Breathing Space

I'm not sure that there can be any breathing space in our lives without contentment--without letting go of the grasping that fuels our essentially insatiable, ego-fed desires. We often go through our lives with agendas of various sorts, a list of things we feel we must do in order to be who we think we are supposed to be in order to get along in life--to achieve something. But all this ambition gets in the way of the one thing we often truly desire, which is the sense of repose, of ease, of equanimity that accompanies a simpler, more basic relation to life.

Contentment seems to me the by-product of putting an end to all this endless ego-driven striving. It also seems intimately connected to our ability to accept life as it presents itself when we stop for a moment and just appreciate whatever is, without making it 'right' or 'wrong'. 

The small things in life have a chance to speak to us more clearly without the distortion that comes through the filter of our discontent. 

Living a simple life wherein we claim few possessions (mental or material) and are clear about what constitutes enough, is fundamental for creating the conditions under which contentment arises. Life is to be had all around us if we but take the time to really be aware and let it sink in. 

Freedom from ego-driven desires never comes by way of attempts to gratify them--that just turns us all into addicts of various descriptions. Contentment graces our lives when die to misguided desires and ambitions and realize that life, on some level, is enough just as it is. 

When our actions arise in resonance with a heart grounded in this tranquil space, our creations transcend the anxious, narrow confines of the ego and are more an authentic expression of life itself. In essence, our creations are integrated with the whole of life, are an intimate extension of it, rather than an artificial construct imposed on it. 

This produces a much different feeling experience, one that does not require a 'fix' because it is rooted in life itself, in concert with its true nature, and not any twisted, self-serving conceptions of it, that require constant reinforcement or propping up.

I am by no means an expert here, but moments of clarity and freedom seem to come more frequently with practice. It is a work in progress, like anything else, and locating contentment has been key--appreciating life at its most basic, being satisfied with 'enough'. There I find freedom to move, create and be.