The life you are living daily is already fraught with difficulties and obstacles but, despite this, what are you doing, in truth, to prevent it from becoming more sour, to help it flow more calmly and, for this reason, , easier to deal with?
If you were truly able to appreciate what you possess - not only in words but precisely out of intimate conviction - you would be able to be much happier and to face with much greater serenity what, inevitably, the demands of your evolutionary life lead you to experience.
Among the many teachings that come from the most advanced oriental cultures there is one that is perfectly feasible and understandable to any man of any time, place and social background. It says:
"Know how to be simple, because it is only by succeeding in this that you will be able to simplify the difficulties that will come your way, and also know how to be humble, because it is impossible for the humble to obtain nothing".
You know, my children, that io I don't usually make very complicated speeches, so much so that they are often judged too simple, however this time I would like to talk to you, through my not learned but heartfelt analysis, of a sentence from Teacher Jesus who, so often quoted, is almost never, as often, understood and implemented.
"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven!"
How many times have you heard this sentence, but how many times have you really tried to understand it fully? Please, dear ones, do not answer that the sentence is simple to understand and that, in fact, you understand it perfectly!
I beg you with my heart not to say it, because it would be too easy for anyone - and therefore also for me - to prove to you that you are not telling the truth, neither to me nor to yourself!
If, in fact, you have really understood those words, why do I listen to you so often, in the course of your days, counting on accounts, tormenting yourself for things that you have to pay and buy, criticizing more or less covertly those who already own these things without, maybe, have done anything obvious to deserve them?
Brothers, sisters, blessed is the poor man who manages not to desire more than the little he possesses because truly, then, the kingdom of heaven is about to be his! And you - who, too, are not poor - how many things do you want to obtain, things that, almost always, once obtained become nothing more than springboards for other more or less unattainable desires?
Blessed is the poor man who manages not to feel envy for what others possess because, really then, the gates of the kingdom of heaven are wide open before him! But how not to desire, how to manage not to be conditioned by what the culture you live in continually places you as desirable goals to be conquered at any price?
It would be so simple, dear ones, to succeed in this, if you only wanted to do it: it would be enough that every day you look at what you already have and try to taste it to the last drop.
Unfortunately, however, you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by your worries and do not pay undue attention to what you have and which, inside you, depreciate, under the pressure of your selfishness that wants to see you in competition with your brothers, in continuous, silent struggle. to try to have what they have and, possibly, even something more, in order to value yourself.
"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!" Jesus said, and it was easy for those who had an interest in it, to use this phrase for political or propaganda purposes, far from what the Christ meant, because he did not intend to exalt misery, he did not intend to tell his brothers to become like St. Francis who all rose to follow his ideal of poverty: he meant, dear ones, that the kingdom of heaven, the culmination ofevolution spirituality of man, lies in the understanding that happiness does not reside in possessing material possessions, in earning, in being greedy.
He meant that precisely those who possess the least, if simple and humble in his little possession, the more he has the possibility of realizing what, in reality, he possesses; the more he has the possibility of realizing that not only he, but all men possess immense assets and immense wealth that they do not use and do not know how to exploit in the most useful way, because they do not even realize that they possess them.
If you believe in God, and I do not doubt it because, otherwise, you would not listen to the speeches of those who, like us, never stop talking about Him and declaring themselves His creature, if you perceive our love for you and remember that - being His children - we possess only an atom of what His love is, then you cannot but understand that in Him there can be no injustice, that He has given each of you everything you really need and that , if you feel the lack of something, this happens only because you have set goals and goals that are not true goals and goals, but only pretexts for not observing yourselves with a critical and attentive soul!
Some of you may claim that you have very little, that you don't take away any satisfaction, that you have to constantly struggle with the accounts to make ends meet for the family and lead a decent existence, going so far as to justify yourself with the responsibility that gives them the 'have children.
Of course, dear ones, we have always affirmed that children have the right to have from their parents everything they can give them, but we talked about affection, understanding, education, teaching, respect for others. , as well as of themselves.
How many times, on the other hand, do I hear someone say: "My children must have everything I've never had!" and, almost always, this phrase is about an extra dress, an extra fun, that surplus of surplus that most of you consider to be synonymous with happiness.
My brothers, my sisters, consider your days dispassionately! Each of you try to look around and to list on a piece of paper all the things that surround him and which, in reality, he could easily and without any damage do without! Do it, and then we'll see if you still have the heart to complain about something you don't have or about the "money" that you temporarily lack.
Consider that, no matter how many things you have marked in excess on your sheet of paper, with all certainty there are as many that you have not marked, and which are also in superabundance.
How many of you have, I won't say one, but two televisions or tape recorders in your home? How many of you don't have several pairs of shoes aside which, more often than not, remain on the shelves because you are replaced by the needs of your ego – for which being fashionable means enhancing yourself – by other shoes?
How many of you have books at home that you will never read, bought on the spur of a moment and then neglected? How many of you do not eat the food essential for the good maintenance of the body, or eat with enthusiasm and greed of foods notoriously harmful to health and, perhaps for this reason, more expensive than the others?
