Not that I was in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with much. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
*Philippians 4.11ff, Christian New Testament.
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Meditative quietness is allowing of space-within to learn to relax into the absence of a sense of need - this does not mean negation of need as an aspect of embodiment, for example, if you do not breathe the body will die, nor does this negate potential of natural inspirations of need to arise within the spaciousness of needlessness, or contentment. This state-of-Being slowly becomes more integrated into your over-all life, your life becomes more whole, natural, contented. You will be a bearer of calm for others.
Seeing the self is generally pulled along by the sense of need as necessity, there will be resistance to surrender into this needless abiding. Such surrender the self sees as a death - it is, thankfully. Still, stay with it, feel it, even if the next moment you flee from it. Slowly, surely, you will find an attraction growing to the naturalness of living more and more liberated from the tyranny of need.
No, life will not stop. The body will need food, drink, and rest for survival. The mind may still aspire for intellectual stimulation, as the hormones for sexual enjoyment. The soul may still seek expressions of religious devotion and the beauty of art. Yet, something has changed. Ironically, not pulled along by need, you enjoy more and appreciate more, you learn a natural reverence for what you receive as gift - everything becomes gift, and all life together, even the pain. You, also, do not cling, so the suffering of loss ether does not arise or passes quickly.
Simply put, most of us are socialized to live trusting that our natural state is to be dictated by the dictates of need. Oddly, we find it unnatural to have a time of needlessness, so we create more sense of need. Need is our creed. And we struggle to see how living needlessly is not a denial of basic necessities or enjoyment of pleasures. So, we refuse to surrender, and we fail to discover the beautiful spaciousness from which we can live in harmony with Life.
So, why not follow, even if for a moment, the advice, "Need nothing and then see what happens"? Possibly, you will see that, you, too, begin to enjoy learning to live in contentment. Yes, something will happen, and you may be gracefully drawn to know more about that something and explore it more deeply through a regular practice of learning more about trusting the Emptiness that is filled with the Good, True, and Beautiful. It is, after all, a matter of trust, and there is no way around that.
We can live from the dignity of choice, but only as we release our grip on defining ourselves by the suffering that comes from living from the seduction of need. Now is the time to begin, for us all, so to be luminaries of peacefulness on our Earth.
And, yes, Grace is essential. This is not a self-project for the self to better itself; indeed, the self is defined by a sense of need and, so, cannot be the Source of the inspiration of needless Grace and graciousness in life. This is not for the self, first and foremost. This is about becoming a means of Grace through graceful living on this Earth. We are not learning self-improvement or self-realization, we are learning the self is defined by a way of being that is not the way of Being. And, until we surrender this need-driven, need-creating self to the Source of us all, we will not learn the loveliness of contentment as a natural, loving way of life. When I realize I cannot get this contentment, that is good news, for giving up that I can be the inspiration of this, means a door has opened for something wonderful to begin happening.
♥ ♥ ♥
Grace and Peace to All
The Sacred in Me bows to the Sacred in You
*Move cursor over photos for photographer and photo name.
