L E T T E R – Creating Space And Pause Before Action

I had a conversation with a dear friend and meditation student on the weekend about the never-ending list of ‘All The Things’ which need doing. And when thinking about the list, the overwhelm was so great that they didn’t enjoy simple pleasures anymore. They, in fact, seemed frivolous. And there was a great sadness in this. As now nothing was getting done at all.

We discussed further, and I said I felt without the simple pleasures; the enjoyment of rain, of drawing for no purpose, a hot tea in the dark of morning, wandering with no destination, and soaking in nature, nothing was actually achieved anyway. We have to create space, and hold ourselves in the centre of it, for life to have any kind of meaning. It’s the space, and deep breaths out into nothingness that allow us to create anything of worth.

The whole of this verse within the Tao Te Ching is

“We join spokes in a wheel,
but it is the centre hole that makes
the wagon move.

We share clay into a pot,
but it is inside the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use”

Or as the Vedic saying goes, ‘Yogastah Kuru Karmani – Establish in Being (then) Perform Action’

Sent with love,

Jac x