FT
Sunday Nov 03, 2024
Saturday, 20 June 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
“Wherever you go, you will always bear yourself about with you, and so you will always find yourself”
– Thomas A. Kempis
There is only one way to get a real vacation; get as far away from ego as far as possible.
Worrying about your problems all the time makes for misery with a capital M. For getting away from misery I recommend this ‘economy plan’; do not feed your ego and your problems with your attention. They will slowly lose weight.
When we feed them, constantly begging them to have one more helping even when they are gorged, we acquire obese problems that hug us tightly and weigh us down. So if you really want a vacation, do not brood on your troubles. Do not allow yourself to get jealous or say uncharitable things about anyone. In other words do not give the ego breakfast in bed; do not pack it a bag lunch; do not fix its dinner; do not give it pocket money for buying snacks; do not even give it a glass of water, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self. You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us.
(From ‘Words To Live By’ by Eknath Easwaran, founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation,
copyright 2005; reprinted by permission of Nilgiri Press, P.O. Box 256, Tomales, Ca 94971, www.bmcm.org.)