The Golden Present

The book is laid out as a series of daily inspirational readings one can enjoy throughout the year. That quote above is from the January 1 passage. My hunch is that’s because it’s super important. :)

Two big things here. 1) Life is supposed to be fun and, 2) It’s an obstacle course and those challenges are part of what makes life so fun–if we let them!

The guidance to just be happy and jump with joy reminds me of Michael Singer’s brilliant wisdom from his great book, The Untethered Soul (see Notes), where tells us: “If you decide that you’re going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will be enlightened. Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. You don’t have to learn Sanskrit or read any scriptures. You don’t have to renounce the world. You just have to really mean it when you say that you choose to be happy. And you have to mean it regardless of what happens. This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist.”

Think about that: “Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is.”

Unconditional happiness.

That’s the kind of happiness where you’re just happy and jump with joy–making even the seemingly super difficult times enjoyable.

And, as we jump with joy and practice unconditional happiness, let’s remember Joseph Campbell’s wisdom: “Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be.”

The great positive psychology teacher Tal Ben-Shahar stresses again and again the importance of learning to fail. One of his favorite thoughts is that we either “Learn to fail or fail to learn.”

(If you haven’t checked out the Notes on Happier and The Pursuit of Perfect yet, what are you waiting for? :)

In The Pursuit of Perfect he tells us: “One of the wishes that I always have for my students is that they should fail more often (although they are understandably not thrilled to hear me tell them so). If they fail frequently, it means that they try frequently, that they put themselves on the line and challenge themselves. It is only from the experience of challenging ourselves that we learn and grow, and we often develop and mature much more from our failures than from our successes. Moreover, when we put ourselves on the line, when we fall down and get up again, we become stronger and more resilient.”

So, get out there and make more mistakes. Fail more. Grow more.

Commitment.

It’s huge.

To be *very* clear, a commitment isn’t something we make lightly and then, if we’re not feeling it, we just change our minds. We want to pick our commitments carefully and, once we decide and take the leap, that’s it. Period. We do what we said we’d do. No matter how inconvenient it might be.

It might sound like an ominous thing but it’s actually quite liberating. As Jack Canfield tells us, 99% commitment is actually really hard. 100% commitment is MUCH easier because we don’t need to waste so much energy constantly negotiating with ourselves and letting ourselves down when we don’t follow through on something we said we’d do.

The trick is to ONLY make a commitment when you’re ABSOLUTELY committed to rockin’ it. Quit saying “Yes” to stuff you’re not totally committed to.

Joel Fuhrman has a great way to describe this in his great book, Eat to Live (see Notes). He tells us: “Do not say you will give it a try. Do not try; instead, make a commitment to do it right.

When you get married, does the religious figure or justice of the peace ask, “Do you swear to give this person a try?” When people tell me they will give it a try, I say don’t bother, you have already decided to fail. It takes more than a try to quit addictions it takes a commitment. A commitment is a promise that you stick with, no matter what.

Without that commitment, you are doomed to fail. Give yourself the chance to really succeed this time. If you commit to just six weeks on this program, you will change your life forever and turning back becomes much more difficult. Make a clear choice between success and failure.”

Here’s to commitment!

Wow. Beautiful.

Two things here:

1) It’s important to be, as Seneca would say “harsh with ourselves at times.” If we’re being lazy, we need to be firm with ourselves and kick our butts back in line.

2) Having said that, we’ve gotta remember that, as Aurobindo tells us, “all life is yoga.” If you’ve got little deities running around the house and that hour+ of meditation just isn’t gonna happen, make serving them your practice! Last thing we need is God telling us: “What is this? You offer a piece of fruit on the altar, but I am here in your home in the form of your child and you ignore me.””

Here’s to dealing with any potential laziness as we see our families and our lives as our ultimate practice!

Back to commitment.

As we know by now, it’s uber-important.

It’s impossible to read about commitment and mountain climbers in the same passage and not pull out one of the greatest quotes on commitment from one of the greatest mountain climbers, W.H. Murray who tells us: “This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”

Speaking of Murray and commitment, I just learned more about Murray on Wikipedia. Apparently he was a prisoner of war in World War II and, in the midst of near starvation, he wrote his first book on the only paper he had available: toilet paper. And, when the manuscript was found and destroyed by the Gestapo, to the disbelief of his fellow prisoners he immediately started writing it again. (Wow.)

How’s YOUR commitment?

Remember: “Let nothing shake you. You have to be really bold and strong to achieve anything in life.”

Feeling worry, fear, anxiety, depression, hatred, jealousy?

Check in and see if you might be focusing just a tad too much on what YOU are going to get out of a situation. Then, if you’re feelin’ it, shift your attention to how you can serve others and see if your tension dissipates.

I know it works wonders in my life. Try it out!

Back to the fact that all life is yoga.

In the words of Swamiji: The whole world is the altar of God.

Genpo Roshi tells us the same thing: “We’re at the point in our evolution that we all have to become conscious. This is a time of revolution. There’s no holding back. So I’m about tearing down the monastery walls and seeing the whole world as the monastery, as the practice, as the spiritual temple. What we’re all working on is this very being, this very life. This is the temple, it has no walls.”

As we talk about ALL. THE. TIME., it’s not about going to church for an hour a week or going to your yoga class or sitting on your meditation cushion and then being a doof.

Every single moment gives us an opportunity to serve God.

So, let’s.

Are you dreaming about the future?

OK. It’s time to go plant the seeds NOW.

What’s your seed that needs to be planted? Now a good time to go rock it?

I just love that image of us coming in as raw materials and, through the factory that is the world, us becoming who we’re destined to be.

The Buddha tells us: “Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water… Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.”

And: “As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.”

While in The Book of Understanding (see Notes), Osho echoes Swamiji’s wisdom as he says: “Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move.

Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers.

That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding into millions of flowers. When the potential becomes the actual, only then is man fulfilled.”