In all states of pursuit, where we work towards a specified, desired end, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Not in that we are doomed to fail or that nothing is to be received, but because we restrict ourselves for the majority of our waking life. Think, how many minutes of today have you been present for? I mean really, really present. If we’re lucky, and honest, it’ll likely only amount to a handful of minutes. Even our relaxation comes through a suppressed state of medication or distraction.
One of the reasons we tend towards this pattern is because we inherently believe certain activities to have more worth than others; coincidentally, the ones that garner the approval, respect and admiration of others. It’s no secret that we all are continually comparing ourselves to the people around us.
Once we release our attachments to certain outcomes and let our experience become the means and the end to our existence as this form, we are free to experience life as it really is. Not how we wish it was or how we feel it should be, but for just how it actually is.
In this state of deep presence, love and beauty sprout from nearly everything imaginable. The vision of heaven is brought to this exact moment, in the exact place where we sit. The cost? Our preference for a certain outcome. The task? Awareness.
“You must cultivate activities that you love. You must discover work that you do, not for its utility, but for itself, whether it succeeds or not, whether you are praised for it or not, whether you are loved and rewarded for it or not, whether people know about it and are grateful to you for it or not. How many activities can you count in your life that you engage in simply because they delight you and grip your soul? Find them out, cultivate them, for they are your passport to freedom and to love.”
— Anthony de Mello