Yesterday I visited an Ashram. It was lovely. The place covers 120 acres of hillside. There is a temple for meditation and worship, a bookstore/shop and many living quarters on the premises. The place is gated.
Now, I am not sitting in judgement of anyone. God knows, I have had my fill of that.....
I was reflecting afterward about how I felt up there in that gated off piece of the world.....
I was only there for 2 hours so I have no idea what it would be like to live there either full or part time. However, in these 2 hours I felt a sense of self indulgence... And I felt a pull from the valley below where my family, community and work resides.
Although it is somewhat attractive to me to retreat into a safe and isolated place of meditation where there, no doubt, would be less to suffer over, there is an even bigger pull for me to be out amongst my fellow sufferers...... maybe still in my own suffering as well.
Although it certainly could be a strategy to isolate and increase a spiritual practice and life, I can tell that it is not for me. Whenever I see those NOTW (not of this world) bumper stickers I think to myself..... well, you may not be of this world but I want to be so much of this world that I put all my effort of every kind into living on it. I want to love it and care for it and all its inhabitants so much that my highest value is to allow it work! Our world is such a delicate and elaborate system of life.......It is majestic!
I am honored to be a part of it.
My personal quest is to participate in alleviating suffering (everyone's) in the world while still being in it......not to achieve by default......... of the whole or partial deaths of people or planet.....
It just seems to me that if I am going to be involved in the business of ending suffering, I need to be in the trenches of that suffering..... that running away for the suffering just isn't the same as ending it where it lies.
And, maybe, still, there is no running away from suffering....maybe it comes along right up that hill and into those gates.............
And there is just as much work to do there as anywhere else.
Now, I am not sitting in judgement of anyone. God knows, I have had my fill of that.....
I was reflecting afterward about how I felt up there in that gated off piece of the world.....
I was only there for 2 hours so I have no idea what it would be like to live there either full or part time. However, in these 2 hours I felt a sense of self indulgence... And I felt a pull from the valley below where my family, community and work resides.
Although it is somewhat attractive to me to retreat into a safe and isolated place of meditation where there, no doubt, would be less to suffer over, there is an even bigger pull for me to be out amongst my fellow sufferers...... maybe still in my own suffering as well.
Although it certainly could be a strategy to isolate and increase a spiritual practice and life, I can tell that it is not for me. Whenever I see those NOTW (not of this world) bumper stickers I think to myself..... well, you may not be of this world but I want to be so much of this world that I put all my effort of every kind into living on it. I want to love it and care for it and all its inhabitants so much that my highest value is to allow it work! Our world is such a delicate and elaborate system of life.......It is majestic!
I am honored to be a part of it.
My personal quest is to participate in alleviating suffering (everyone's) in the world while still being in it......not to achieve by default......... of the whole or partial deaths of people or planet.....
It just seems to me that if I am going to be involved in the business of ending suffering, I need to be in the trenches of that suffering..... that running away for the suffering just isn't the same as ending it where it lies.
And, maybe, still, there is no running away from suffering....maybe it comes along right up that hill and into those gates.............
And there is just as much work to do there as anywhere else.
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