For many years I have lived in this hunting shack frugally and quietly. During that time, I finished writing a book, stopped smoking cigarettes, became a yoga teacher, and started using a bicycle as my primary means of transportation. The transformation from wild-eyed, self-mutilating addict to calm-hearted, self-respecting mastermind is just beginning, and I'm not sure where it will take me or who I will be at the end. Certain things are beginning to make sense now; certain things are becoming clear; and with a daily yoga practice and a renewed dedication to living a virtuous life (one devoid of attachment and suffering), I think I am finally on a path that leads away from slavery, deceit, and gluttony. One of the single, clear lessons I have learned is that I must take responsibility for myself in the Now, in the Here And Now, and not worry about what came in the past or what may come in the future. There is great clarity, I find, in abandoning undue concerns for things completely outside of my control, in allowing life around me to unfold without my conscious intervention and in treasuring equally calamity and success, heartbreak and joy, delight and misfortune. In the paraphrased words of Lao Tzu: Prize calamities as your own body, for without your body, what calamities can you have? Huzzah.
© americanifesto / 場黑麥
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