Spiritual living

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Viktor E. Frankl

When it comes to certain people in my life I have stopped rooting for anything. I cannot predict their actions; I never know what happens anyway, no matter how hard I try pushing in one direction, so I stopped bothering altogether. I just show up and see what happens, because that’s what happens anyway.

This, in a nutshell, is spiritual living. Of course I have an agenda. Naturally I prefer pleasure over pain, but when it comes to the here and now the ‘I’ is simply not in charge. Everyone can verify this fact of life for herself. And once you do, you simply start smiling when the mind tells stories of how things will pan out.

Spiritual living is not mere drifting. Sometimes we have to work very hard to get what we were predestined to get. Showing up in the moment at hand is all that is required, and everything that is required. How do we know? Well, the here and now always gives us plain instructions how to proceed, and some moments require hard work.

Perform action without a motive and karma has exhausted itself. How to do it? Before a thought, word or an action there is always a stillness at our disposal, just feel the moment and then respond. At this blessed moment we have stepped out of the ‘I’-identity; in this serenity we have overwritten our mind-driven reaction.