Compile the list that I have suggested to you, dear ones, and you will be amazed at how many useless and superfluous things you have, and you will understand for yourself how much your lack of money, so often complained and cause of trouble, is largely due to to these things; and you will understand that your thoughts, your worries, your pains, as well as your ephemeral joys, are due in large part to these extra things that you have wished to possess, and that therefore you must not curse fate or life or God himself for everything, but understand that you yourself, as much as you want and want, are the architects of your life.
Being simple and humble, being poor in the Christian sense, is equivalent to knowing how to enjoy what you have. And you, brothers and sisters, can you do it?
Are you able to enjoy your good health, or do you realize that you have had it only when an illness makes you realize the difference?
Can you savor a glass of seemingly tasteless water, or do you need more drinks to be lacking and your throat parched with thirst to do so?
Can you stop your eyes on a sliver of stone and marvel at its shape and all its features, or your eyes stop only when struck by the colored stones that other people flaunt on their body and that you do not possess?
Blessed are the poor who manage to discover the riches contained in their poverty, without being distracted and attracted by the false riches that other beings possess, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven!
Being poor, simple and humble does not mean possessing nothing, it means seeing the wealth of what one already possesses, whether much or little it appears in the eyes of other men. Viola
It is typical of the human being not to realize what he has. It is typical of every individual not to appreciate what he has, not to feel lucky, happy, for the beautiful things that surround him and that make his days alive and livable.
And it is equally typical of the human being to realize all that good he possessed, had and used only when these things, for one reason and another, are taken away from him.
That is, it happens that he realizes that he has truly loved a person, only on the day that this person abandons him; or it happens that the individual realizes that he has had a materially satisfactory life, only when existence throws him into a more miserable life; or it happens that he realizes that he has received a lot, only when what he received is taken away from him and he no longer receives.
I wish you, children, that all of you, one by one, will be able to make yourselves aware of how many things you possess, how much luck accompanies you, how much joy you could enjoy, how much love is given to you, without needing to be deprived to be able to. realize more completely. Weather
Gratitude
Thank you.
When you are able to say "I lack nothing", the doors are opened to inner peace, to true love until you feel that attractive force that unites us to everything.
thank you
"Being poor, simple and humble does not mean possessing nothing, it means seeing the wealth of what one already possesses, whether much or little it appears in the eyes of other men". I would have liked to say that this phrase applies to an infinite number of situations, which therefore go well beyond those cited by Viola as examples. Then I saw that Moti was declining others.
In any case, thanks to both of you
Having, as someone wrote, does not give substance to being. The more the being predominates, the less one needs to possess. The need for the superfluous, that is, all that is not essential, denotes a void to be filled. As I discover how rich Life is and how many things we have, the need to possess disappears and with it also the sense of dissatisfaction, which highlights how illusory it really is, hoping to fill our need to feel satisfied. chasing fashions and excesses. It is a process of understanding, in this era, characterized by an absurd consumerism, absolutely necessary to pursue and, set an example, in particular for the new generations, more at risk on this front, because they are children of a culture based essentially on to have.
"Know how to be simple, because it is only by succeeding in this that you will be able to simplify the difficulties that will come your way, and also know how to be humble, because it is impossible for the humble to obtain nothing".
This quote leads me to reflect. Often I find myself saying “I want to simplify everything”, because I have understood its vital importance, but then it remains a purpose that has so far been implemented in a few fields of everyday life such as the kitchen. The difficulty derives from the fact that simplifying often means being ready to abandon the ambitions that still feed the identity. Simplifying means going more and more towards the essential and freeing oneself from all the trappings, material, emotional, mental trappings. But it is clear that the trappings become such to our awareness only when we acquire the understandings that reveal their illusory.
Here, too, we are talking about gradual processes, but in any case, relating attachment to these trappings with the difficulties of life is of great help, if nothing else, in letting go of grievances and taking responsibility.
Cyclically this theme returns.
I have spent a lot of time in recent years to prune away the superfluous, to cut out the unnecessary, being careful not to end up in the trap of annihilating renunciation.
The attempt to break free from the chain of the god of money is still in place but despite the efforts made and attempts in various directions, it remains a utopian dream, in whatever direction it went I stumbled.
Maybe I'm making peace with it, I'm accepting that it is an essential element that characterizes this era.
I can feel what a great truth it is that the Universe makes us lack for nothing, that we have exactly what we need. If the Lord clothes the flowers of the fields and the birds of the sky, he certainly cares about the son of Man. In the past these were just words, now almost a certainty. However, the donkey always brays, but from time to time he is silent as well.
Much gratitude.
A phrase from a friend of mine comes to mind, which comes from the wisdom of peasant life and says "There's no shortage of squat people in the homes of the poor". And in its simplicity this phrase expresses the concept of recognizing, thanking and rejoicing for what you have, however simple it may be, like a piece of bread.