumulate (2)

Gurdjieff: “Sin? Sin is what is unnecessary.” Nisargadatta: “Only the necessary is good. There is peace only in the essential.”

What we possess, we are possessed by.

Lost in the world

I’m lost in the world when I pay more attention to my experiences than I do to mySelf. We do not need more experiences. Let us try to imagine Jesus on a holiday.

Sober joy

First, we tumble unwittingly into the habit of over-stimulation, of doing more and more of what makes us feel good. Then some crisis happens and we’re introduced to the sober joy of under-stimulation.