Sometimes we may take for granted how well we are really doing. Chuang Tzu, the great Taoist philosopher, said, "When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits, the stomach is forgotten." On a physical level, when our body is functioning harmoniously, we are hardly aware of the body at all. It is only when something seems to go wrong, then we become aware of the body— and then we tend to be critical and condemning. Look, we say to ourselves, about our body, it's causing me problems again. Yet if we stop to think how well the body has done by us over the years, we can be profoundly grateful for its overall smooth functioning— in spite of all the junk food and chemicals of one sort or another we have poured into it. Just the fact that the body, with amazing intelligence, beyond any computer, digests, processes and assimilates our food for us— how astounding! We can be deeply grateful for all the loving care our body naturally bestows on each of us each day. 

As we observe this Memorial Day by taking time out to remember and acknowledge the memory of those who died for their country, we can also take the time to acknowledge others in our life who have also passed on: family members and friends— people who have touched our lives, deeply or otherwise, and who are no longer with us on a physical level. As we take the time this weekend to remember these people in gratitude and recognition for the love which passed between us, we can also take time to remember and acknowledge those others who may not have passed away, but who are simply not in our lives right now, for whatever reason. We think of all the people who have shared life with us over the years. From childhood onwards, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have touched our lives. This is a time for remembering. Let's remember with gratitude anyone who comes to mind this weekend for the sheer fact that so many good people have touched our lives. Albert Camus said that to live one day on this earth provides enough memories to last a lifetime! 

When we feel tired or anxious or stressed out, let's remember there's a healing power in learning to laugh at our predicament in this life. We are here to enjoy— not unjoy— this life. When we take ourselves or our lives too seriously, we forget how to have fun, to relax, to let go— to see the humor of just being who we are. We usually are trying so hard to be somebody we forget that we're a part of everything. Perhaps when we are too serious and uptight, we should take a look at our nose or our ears or think about the last time we did something silly. Let's don't be so adult that we lose all sense of feeling good and glad just to be alive. Og Mandino says, "I look to see if my name is in the obituary column each day— if it's not there— ah, what a great day!" 

Idries Shah tells the story of when the legendary Nasrudin was once shown a beautiful woodland scene with a clear blue sparkling lake nestled in the middle of a great forest of trees. After viewing the picturesque scene for a while, Nasrudin turned to his fellow admirer and said with a deep sigh, "Ah, if only...." "If only what, Nasrudin?" his friend asked. "If only they hadn't put water in it," Nasrudin sighed. Many of us get caught in the "if onlys"-- If only we had more money. If only we were in the right job or right relationship or right family. If only someone understood us better. We can spend so much time regretting the givens of our life, that we lose track of the beauty and joy each day brings to our hearts. We can release all our regrets by simply deciding that this life is a wondrous gift, enchanting beyond anything we can imagine, better than anything we can conceive. 

I have a saying— Rule #1: there is only one presence in this life— Rule #2: when it appears that there is something other than the oneness of all life, go back to Rule #1. The medieval definition of fortitude is: fear is not possible for a mind to whom nothing is alien.. As we release our sense of separation from all life, as we let go of dividing life up, more and more we feel a sense of peace, harmony and order. The one life everywhere manifests as all of us. We see ourselves as separate individuals, but we can also affirm our inherent unity with all. We are a part of the nervous system of this universe. We are at home on this earth; we also are at home in farthest stars in the most distant galaxy; we.are of the oneness of this life. 

When we look up at the sky, we notice the clouds passing overhead. We see the comings and goings of the clouds, but the sky itself remains changeless. Sometimes we may lock our attention onto a cloud and forget the vast, spacious sky in which the cloud is a mere passing phenomenon. In our own life, emotional distresses and upheavals are like the passing clouds. Our emotional identifications come and go— the ground of our being remains always the same. There is always a pure awareness at the center of who we are. All of the passing phenomena of our life are like the clouds in that vast spaciousness of sky. It is good to connect with the clouds; it is also good to remember to connect with the vast freedom and expansiveness of the sky. 

A couple once had a parrot who could only say three words, "Let's make out." This was very embarrassing to the couple. They felt that their parrot needed a more refined and spiritual vocabulary. A friend of theirs had a parrot who could only say, "Let's pray." They decided to put the two parrots together so that their parrot would be edified by their friend's parrot. The next day, when they pulled the hood from the cage, the couple's parrot said, "Let's make out," and the other parrot said, "My prayers have been answered!" Let's remember that our life on this earth is an integration between the spiritual and the life of the world. We are not here to deny the world but to affirm the spiritual right in the midst of the world. 

