Free and Easy

I found the poem below, written by the Tibetan Lama Gendun Rinpoche, long ago. It is about the free and easy nature of The Way. It came to my mind today while I was mentally reviewing the past year and found myself feeling dissatisfied with what I had and had not accomplished.

I encounter on a daily basis people who are always wanting and striving, and whose wants and goals never seem to be met, leaving them perpetually dissatisfied with their lives. Some days.... some days I absorb it. I breathe it in, and I soon I find myself generating negative thoughts. What did I accomplish this year? I asked myself this morning. My mind was blank. Nothingness was the response, and I cast judgement upon myself, and despaired. As the day wore on, as I worked like a fiend, thoughts passed through my mind like clouds scudding across a clear sky. I recalled that I completed two courses, that I passed my CPP exam, that I had started therapy, that my relationship had ended amicably, that I had written some decent poetry, that I had made some new friends and deepened friendships with others... that, in fact, I had accomplished things that were important to me, at that was what mattered.

I remembered why I prefer to relax and allow myself to flow with things, because forcing my will upon the time always creates pain. I remembered why it is important to be compassionate and non-judgemental with others, and most especially myself. I remembered that it is not what I hold in my hands that is important, but what I have released, so that my hands and heart and mind are open to appreciate the gifts which grace my life on a daily basis. Free and Easy entered my mind like a chant, like a benediction, and the tone of my day changed as I found inner peace amidst the tumult and turmoil of my workplace.

Happiness cannot be found
through great effort and willpower,
but is already present, in open relaxation and letting go.

Don't strain yourself,
there is nothing to do or undo.
Whatever momentarily arises in the body-mind
has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with, and become attached to it,
passing judgment upon it and ourselves?

Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves--
without changing or manipulating anything--
and notice how everything vanishes and
reappears, magically, again and again,
time without end.

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.

Although peace and happiness do not exist
as an actual thing or place,
it is always available
and accompanies you every instant.

Don't believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences;
they are like today's ephemeral weather,
like rainbows in the sky.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping,
infinite space is there--open, inviting and comfortable.

Make use of the spaciousness, this freedom and natural ease.
Don't search any further.
Don't go into the tangled jungle
looking for the great awakened elephant,
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.

Nothing to do or undo,
nothing to force,
nothing to want,
and nothing missing----

Emaho! Marvelous!
Everything happens by itself.