A Worry Free Life
Please do not laugh before you read this post, and before you consider: is such a thing possible? If you would have asked me this five years ago, I probably would have said no. But in recent times, I not only think it is possible, but I think it is essential for all of us to strive to get there.
You may be skeptical about all this at first- and you might rattle off a list of seemingly intractable problems that are shoved in our faces everyday, things we are urged to take very seriously and care a lot about: global warming, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the so-called recession, earthquakes all over, an unfaithful spouse, a very sick friend, the fate of our children; any of which problems do not seem likely to be solved any time soon. That may be true……..on a certain level, but it doesn’t need to affect you and your enjoyment of every precious moment you have.
One way to mitigate the onslaught of these oh so serious “problems” is to realize this: there has never been a time and place where the world was not threatened by one or more serious problems, and somehow, someway, the world and the people in it survived. For example, would you like to trade places with someone who got stuck in the way of the Nazi war machine? Or how about someone who found themselves on the receiving end of the Spanish Inquisition? Or how about the joy of being around during the Civil War in America when it seemed the whole world was going up in smoke? Do you begin to see the point?
Don’t forget, too, that there has never been a time and place when every atrocity and tragedy was so instantly accessible, either on television or the internet. While the technology we have has certainly made some aspects of our life incredibly easy and freeing(the one I like best is doing business on my cell phone walking on a beautiful beach-nobody knows where I am), it has also placed us in the unenviable position of being always “on” and in receiving mode for information, some of which can be quite disturbing. The answer to this dilemna is to make the conscious and sometimes difficult decision to turn things off- so we can have time free from assaults of evey kind, at least electronic ones anyway.
When I think of the so-called problems that we face in this world, I now think of them as some kind of background noise. I am aware they are going on somewhere- I am not delusional- but I have placed them where they belong, in the recesses of my mind and not the forefront. What then is in the forefront of my mind? The only thing I have discovered that makes sense and ultimately brings happiness: focus on what is happening right in front of my face in the present moment. When I can do this, all the “problems” of this world fade away, as I make an effort to maximize what is available in my life right now.
I read this great Buddhist book called Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, in which the author Suzuki was talking metaphorically about having faith in the universe-using the example of someone riding through life on an elevated train track, urging the rider not to look down or worry about how it all works: “Let Buddha take care of the tracks.”
Have a beautiful and peaceful day.
