I enjoyed Swami D’s commentary on cheerfulness so much I gussied it up a bit.
It may seem that life is an endless string of different days, some good and some not so good, stretching on for many years. You may believe that if you do everything consistently “right” for a long time, one fine day all remaining days will be great days. You may be aiming for easy street, so you can confidently say, “I’ve got it made!. Now I can do anything I want.”
But it doesn’t really happen like that because in reality there is only one groundhog day that repeats itself over and over. Each and every day is nothing more than doing many actions, thinking many thoughts, feeling many feelings, dreaming and sleeping.
Belief in a carefree nirvanic future is a pipe dream, caused by a habitually worried state of mind unwittingly picked up from parents and reinforced by society, which you don’t know how stop.
If there is one day with only a handful of things to know you can learn how to be happy forever. If you want to be happy live an ant’s life. Think, “Today is real. I may not be here tomorrow. Today I am alive and all I need to think about is what has to be done today. Even if the details are different tomorrow, the content will be the same tomorrow. To live the life I have been given I only need one day. If I can manage today, I can manage tomorrow. Today I brush my teeth, shop, eat, and poop. Tomorrow I do the same. Actually, one day to do the basics is more than enough, but if you live an ant’s day, there isn’t much to remember so do it once and see how easy it is.
Of course you needn’t worry because worry doesn’t accomplish anything except more worry, but if you like to worry, you need only worry for one day. Since yesterday is gone, I don’t need yesterday’s worries. Yes, I messed up but it’s OK because I’m wiser for it. Worrying about it doesn’t undo it and it takes a bite out to the simple joy of doing what I’m doing today. You can worry about tomorrow when it comes. But it never comes because it is just a thought in your brain. There is only one day… today.
I watched an ant sitting on the stairs taking it easy. Anther ant came up. They evidently knew each other and seemed to exchange some information because they went off together to do something. I’m quite sure that every ant knows every other ant and they also know they can get more done together than separately. In a few minutes I noticed a group of about thirty ants dragging a dead bee into the shade to have a fine communal feast. When I come back in a few hours, thirty fat satisfied ants were resting and there was no bee.
Many people go up and down the steps. They could die any moment but they don’t think anyone is out to get them. No conspiracy theories in ant world. If I sweep the steps they just pick themselves up and go back to what they were doing before. No nasty vibes for me. Somehow they know that time is not in their hands; it takes care of itself. If trillions of ants can survive for millions of years I certainly can more than survive happily for 80 years because I have something extra. I can thrive because I can wait, fast and plan. Looking around I can see the future taking care of itself at every minute. So I make my plans and do what I can do today. If there is a tomorrow, it will tell me what to do. What will be will be. I surrender to what happens and find that I am happy. When I look in the mirror in the morning I smile and think, “It’s nice being me.”
It’s seems incredible that I am where I am today. One thing led to another and here I am. All those people I used to hang out with have been replaced with today’s people, who will soon be replaced by others but they will all be the same person. I’m not even living in the country in which I was born, much less the same town. I can’t remember 2% of the things I’ve done, maybe less, and this simple ant’s mind, unobstructed by memories, is a great pleasure. I don’t want to know what I had for breakfast.
Yet I don’t float on the ocean of life tossed hither and thither by the tides like a piece of driftwood. I keep my hand on the rudder of my small dinghy and let the plan unfolding from the bottom of the ocean shape my destiny. If I knew everything that was going to happen there would be no reason to live my life. Where’s the joy? I like surprises.
What has happened, is happening and will happen to you is totally intertwined with everyone and with every blessed thing that exits. One thought doesn’t arise in your mind without the help of countless unknown thoughts. Just as you can’t say where your hand begins and your arm ends, you can’t say where you begin and I end. If you appreciate this fact you will enjoy life’s surprises. You will wake up and think, “I like being me. I wonder what life has to offer today.” When worry raises its ugly head, dismiss it. Say, “It’s nice being myself.”
You needn’t prove yourself to your mom and pop or your spouse and kids, but if you know you could do better, make small changes. If someone doesn’t like you, it’s because he or she doesn’t know that its nice being one’s self. You can’t help but love whoever is in front of you, but you needn’t pander to other’s desires. If someone says they love you but wants you to be different, what kind of love is that? People who care for you take you as you are.
If some doesn’t like you much but still takes care of you, that’s love. You don’t have to prove yourself to God either. The simple beauty that you are proves everything that needs to be proved. If someone misunderstands you, it is their problem. Just remember, ‘It is nice being myself.’ Don’t take life for granted. You don’t need rights. It’s a privilege to be, a cause for celebration. You needn’t bake a cake. Start when you turn on the shower in the morning and feel the warm water on your body. It is nice being alive. It is nice doing what I do.
A positive attitude, acceptance of yourself as you are, acceptance of your relationships and the world as it is are simple things brought about by living an ant’s life, one day at a time.
