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The Secret of Peaceful Living.
A successful Stock Broker while on a vacation
to Fiji, went fishing with a villager. While having a wonderful day
fishing, the conversation turned to finance. The broker suggested to
the fisherman he get a loan and buy more boats. He could scale up
the business, systematize it, hire some guys to run the boats and
make more money. Then he could create a big portfolio of stocks
which would enable him to retire in ten years with financial
freedom. The broker mapped out his strategy and then asked the
fisherman, once you retire what would you like to do? The fisherman
thought for a moment and then smiled and said, “Probably go fishing,
feeling the sun, seeing all this beauty, seeing this big sky”.
The Secret to Peaceful living is “not wanting”.
Do you know why it feels so good to GET something? Because right
after we get it, wanting goes away for a moment. And that’s peace.
Stress is the mind trying to get things, get money, get comfortable,
get better, get more. This endless wanting implies that we are
incomplete and that is stressful. Often the wants are intangibles
like Approval, Security, and Control. These hidden wants drive our
minds ceaselessly to get. And fear, upset, and stress is how our
mind motivates us to get. Let go of the want and voila, less mind
and less stress.
We can stop wanting and have peace now. We can
bypass all the effort involved in getting and just HAVE peace. We
can notice that we are wanting something, let go of it, and relax
for a moment. Just stand. Look up at the sky and decide to let go of
wanting for a moment. There. Look up, it’s big, beautiful and vast,
just like your true self. This practice is like pouring pure water
into a muddy swamp. Do it enough and eventually it all runs clear.
And that means a more peaceful mind and a more peaceful life. And
there’s no worry about being successful. When we are not wanting, we
are giving, we are loving and kind, we are grateful, we are
efficient, we are fun to be around and it’s easy to be successful
like that.
When we are wanting, our mind is like a
computer set to get. It has 50 programs running simultaneously in
the background. The ram is used up, it’s running slow, its freezing
up. Sound familiar? What to do? Stop! Clear the ram! Re-Boot. Just
exhale, ahhh, a deep sigh. I notice the empty peaceful space after I
let go of my breath. There are a few seconds before I need to
breathe in again that are so peaceful. Then I breathe in, I am full,
complete, alive clear. Look at the beauty, look at the sky. Embrace
the blue vastness. I let go of wanting.
Peace is the absence of wanting. When wanting
stops, thought stops. Love flows unbidden into the space left
vacant. There is no effort involved. I let go of wanting for a few
minutes and I become the witness to my peaceful life.
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