Ours is a culture which craves variety. We seek out the new and the different; we want variety in our food, our music, our clothes, our entertainment. But this pursuit of the new and different also may lead us to change jobs, change houses and cars, and even change relationships. We seem to tire so easily of anything we have to repeat. Yet there is also in this life tremendous value in repetition itself. It takes many, many years to come to know and understand another human being. To really appreciate the depth, subtlety and beauty of an artistic, literary, or musical masterpiece requires a lifetime of study and concentration. T.S. Eliot learned Italian so that he could read Dante's Divine Comedy in the original, which he memorized and repeated to himself over and over again while waiting for a train or a bus. The value of repetitive prayer and meditation lies precisely in the deepening effect of the repetitive act of turning within and surrendering. While we all do enjoy the fruits of variety, let's keep in mind that perhaps our most profound experiences in life come from repetition. 

Let's just let ourselves give up the struggle to fix ourselves, others or this life itself. Sometimes we are trying so hard to improve, to understand, to be appropriate, to be positive, to get somewhere, that we become stuck in trying. We say to whomever will listen, "But I'm trying, I'm really trying." Maybe we are trying so hard, we are getting in the way of our natural unfolding. Relax. Let go of even trying to figure it all out. Let it be. Look at the sky, the trees, the natural order and harmony of this earth. As Chogyam Trungpa said, "The sky is always above us, the earth always below us"— we always know where we are. So we can relax. 

We live in uncertain times. We sometimes feel anxious and unsure about what's happening in our lives. What will the future bring? Will we make it, will we be OK? At some point, it is helpful to release and let go of our anxiety at the uncertain quality of this life. We are here on this earth because we belong here. We are a part of this earth; the earth supports and sustains each of us. The air we breathe gives us life. We may not know what will happen in time. But we can let go now and let ourselves be at peace and feel our connection to this earth in our hearts. 

When I first moved into my new house sometime ago, there was a tree by the driveway that seemed to have a grudge against me. When I got out of my car, this tree seemed to reach out and stab me with its long sharp branches. This was an aggravating tree. No matter how far away I parked, it always seemed to be there to clutch me and tangle me up in its needle-like branches. I thought about rooting it up, but my wife voted against this. Finally, enough of the garage became clear from the move to allow me to park my car inside, and I was freed from my painful encounters with the dreaded tree. One day recently an excited lady came to our door. She asked, "Where did you find such a beautiful Broom tree?" referring to my foe by the driveway. "That is a very rare tree, and how did yoli get it to grow right there?" It is fascinating how someone will see beauty and value where someone else sees inconvenience and aggravation. Which do we want to see? 

Something within each of us keeps us grounded in this life. There is beneficence to this world that we can gently allow to awaken within us. Think about how few things really do go wrong for us. A shoe lace may break— but we whiz along the freeway, we rush around town and we manage to accomplish an infinite number of tasks with speed and dexterity and only minor mishaps. If we are inveterate list makers, it might be instructive to allow ourselves to hold on to all of our lists for, say, a three-month period and then see the enormous amount of things that we completed on time and in an appropriate way. Perhaps if we stopped and for even a moment realized how well we are functioning right now, we could relax and give ourselves some credit and let our hearts be glad that things really do work out for us and order and harmony do prevail in our lives. 

I once had a spiritual realization. The insight was: "The earth is not your enemy." Until that point, I hadn't realized how, subconsciously, I had been carrying a deep-seated sense of resentment about simply being on the earth. I resented, in Hamlet's words, "all the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to." I resented all the things we each have to do to live on this earth. I felt, again subconsciously, a deep sense of resistance toward all the forces of time, place and circumstance which seemed to be pitted against me. From the moment of my realization that the earth was not my enemy, I began to consciously make my peace with the earth and things of the earth until I reached a point of knowing that the earth is not my enemy because the earth is my friend. When the first climbers reached the top of Mt. Everest, Western newspapers proclaimed, "Man conquers Everest." When asked for his perception of this event, a great Eastern sage said, "Why not just say, Man befriends Everest." We can heal our world by befriending it. 

Einstein once said that there is really only one important question: Is the universe a friendly place to be or not? Is our world friendly? How do we really see our world each day? Are the people in our life sincere and cooperative; do they have our best interests at heart? Is our attitude friendly and open and receptive; have we made friends with our world? Or are we having a conflicted relationship with our life? Do we say, "It's a jungle out there—you have to get yours before someone beats you to it." We can see the people and situations of our life as either hostile or friendly; the choice is ours. As we see it, so is it unto us. A friendly man was once asked about his town. He replied, "It's a very friendly town; everyone helps his neighbor." An unfriendly man when asked the same question replied, "It's a cold and hostile town; people are aloof and judgmental; no one helps anyone." Let's make sure that we are living in a friendly universe, and the universe will be a friend to us. 

