One of my students from Lithuania sent me this. What a great definition of true freedom. I love the idea of innocence.

“Let your life become a celebration”

“Life has the potential to become a song of bliss, but there is every possibility of missing it too. It is not a certainty, there is no inevitability about it. It depends: you can make it, you can destroy it. Out of one hundred, ninety-nine point nine percent of people destroy their song of bliss. Then their life is nothing but a cry, a scream of pain and agony. But they have chosen it that way; nobody else is ever responsible.

“This is the first truth to be learned in life: that you are always responsible, nobody else. With that comes great freedom, because with that all alternatives are open. If you think that somebody else is responsible then you are a slave; then nothing is open. Then you have to be what you are. If your life is a tragedy then it has to be a tragedy, because others are responsible; unless they change, nothing can be done about it. You don’t have any freedom.

“And that is the reason why millions of people live in misery: they think others are creating their misery. Nobody is creating your misery, nobody can create it; and nobody can create your bliss either. It is a totally individual phenomenon. It is just your work upon yourself. And the most strange thing is: to create misery is difficult and to create bliss is easy, but people always choose the difficult thing, because the difficult thing always gives them an ego-trip.

“The ego is not interested in easy things; the ego is interested only in difficult things. The more impossible a thing looks, the more attractive it feels for the ego, because the ego feels a challenge, and only through challenge can it conquer, can it prove to the world ’I am somebody special.’

Misery gives you challenge: bliss is very simple. Trees are blissful, birds are blissful. It needs no special talent to be blissful. To be miserable needs talents, one has to be really very very clever to be miserable. Bliss is innocent; you can be blissful without any education, but you cannot be miserable without any education, remember! It is very difficult. You need degrees, universities, mm? then only do you become skillful.

So the first truth has to sink deep in the heart: ’I am always responsible for whatsoever I am. Bliss or misery, this is my choice. If I have chosen to be miserable, then there is no need to be sad
about it; this is my choice and I am doing my thing.’ Feel happy that you have succeeded in being miserable! If this is not your choice, drop it immediately, drop all those patterns that create it and start creating new patterns, new doors from where bliss starts flowing.

“For example, the person who wants to be miserable has to think in terms of fighting with life; that is his gestalt. He is always fighting. The person who wants to be blissful has to be a non-fighter, surrendered to life, in a kind of let-go. The person who wants to be miserable has to create great ideals, has to make impossible demands upon himself. Then only can you be miserable; otherwise you will not be miserable. You have to be this, you have to be that, and when you cannot be, frustration settles in.

“The man who wants to be blissful has no ideals at all, he is a non-idealist; he is a realist. The miserable person is always an idealist. The happy person, the blissful person, is a realist: he lives moment to moment with no ideals. You cannot frustrate him because he has no expectations.

“The miserable person always condemns himself because he is not rising high enough to fulfill the demands. He is a constant condemner; he lives in self-condemnation.

“The blissful person is very accepting of himself. He makes no demands. He is relaxed, at ease with himself; he loves himself as he is. So you have to watch: that which creates misery, drop; and that which brings bliss like a flood, create that space in you. And my whole effort here is to make each of my sannyasins a song of bliss: not miserable saints, not long faces, but celebrants! I am interested in celebrants, not in saints at all. So let your life become a celebration; and it is up to you!”

Osho,
“Turn On, Tune In and Drop the Lot”

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Dale’s foot is all healed and she is once again enjoying life in the great outdoors. Here is a picture of her drinking water out of the fountain in my meditation circle with St. Francis looking on.

Animals are amazing. I learn a lot from caring for them. They sure seem to live totally in the moment. I was concerned that Dale would have a hard time walking after loosing one of her three toes and it hasn’t even phased her. Her life goes on pretty much as always.

As I started to write this post she stood out in the front yard and raucously asked for her afternoon treat. I cut up a banana, she yummied it down and now she is off enjoying the rest of the day.

I used to be bothered by the fact that I seemed to attract wounded animals. I would feel bad that they were suffering. It took me a few years to realize I was projecting my assumption about suffering on the. They came around because I am tuned in and do care for any injured animal I find. Earlier this year I saved a young cardinal that got stuck in a sticky fly trap and the other day I buried a bird I wasn’t able to save under my avocado tree.

Here is a picture of Boots who caught the bird now fertilizing my avocado tree. She weighs three times as much as Dale yet she is afraid of chickens. Some day I’ll get a picture of my chickens chasing the cat!

Animals have given me the opportunity to apply the concept that we volunteer for all of life’s experiences to a new level. I remember hearing Abraham (of The Secret fame) say that there was no shortage of spirits willing to inhabit animals bodies, including the ones we eat as food. The inhumane way we slaughter animals is simply another opportunity for us to experience what we aren’t so we can remember what we are.

One of the most profound gifts life has to offer is the contrast. Without both light and dark everything would look the same so we wouldn’t be able to see anything. Without fear, love wouldn’t seem so special. Without sadness, joy would be as rich an experience.

What contrasts in your life could you celebrate instead of judging or resisting?

With love, aloha and celebrating diversity,
Susan

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Aloha,

I am in the process of getting my garden ready to replant. Here in Hawaii keeping the jungle at bay takes a lot of work. Getting things like roses to grow takes a lot of patience, nurturing and care. I found out roses like warmth so I built several small stone walls behind my rose bushes and they are doing quite well. I enjoy watching the leaves turn from red to green as the branches grow. Then small buds emerge, slowly swelling and eventually become beautiful, fragrant roses. I am always amazed that such thorny plants can yield such beautiful flowers.

Life is a lot like that. Some of the roughest experiences can create the most freedom and joy in our lives when we are willing to use them as an opportunity to let go of our limiting thinking. When I pick my roses I often wind up with a bloody finger, but once they are in the vase sitting next to my computer I get to smell their lovely fragrance.

The Secret and the Law of Attraction are still buzzing around the self help and spiritual communities. They have been around since before time, but finally they got packaged in a palatable manner. I have no idea how long roses have been around. Not too long ago commercial growers created roses that would ship well and last a bit longer but they no longer smelled like roses.

Sometimes we think, “When I get ____________, then I will be happy.” But when it shows up we still aren’t happy. I often tell my students to pretend there is no out there. Out there can only impact us if we allow it. The events happening in life are emotionally neutral until we tell ourselves a story. Once you really internalize that concept there is an incredible amount of freedom. You no longer have to change anyone or anything. All you have to do is modify your internal dialog. Very simple but not very easy. It does take practice.

I look around at all the exotic flowers around my home. When I lived in Vermont they were rare and expensive. But since I changed my internal dialog and made certain choices they are now readily available. Of course I moved 6000 miles and planted the plants, nurtured them and when they bloomed took the time to pick the flowers and bring them into my home.

So now as I get ready to plant my vegetable garden I am whacking back the jungle, putting down weed block and mulching the area. Then when I plant my seeds I will easily be able to tend my garden.

What beliefs could you whack back and mulch to allow yourself to be happy? What seeds do you want to plant? What choices can you make so you too can live the life of your dreams?

My web magician Zack just made three of my classes available digitally so you can download them. In them I share all of my gardening secrets for creating a life beyond your wildest dreams. You might want to check them out.

With love and aloha,
Susan

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