I'm Determined No More To Play
Dear friends,
This is a line from a favorite chant of mine. It has nothing to do with children and their desire to play. It has everything to do with us and our own desires. It is actually surprisingly the same; it just grows more complex and sophisticated as we get older.
This world is designed to pull us out of our center and our innately deep connection with Spirit. We buy toys (cars, vacations, houses) and feel some satisfaction. We also seek power and influence, wealth, and sense pleasures of various kinds. But it is not that there is anything wrong with these things in and of themselves. The problem arises when we get distracted from our true purpose for being here. To learn what we need to learn to merge with Spirit and get Home.
A great saint in India was well known for having renounced an earthly family fortune to become a renunciate. When, as a boy, Yogananda questioned him about this he replied that he had given up a few paltry rupees for a divine treasury of bliss in God.
If you want to take something away from a baby that is potentially dangerous, it is often best to show the baby something shiny. It grabs for the shiny object and forgets about what it was formerly clutching.
Are we so different? We know why we are here, yet are always searching for something outside of ourselves, hoping that the doorway to joy will be found either elsewhere or in some other possession or relationship.
When watching small children in a sandbox, we notice that they can be remarkably serious. One says, "No! That truck goes here!" making sure the game is played "properly." We smile watching, but it has always struck me that Spirit watches us with perhaps the same wry smile! “Aren’t they cute there on Earth?!” I know how it sure feels like we are doing "Big Important Business" down here, but then the children feel the same way.
The one other line of that chant is, "I'm determined no more to [even] want to play." The desire to search outside myself has vanished as I have come to see that everything external fades like foam upon the ocean.
May we enjoy the things of this world but never lose sight of our true purpose here. A quest for an inner freedom that releases us from the needs and desires of this world. Gain and loss are but dreams. May we stay one-pointedly focused on the goal of awakening to the One Light that banishes all darkness and sorrow.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West