BMC Newsletter #41

To those who practice meditation and search for wisdom's way

Much has been happening here since the last newsletter, but then all days here at the Great House are full. I just gave our house that name because that is the way I feel about her. She is my great mother who gives me space for whatever I want to do. So I take care of her and plant flowers around her neck and put in central air so she will be cool and fix all her little aches and pains so she will feel good. That’s the way we work together. I love her and she loves me in return, and she gives me a space to serve.

But that is not the subject of this letter. The thing I want to write about is joy, the joy that comes bubbling up when your realize that you are totally and absolutely free of the world. And by the world I mean what the world brings to you each moment. When someone knocks on your door, that is the world. When an unexpected bill comes in the mail, that is the world. When someone praises you or gives you love, that is the world. The world is inside our minds as thoughts and outside as form. Life is like dodge ball and we never know when we are going to get hit.

We spend our whole lives trying to make the world fit our desires and expectations, trying to make our hopes and dreams come true, or trying to avoid what we perceive will hurt us. But if you notice, we never win at this game. Life is for many people, just one damn thing after another. And so we eventually settle for a small share of pleasure, a safe routine, and bear our suffering as our due, as if life were a punishment for something we didn’t know we did.

So why am I so happy? I am happy when good things come my way. That’s easy. But—and here is the miracle—I am also happy when the bad comes knocking. Not happy like I just got something good, but just the same as I was before the “apparent” bad thing happened. In yoga this is called equanimity. It means the mind is like a candle that doesn’t flicker in the winds of good or bad.

When what used to be an upset comes knocking and my candle doesn’t flicker, a joy bubbles up like a fresh spring of clear water, for in the knowing that one is free is the experience of freedom, and that is joy. Freedom is not an idea, something to be achieved, nor is it the absence of constricting rules. Freedom is the knowing that one is not disturbed by what the world is doing, and in that freedom the world becomes one’s Garden of Eden where no matter what happens, it is the Will of God, and every moment is a surrender to that Will.

I just wrote this as fast as I could type, so I hope this helps you understand how joyous this life is—not can be, but is, because freedom is your birthright and it is already now.

Thank you,
Ed
Om Peace
8/807
contact me