declutterbug

I get a thought of the day e-mail, and sometimes they seem to go very well with what I'm currently doing, such as this one. I hope that you find it useful as well. If you don't like the religous terminology, just change it in your head. :)

A Thought for the Day From Sri Eknath Easwaran

This gift is from God and not of man's deserving. But certainlyno one ever
receives such a great grace without tremendous laborand burning desire. --
Richard of Saint-Victor

The grace of the Lord is like a wind that is blowing all the time, but it is our responsibility to get rid of our excess luggage and set our sail correctly. For a long time in meditation we are merely bailing out the boat and throwing things overboard. We begin bythrowing out things we have
become tired of, things to which we arenot very attached. If I have two sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, I can give you one.

The second stage is harder; then we must begin to throw away some of the things to which we are attached. A tussle ensues, an inner conflict: to throw or not to throw is the question. But in the final stages, when we see the lights on the other shore, when we see Jesus walking about, the Buddha meditating, and SriKrishna playing on the flute, all we want is to get to where theaction is. At that time, even selfish people like you and me, who have committed many mistakes in their ignorance, want to get there so fast that they take hold of everything -- their glasses, the shirt on their back, even the sail and rudder -- and start throwing it alloverboard. In the final stages, the great difficulty is to persuadepeople to keep a few things. After all, if you don't have your glasses, how will you see the Lord?