"May we be free of hunger and discord,
And have joy and a world at peace."
I quote the same lines as last week, because this week I want to focus on the second line. Last week I focussed on the hunger I feel, emotionally, spiritually as well as physically. And I've learned a few things. Like, when I'm angry, it's usually because I'm feeling emotionally hungry and needy, and that if i stop for a moment, I can trace that feeling back to the trigger, calm myself down and then focus on what I really need, which is not usually to win a fight or argument.
If I weren't hungry any more. If I had what I needed, and knew deep in my being that I will continue to have what I need until I leave this body, how might my life change? How might all our lives change if we knew that.
Or let's start a step back from that. If I spend more time focussed on what I have, on the fact that I have enough to eat and a roof over my head, and this month at least enough money to pay the rent, how would my life change.
I can have joy and peace now. Or at least many moments of profound joy and peace thanks to my meditation practice. I don't need to make that permanent for myself, and perhaps it's better that I don't if I want to spend a life in service towards a bigger goal of joy and peace for others. I want to feel the pain and anxieties and hungers of others. I want to feel it, so that I can understand it, and help others to understand it.
But I'm also most helpful as someone who can help others understand joy and peace, and how to get there. Being in that joy and peace, being someone who manifests that, maybe that's the best way for me to move people forward.
