FREE TO BE
What do you want? Who do you want to be? How do you want to spend your time? Is the reality of having everything you want and doing everything you always thought you wanted to do… as good as you think it will be?
The great sages and Buddha thinkers, spend a lifetime meditating under a tree. After decades of dwelling on how to be and what to think, they all come to the same conclusion. No attachment means no loss. No thought means being open to any thought. Being not one thing implies being one with everything.
On my walk this weekend, I snapped this gentleman. I’d say early 60s, silent with a gentle smile. He wore an old beaten up hat, no shirt and had a long braid that stretched from the bottom of his beard to his belly button.
He had just put a worn leather backpack and an old tattered pillow on the bench behind him and he was in the process of pulling a little row-boat onto shore. I looked out and saw a very old sail boat. Very weathered, very beaten up, but still floating. I don’t know if that was his but thought it might be.
Is he truly free or is he burdened by the large boat he must sail and the small boat he must pull ashore? Thoughts on a Monday morning as one goes in search of benefactors, donors, employers and clients. Work to pay bills but where does one go to be free, to just be, without having to worry about pulling one’s little boat along behind them?
Free to just be, at any given moment. Empty mind liberated of regrets, fear, worry and desire. Should I consider this a dream of mine or are dreams just another boat to pull ashore?
Barry Stein's Blog 