The Play of Life

Spirituality is an attitude. You may one day consciously realize that you are on a spiritual path, but it is an ongoing process. As you stroll further and further along the Way, you realize how your face mellows, how the facial laugh muscles develop more and more, until all that is left is a face radiant with joy and laughter. My boss once mentioned to someone that "Christian is in reality a big kid". I was a little surprised about his remarks then, whereas today I would say that he just figured out my true nature a couple of years ahead of me. It is hard to describe this "play of life" that we experience, but perhaps Su Zhen 's recent vacuum experience can give you some illustration what may still stand in your way: it is the expectation of achieving things and getting somewhere. When you know that you have everything you possibly want, your personal agenda just gets washed away. Life becomes a lot of fun when you reach that stage.

 Today when I was vacuum-cleaning the floor, I found that I actually quite enjoyed it. Somehow I  was surprised myself.  I remember how I used to hate vacuum-cleaning, but today I had a total different feeling.  I felt that it was almost the most fun and divine thing to do.  Odd, I thought, but then I realized that my playfulness was key. In the past I always had an objective such as making the house look really nice in order to impress some people. But this morning and I had nothing on my mind. I just observed that the floor was dirty, so vacuuming just seemed to be the right thing to do at that moment.  It was then that to my my surprise vacuum cleaning became quite enjoyable.

The problem seems to be the intention here. If vacuum-cleaning becomes a means to getting a job done (such as impressing people with the cleanliness of the house) you take all the joy out of the activity. Take education as another example. If your goal is to get straight As, or admissions into a prestigious university, you ruin the zest for the activity learning. What could have been a creative, fun and a life changing experience instead becomes a nuisance; a stressful means of getting somewhere.  How tricky our ego is in manipulating and controlling us!  When we do things to please our ego, we always suffer, yet it seems the most sensible thing in the world to do.

Discover the spontaneity, creativity and joy in every moment and in every action and fall in love with life, just like a child would.

By Christian and Su Zhen