Your Life Is Your Message

I love everything about that.

First, Gandhi had silent days. Silent days? Yah. He just didn’t talk.

You might just skip over that and chalk it up to a somewhat eccentric guru-genius but pause for a moment. He DIDN’T TALK for that day. You could talk to him and he’d just write something back. Laughing.

Choosing to go silent for a day may not be your thing, but what if we were willing to do something a little out there that we knew benefited us? Genius.

My current thing is not checking email beyond, essentially, one person on my team. Period. That’s a little weird. And, I have nothing in my calendar. No meetings at all. A little more weird. But I’ve decided that if I want to be in integrity with what I’m committed to doing then that’s what I’m going to do. (Those things plus a bunch of other micro-weird stuff. hah.)

Any practices you wish you had but felt a little uncomfie rockin’? Let’s use Gandhi’s clarity and self-mastery as an inspiring example as we optimize.

… Alright. That was a lengthy aside.

The heart of this passage, of course, is what Gandhi communicated via his brief note—which, I think, is staggeringly awesome.

“My life is my message.”

← Wow. My life is my message…

Begs the question: Is your life your message?

If so, what does it say?

…

Is that what you would like it to say? If not, what would you like your life to say?

Here’s to making THAT the message of your life.

P.S. Reminds me of Rumi: “He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, ‘Live!’”

P.P.S. Let’s do this. #weirdosunite

Love it.

Imagine you have your brand-new dream car. You drive it off the lot with glee. It’s amazing. But it has one little problem…

You can’t shift gears!!!

It may be stuck in overdive. Or maybe it’s stuck in reverse. Or maybe it’s stuck in first gear and you can’t quite get it going. Whatever you do, you can’t shift gears!!! Now, that car would go from being ridiculously awesome to not-so-awesome, eh?

As you might have noticed, that’s pretty much how we are at times.

We need to cultivate the ability to shift our gears at will. We want to be able to notice when we’re caught in overdrive—redlining ourselves with worry thinking the same anxious thought about the future over and over and over again—and when we’re stuck in reverse—ruminating over the past again and again and again.

Notice and then shift. Notice and shift. Notice and shift.

And, eventually, after years (!!) of practice, Eknath tells us we can just park our minds. And, experience that joy of perfect stillness.

The benefits we get at that stage? Eknath tells us: “You will be able to listen to another’s point of view with such concentration and detachment — even when your opinions are being torn to shreds — that sometimes you will say to yourself, “Hey, he is right. I am wrong. I can learn from him.” That attitude of open-mindedness, of having a slow-going mind which listens very carefully to opposing points of view and is prepared to learn from them, is the beginning of kindness, and kindness is the foundation of a harmonious world. Hurry is unkindness.”

Plus: “A great bonus that comes when the mind slows down over a longer period is that you become a stranger to insecurity and depression. When the mind is going fast, depression is always with you, riding along in the back seat. Where the mind is going slow, enabling you to choose freely which thoughts you think, depression is outside, hitchhiking. You just say, “Sorry, no room,” and drive right by.”

Want to go from icky to sweet?

KEEP CHEWING!!!

Eknath puts it this way in Conquest of Mind: “In every fitness program, of course, it is stick-to-itiveness that counts. You get nowhere if you exercise by fits and starts. Don’t go out one day and do a lot of exercises, then get depressed the next day, go to bed, and skip the program completely. Keep on exercising, whether it feels good or not. That is how you develop a fit will and a svelte, attractive personality.”

He also says this (one of my favorite passages ever): “In Sanskrit we have a word which means “heroes at the beginning”: people who take up a job with a fanfare of trumpets but soon find that their enthusiasm has tiptoed down the back stair. Those who go far in meditation are the ones who keep on plugging. They may not be very spectacular; they may never hear a trumpet. But they keep on trying day in and day out, giving their best in every situation and relationship, never giving up. Such people are bound to reach their goal.”

And all that reminds me of this gem from Seneca: “You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.”

Plus (another favorite!): “How much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honorable finally become, for you, the same.”

Keep chewing. Keep chewing. Keep chewing.

ESPECIALLY when it seems icky! :)

Want the concentration that is the mark of genius in any field?

Focus your attention. On one thing.

We need to build our concentration muscles. Our ability to put our attention on ONE thing and hold it there. And we can practice moment to moment to moment. At work. While eating. With your family. Be present. Focused on one thing.

George Leonard asks this question in his great book Mastery (see Notes): “Could all of us reclaim lost hours of our lives by making everything—the commonplace along with the extraordinary—a part of our practice?”

Here’s how Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it in his classic Wherever You Go There You Are (see Notes): “You can think of concentration as the capacity of the mind to sustain an unwavering attention on one object of observation. It is cultivated by attending to one thing, such as the breath, and just limiting one’s focus to that. In Sanskrit, concentration is called samadhi, or “onepointedness.” Samadhi is developed and deepened by continually bringing the attention back to the breath every time it wanders. When practicing strictly concentrative forms of meditation, we purposefully refrain from any efforts to inquire into areas such as where the mind went when it wandered off, or that the quality of the breath fluctuates. Our energy is directed solely toward experiencing this breath coming in, this breath going out, or some other single object of attention. With extended practice, the mind tends to become better and better at staying on the breath, or noticing even the earliest impulse to become distracted by something else, and either resisting its pull in the first place and staying on the breath, or quickly returning to it.”

Here’s to building our samadhi muscles!!

We need to detox ourselves from the junk food that is mass media and eat more of the good stuff.

That starts with reducing the inflow. If your mind is constantly being filled up with every.single.thing! that is going on out in the world you’re going to have a really (!) tough time connecting to that quiet voice within.

How about turning off the talk radio on the way to work (and the pop music)? Going on a news fast for a week (you’ll survive!)? Giving up following sports for a bit (why give so much attention to other people following *their* dreams while you ignore yours?)? Limiting the social media time. Etc. Etc. Etc.

And use some of that extra time to soak in the goodness of the greatest teachers?! (= a really good trade!)

Makes me think of Michael Beckwith and Joseph Campbell.

Beckwith captures this powerfully in what he calls the “tyranny of the trends.”

Check out the Notes on Spiritual Liberation where he tells us: “One of the ways we hijack our capacity to experience a state of beholding is that we become swept up in what I call the ‘tyranny of trends.’ The tyranny of trends allows for the lowest common denominator to set the standard of success, and of course, ‘coolness.’ Very often, trends convince individuals what their life’s purpose should be. The tyranny of trends is blasted out at us from television, radio, newspapers, tabloids, computers, and even our dentist’s waiting room, attempting to convince us that we must smell a certain way, wear a certain label, weigh a specific weight, have whiter teeth, drive a certain car, make a certain income, and so on, before we can consider that we’ve made it.”

He continues: “Begin to consciously break your agreement with the mediocrity present in the tyranny of trends. No longer consider trendsetters as people who are to be admired or imitated. Break free from the hold of what society tells us we should be like. Be drawn into the presence of those who exemplify the next level of human evolution—a spiritual teacher or spiritual community. Each of us has arrived on planet Earth to behold, to participate in the adventure of exploring the truth that we are enlightened beings having a human incarnation.”

Here’s how Joseph Campbell puts it (see Notes on The Power of Myth):

Moyers: “How do we know these things [how to experience bliss]?”

Campbell: “I’ll tell you a way, a very nice way. Sit in a room and read—and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time. This realization of life can be a constant realization in your living.”

Your life as a work of art + The great scriptures as artist’s manuals = Beautiful.

What would your life look like if you viewed it as a work of art?

What would change?

What little baby step (/brush stroke) can you take today?!

Practical Idealism. That is so good.