At the age of 11 I started high school which was located on a noisy main road with clattering trams passing every few minutes ding, ding, dinging their bells. In those first few weeks I thought I would go crazy with the traffic noise outside.
After a while I forgot the noise and began to pay attention to my teachers instead of the trams.
Was this a metaphor for life?
All my life I’ve sought the solitude of being alone, searching for peace, whether among Nature or in the midst of family, work or just life.
I’ve owned a country cottage where I would find my peace and worked in offices in the heart of the big city of Melbourne.
In the end, finally, I can say I can find peace wherever I happen to be.
So I’m wondering if this is the point of being alive on this planet, the purpose of life if you like.
To find our peace among the clatter, the ding, ding, dinging going on outside our head.
I’m wondering if we need to be more tolerant of the noise around us instead of reacting to it, as I have done for most of my life.
Could this be the secret of overcoming stress and anxiety which have become so prevalent in our society today.
Deal with it, yes, but reacting to it, I’m not so sure.
I can say this because I am the greatest offender in overreacting to the noise and disharmony around me.
So I can speak from experience.
Didn’t the Buddha talk about first learning to “chop wood, cart water”?
Is this what he meant?
I’m working on it.
I hope that my experience can benefit you too.
Best wishes,
Neil
To read about my book ‘What They Didn’t Tell Us About Life’ click here.
To follow my blog scroll down and click the Follow button.
To read this post in your browser click here.
your mind is all 