lara simmons

As I wrote last month before beginning the 28 Days of Abstinence  challenge, I have been reading a lot about Buddhism lately. One of the concepts that has stuck with me is this idea that all life is suffering. I both love it and hate it. I love it because it rings true to me. I read it and something in me lets go - relaxes - the way you do when truth is spoken:  "Finally, someone is saying what I have always thought." At the same time, this idea scares the crap out of me. If all life is suffering then what is the f-ing point? Not what is the point of being here - I don't think any of us knows this for sure and we each have to figure this out for ourselves - but what is the point of living? If all life is suffering, why not just let go, escape, blow this popsicle stand? (Of course Buddhists believe in reincarnation - as do I - so it really isn't a choice. One way or another, you'll be back here eventually. So it's really an "Enlightenment or BUST...

"How long will you suffer at the hands of non-existent things? Return to the root of the root of your own self." --Rumi You can always count on Rumi to tell it like it is. We suffer so much at the hands of the non-existent things in our lives: the maybes, the what-ifs, the "I don't knows." I don't know about you, but I am sick to death of it. I want to get off this roller-coaster ride of thoughts and emotions and live in the beating of my heart, in the whisper of my breath, in the brief bliss of this very moment. I have almost no idea how to do this, but I feel like my all of these quotations, these little bits of wisdom from those who have gone before, have been a series of breadcrumbs, showing me the way. And I just have to follow them. Back home. To the root of the root of my own self.