There isn’t much that I haven’t already said. There isn’t all that much that life hasn’t already taught you. But, ah, the distance between the mind and the living of what you learn and gain insights to.
Technically, you already know enough. You know better than to lose your cool, yet you lose your cool. You know better than to try to control life and others. You really do. And, yet, here you are, perhaps controlling and bossing others around all over the place.
We come back to letting go. We come back to finding yourself. We come back to letting ego go. We come back to forgetting. You haven’t forgotten your ego personality, and so you cling to what the world says and does and convinces you to do.
You are not someone who would deliberately give lip service to the idea of giving love and not owning others, and yet, that’s what you may find yourself doing. You may feel a preponderance of your due place in the world being dishonored, and honor and its friend ego become supremely important, and so you throw your cool out the window for ego’s sake.
There is so much to let go of. There is so much for you to let go of because you fear giving up something valuable to you, even as your little ego and disputed honor and so on aren’t worth much.
Others may say you have to defend yourself. Beloveds, you have to get out of the ego mode. The ego mode tells you, among other things, that you have to keep your place in the world. Of course, you have been taught one way or another to put yourself above all. Not so often have you been told to put love first. You are not disavowing yourself to put love first. You are not disavowing yourself to give someone understanding and a kindness even if you feel you have not been given full credit. To be kind and gentle and not take offense is a great gift you have. You are given this great gift so you can give it. Ego is nothing much. Make your decisions without ego’s coaching.
Your being generous is not a production. It is not a performance. You are not being a Great Person in order to show others how great someone can be. You are not being charitable in order to be considered charitable. You are not setting out to be a good example for others. You are being true to yourself.
I don’t make you Kindness personified. I make you a humble person who sees an opportunity to help someone from your heart and not from duty. You have been blessed, and blessings are to be passed on. We are speaking of a natural process of life. You are not a do-gooder. You are someone who saw a little thing you could do. It is not about you at all. You are not a great benefactor. You are a simple human being who saw something to do. Just as you see to pick up a piece of litter, you see someone before you that you can help even if it is only to the extent of not losing your cool.
You do not carry the weight of the world, yet you are a brother. Maybe you can’t be your brother’s keeper, yet you can be a brother.
You are not a boy scout, yet you can see something to be done, and you can do it in much the same offhand way as you would hail a cab. If you live in New York and you want a cab, you put your hand out.
Whether you live in New York or in a small town, We are talking about putting your hand out.
If there is slippery ice in front of your house, you put sand on it. Maybe, while you are at it, you will throw some sand on your neighbor’s sidewalk.
Now, there’s nothing shady about feeling good about yourself when you go to bed at night. It is good to feel good about yourself, yet in giving a kindness, your purpose is beyond yourself. It is for you, yet you don’t do it for you. You do it for what is referred to as another, and, naturally, light falls on you. Okay, smile at yourself just as you give a smile to another.