At first I thought that this was going to be his sardonic
voice, ending in how he found he didn’t need much money to find deep
insight. I was disappointed to find he
was sardonic, but still very unhappy.
I certainly don’t disagree with the underlying message regarding
the large income discrepancy in our country.
However, I felt there was an underlying tone of whining about the poor
choices he made along his life path.
Perhaps even implying that if only he had more money and
time, for more retreats and so forth, he would be further along his path toward
peace, if not enlightenment.
At his own admission he is “on the upper end of the
low-class dharma student spectrum.” That
makes him richer than the vast majority of people on our planet.
There was one study that asked people at all levels of the
economic spectrum about how much money it would take to make them happy. I general, everyone answered around 2-fold
what they were currently making, whether it was 20,000 dollars a year or 20
million dollars a year.
Perhaps this is the central blockade to deep insight that is
present for almost every single one of us.
This feeling that if we only had more money, more time, better access to
teachers, we would be further along our path to enlightenment.
To paraphrase Gary Snyder from Practice of the Wild: Our chores and jobs are not a set of
difficulties we hope to escape from so we may do our practice… our whole life
is our practice.
Perhaps we get small glimpses of deep insight. Then we chase after that peaceful
feeling. We miss that the baseline of
our being is enlightenment. That chase
is what pushes enlightenment away.
Yes, most of us need to have some practice of concentration
and contemplation. Can we then use what
we learn to see how every moment is an opportunity for practice and
insight? Then every moment becomes a
sacred offering for seeing clearly.
We need our egos to survive.
Our ego sends us out into the world to work, to find food and
shelter. Can we can turn our work into
our practice, can we “chop wood and carry water” as just another practice on
our path?
Can we go on inexpensive silent retreats in our own home or
camping for a few days? Perhaps
listening to free Dharma Seed voices?
Who is graced with almost continuous clear seeing?
Very few of us are so graced.
Yet, if we can accept that every single one of us is playing
our roles perfectly, perhaps, we can see through this game our ego
constructs.
This game that we are a separate suffering being.
Perhaps we can see that everything placed in our path, is
exactly what we need to evolve to the next level of deeper insight.
Namaste
