Less Comparison, More Compassion

Handwritten notes from my journal

As a kid, I once adamantly demanded some stuff that my friends had. My mom took me to the balcony and pointed at a nearby construction site where kids of the laborers were playing bare feet in scorching heat, and were still smiling.

I was taught that when our mind is clouded with comparison, look carefully at what we have and be grateful about it. Understand that each of us has been bestowed with unique gifts. The paths we take, our context, the way we look at life, our conditioning – everything is different. How can our destinations (and the speed at which we reach those destinations) be same?

In a world driven by comparison, be compassionate. Comparison steals the joy. The act of comparing is the act of undermining ourselves.

Less Comparison. More Compassion. More Gratitude.

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

– Wendell Berry

The Value of Emptiness

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.

Laozi Tao Te Ching 11

Living From the Place of Surrender

If we pay attention, we will realize that every moment around us there is a world that we do not create—that’s been there for 13.8 billion years—and there are trillions of cells in your body that are doing what they’re supposed to do, all of nature, everything. And, you wake up and you realize, ‘I’m not doing any of this. I didn’t make my body, I didn’t make my mind think, I don’t make my heart beat, I don’t make my breath breathe—yet I have this notion that I have to make things happen. Yet, all throughout the universe things are happening everywhere, and I’m not doing them. So, why exactly am I the one that’s in charge of what’s unfolding in front of me?’ And, what you realize at some point, is that you’re not.

That the moment in front of you that’s unfolding is no different than all the zillions of other moments that aren’t in front of you that are unfolding in accordance to the laws of nature, the laws of creation. So, you start to practice saying, ‘I don’t want to check inside of me first to see what I want and what I don’t want. I want to pay attention to what the universe is creating in front of me—just like it’s creating everywhere I’m not—and let me see how I can participate in that, be part of that, instead of interfering with it with my desires and my fears.’ That’s living from a place of surrender.

Source