Easy as a Sunday Morning

Why in the world would anybody put chains on me?

I've paid my dues to make it.

Everbody wants me to be

what they want me to be;

I'm not happy when I try to fake it! No!

Ooh, that's why I'm easy.

I'm easy like Sunday morning.

That's why I'm easy,

I'm easy like Sunday morning

A few years ago when our boys were taking their Sunday morning Hindi school lessons, Lionel Richie's Easy would always magically pop up on the radio. I was on my way to the coffee shop, the sun was shining and I was thinking about what book to read or what note to write. But then, I remember one day sending it to my co-author Su Zhen to share this incredible feeling and to my surprise she responded, why should I care for this song - he is just dumping his girlfriend! Only then did I actually listen to the lyrics and realized it wasn't quite as easy flowing as the melody:

Know it sounds funny

but I just can't stand the pain.

Girl I'm leaving you tomorrow

Seems to me girl

you know I've done all I can;

You see I begged, stole

and I borrowed.

Ooh, that's why I'm easy.

I'm easy like Sunday morning.

That's why I'm easy,

I'm easy like Sunday morning

But in the end even that is fine. We are all on a subconscious journey towards a particular destination on the horizon. Along it we feel highs and lows; sometimes we get lost in our fears and sometimes we feel secure and protected. All that is part of the Way. Get away from the notion of right and wrong, and get a feel instead for who you are and who you aren't. When you let go of what you are not, this too can be an incredibly liberating experience. Enjoy these moments when you finally realize that your journey is just as it is supposed to be.  

Easy like a Sunday Morning

"Seems to me girl you know I have done all I can,
You see, I begged, stole and borrowed.
Oh, that's why I am easy, easy like a Sunday morning."
Lionel Richie, Easy

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes in 'Flow' that someone who knows his desires and works with purpose to achieve them, is someone whose feelings, thoughts and actions are in unity and thus someone who achieves harmony. While this is true, this description doesn't really have any normative implications. After all, as Lionel Richie reminds us, someone who begs, steals and borrows can feel easy as well. This flow insight is all about the use of psychic energy, if you are 100 % sure about your life's mission then there are no conflict of interest. All your energy flows in the activity that is meaningful to you.

A spiritual path traveler has normative values. Yes, we believe that deep down inside we are all loving and beautiful. Thus, someone who is on a mission to conquer the world may follow his destiny, but at the end of the day something inside himself will rebel and scream, "No, this isn't me". As the bible reminds us, "What use is it to gain the world if you lose your soul". So from our perspective, the Tao traveler happens to be the only one who devotes 100 % of her psychic energy towards her mission in life, to follow the clues of the Tao, while being quite flexible about the actual journey. Like Lionel we perhaps transition from beg, borrow and steal to

"I wanna be high, so high,
I wanna be free to know 
the things I do are right
I wanna be free, just me!"