Laying Down the Burden (Make You a DEAL)

I can be an incredibly slow study.  I can stare something head on, I can have all of the insight and wisdom of the ages at my disposal, I can feel in my gut what needs to be done, and I still don't budge until, exhausted and still not getting anywhere, I finally get around to the one thing necessary: dropping it and, with it, the ego that held so tightly on.

And then I remember the wise words of Ajahn Chah and how he so artfully describes what I'd been up to:

We human beings are constantly in combat, at war to escape the fact of being so limited, limited by so many circumstances we cannot control.  But instead of escaping, we continue to create suffering, waging war with good, waging war with evil, waging war with what is too small, waging war with what is too big, waging war with what is too short or too long, or right or wrong, courageously carrying on the battle.

Such a telling image: a self-appointed guardian of the universe doggedly wielding every weapon in the arsenal against nothing at all but the phantoms of his own dukkha.

When my kids were in grade school, they had periods during the school day when they had DEAR time: drop everything and read.

I'm going to go with a bigger version: drop everything and live.