We say tritely, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Or sometimes, more naively we say, "Beauty is in that lovely sunset or that tree or that human face." Yet have we ever really thought about how we discover beauty for ourselves? When I was in India, I had heard so much about the Hindu religion, yet it was very puzzling— I couldn't find Hinduism anywhere. The people I met didn't talk about their religion; in the temples, no one was preaching about Hinduism— no matter where I looked, I couldn't locate anything directly connected with this religion. Then one day, after several months, it suddenly dawned on me: it was all Hinduism. Hinduism was so all-pervasive that it influenced everything and everyone in that culture. And suddenly, everywhere I looked, I saw it. From the taxi driver lighting an incense stick to a Hindu deity to the street vendor fingering his prayer beads— everything I was seeing was Hinduism; it had been so close, so immense, so interwoven with everything that it took a long time for me to see it. So, too, with beauty. It is in all and is all— don't miss it. 

There is a great joy in seeing the silver, pink, gray luminous twilights these evenings in our city. These twilights have a mystical, almost ethereal, otherworldly quality about them. There is a soft glow suffusing the silver gray sky. When we look at this sky at dusk, we have to think that that sky is why they call New Mexico an enchanted land. We can feel spellbound with wonder at these magical skies, letting them fill our hearts with gratitude to God for the miracle of life. It's very healing for us to look up into our skies during this time of year and feel deep inside ourselves our connection to the delicate beauty we see. Don't get so lost in our human cares and concerns that we miss all that wonder right there spread out before our eyes each evening, costing nothing more than a looking and a seeing with the heart. Remember to look up into God's beauty. 

Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, was once in a small music shop in a foreign city. He asked the proprietor the cost of a violin in his shop. The proprietor mentioned a sum of money. Kreisler said, "I'll be right back— I want to see how your violin compares to the one I have." Kreisler went around the corner to his hotel and soon returned with his own violin. When the owner saw the violin, he immediately summoned a policeman. "This thief has stolen Fritz Kreisler's violin," he shouted to the policeman. Since Kreisler had no identification with him, the policeman was all set to arrest him. Kreisler thought for a moment, then he picked up the violin and began to play. With tears in his eyes, the shop proprietor waved the policeman away. "Only Fritz Kreisler could play Mozart like that," he said. We can always tell the ring of truth and beauty beyond any deception— we need only listen with the ears of the heart to know the real when we hear it. 

My wife and I were visiting New York City a few years ago. We were walking down 57th Street one evening when we passed a stand where a man was selling watches. The man said that they were Gucci watches. When we asked how much they were, he said, "$10.00." I said, "You can't buy a Gucci watch for $10.00." He said, "How about this Rolex for $15.00?" Sometimes we are tempted to settle for imitations in this life when our hearts yearn for the real thing. We each have a deep craving for authenticity, be it a material object or a spiritual experience. We want the highest and best for ourselves and our world. We don't have to settle for a second-hand life— we can choose the real, the good and the true. Inside of each of us there is that which nothing in life can imitate or falsify. We are here on this earth to find and express our unique, authentic self to and through our world. 

Our culture tends to give much allegiance to the intellect and things of the intellect. Many of us view the body as something we just have to put up with. But the body is our mode of being on this earth. The body is the vehicle for our experience of life here. It moves us through time and space. The body is really our great friend and ally. We don't need to struggle with the body; we can make our peace with it quickly. Learn to cooperate with the body— treat it with love, respect and dignity and be grateful for all the incredible blessings it gives each of us each day. 

Once at an auction, the auctioneer held up an old battered-looking violin and asked, "What am I bid for this musical instrument?" There were a few desultory responses, "$15, $20, $30." Just when the auctioneer was about to bang his gavel on a bid of $35.00 for the old violin, an elderly gentleman worked his way through the crowd, came up to the podium, picked up the violin and started to play. As he played the instrument, the crowd became hushed, awestruck and enchanted by the great depth and beauty of the music. At the end of the piece, the old man reverently set the violin down and disappeared into the crowd. The auctioneer picked up the violin and asked ,"What am I bid for this violin?" "$20,000, $30,000, $40,000," was the response from the crowd. All it took was a touch from a master's hand to reveal the inherent value of the instrument.