Appreciate yourself.

 Oh, my gosh yes! The Dharma talks about the destructions of self, I, ego… it does not say ‘whip yourself into total oblivion”! I still love tomatoes on toast, and singing the wrong words to old songs…

 This precious life is so…precious! There are countless life forms in the universe that we could have been reborn into, and we managed to achieve humanhood. That is truly remarkable. Although it is said that there are higher realms, here we can start our journey…and maybe complete it!

 So what if we have a few wounds, attitude, psychological problems? It’s all workable. Who said anything about having to be perfect before we start? Life is truly intriguing and mind blowing. Our problem is being distracted by something or other. Literally – ‘being’ distracted.

 We are lead to believe that we need more in order to ‘improve ourselves’: there is pressure to conform in material world, and this merely creates competitiveness and separation.

 If we can appreciate what we have, then we have everything we need: a little money, time, space, a simple roof over our head, and some wholesome food. Having time and space is so precious, like when we were children.

 Before I was four years old, I liked myself! Then I learnt that I had to fit into something quite limited and spent a life-time being miserable…I learnt to dislike myself…I was never good enough. We all carry some sort of baggage around with us – mine was feeling worthless and pointless. Unfortunately, even spiritual organisations can make us feel worthless.

 It took me more than forty years of bootcamp, studying and practising to realise something…that my life is fruitful!

 Appreciate yourself – warts and all – “’cos you’re worth it!”…and so is everyone else. Don’t waste a moment arguing. This incarnation is too precious. The more we worry about what others are doing, the more stressed we will get.

 We can easily get caught up in others’ dreams.

Lighten your load,

Lighten your mind,

Lighten your life.

Appreciate your simple life.