Eat what there is
This little poem by Jack Kerouac often pops into my mind:
Enlightenment is;
do what you want,
eat what there is.
Initially, it just feels kind of ‘goofy’, as a lot of the Dharma Bum’s stuff is. Then I realised there are a couple of deep truths in here.
To start with the last line, ‘eat what there is.’ I can only ever eat what there is. I can’t eat what I want, if what I want is not there.
If I sit down to meditate and I’m in a foul mood, I have to eat that. That’s all there is. I might have preferred to be all spiritual and loving, but I’m not. If I go on holiday expecting sunshine and it’s raining, I have to eat the rain, that’s all there is.
Yet within the foul mood, within the rain, I am completely free to do what I want.
Right now, everything that is happening is already happening. It’s a given. It’s what life has given us. To think I can do anything about what is already happening is delusional.
Every time I use the word should, I’m expressing that delusion. I shouldn’t be in a foul mood, I should be loving. It shouldn’t rain in Spain in August, it should be sunny.
Every time I use the word should, I could look for the delusion, then look for the freedom.
