Feb8

Deep Simplicity

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Over the three decades or so that I have been exploring life through the lens of spiritual practices, one of the most touching aspects of this exploration is how the simplest of observations come back to visit, again and again, over the years. Rather like old friends they appear, time and time again, to share their wisdom.

Sometimes, these insights have a remarkable knack of appearing so simple and obvious. So that my mind looks at them and immediately reacts with ‘ah yes’ I get that. And yet each time that they revisit they reveal a deeper truth, as if this exploration is a spiral journey that repeats itself, over and over again.

Let me share a couple of these old friends with you.

One of these insights is that we create, or at least co-create, the world that we live in. In the parlance of the Christian faith, we reap what we sow. It has been my observation of late that this is one of the most profound and penetrating truths of our existence. Right here, right now we are creating, with our thoughts, our words, our deeds and our non-deeds, the world we live in and experience each day.

Often, we may seek to avoid what is right in front of us, right under our noses, and seek to escape into other realties, other parts of the Earth, other philosophies or high-sounding spiritual paths. Yet, here in this simple truth of creation is the beginning, the middle and the end of our human experience and of our spiritual search.

A second example, is the truth that our bodies are the embodiment of enlightenment itself. An observation most eloquently expressed in the teaching of Gautama Buddha. But, isn’t enlightenment some magical state alternate consciousness, the ultimate bliss of someplace else, other than here?

Again, it’s one of those insights which seem easy to grasp intellectually, nodding our heads knowingly before moving onto the next truth. Yet here, in this humble human body, at the visceral, gut, cellular level is enlightenment, the very essence of our awakened being.

Perhaps, you too have your favourite old friends, who revisit you from time to time and share the light of their wisdom?

With Best Wishes,

© David R. Durham
The Poet Photographer

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