Thursday, July 08, 2010

food for thought

With the heat wave I spent yesterday morning at an official city cooling center, the Brooklyn Public Library. One of the books I came home with is Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living. Although every page has an abundance of food for thought, this morning a couple of questions really stood out for me...

*Are my choices supporting what is deeply satisfying in my life?
*Are my choices leading to long-term freedom or short-lived pleasure?

... We make thousands of choices every day... How might our days look different if we asked ourselves these questions throughout?

If we ask ourselves these questions in reference to what we do for work, where we want to live or be, what we want to do for play and pleasure, how would our lives change?

How might my life be different tomorrow if I ponder these questions today?

Even just considering these questions in brevity I find myself seeing where I am holding myself back from deep satisfaction - by choosing to keep living somewhere I do not want to live because I'm afraid that moving will just be a short-lived pleasure. Certainly my choice to be in the city is not creating short-lived pleasure. And I do not yet know if staying here will result in long-term freedom. If I move to the country will it lead to long-term freedom? How am I to know the answers to these questions? There is so much doubt and inner conflict that I find it difficult to find the answer within.