Contentment

 

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Contentment

“Get this, get that and I will be contented,’ – the mind keeps saying this. One gets those things, then it again asks for something else. And the game continues for the whole of one’s life from the cradle to the grave. It goes on asking for more. That is the nature of the mind.

Diogenese, a Greek mystic, asked Alexander the Great, “I heard that you want to conquer the whole world, but have you thought about one question?” “What question?” asked Alexander. Diogenes said ‘A simple question, that you must consider before you embark on this enterprise remember there is only one world and if you conquer it then what will you do afterwards?’

The story is that just the idea made Alexander sad; just the idea that if he conquered the whole world of course the problem would arise of, now what? With just the idea - he had not yet conquered the world - his mind immediately became discontented and asked for another world, another toy. That’s the way of the mind; it goes from one discontentment to another.

But there is something more than mind in us; and that is the only hope. There is something deeper than the mind in us: our consciousness. Consciousness is not part of the mind, because we can even watch our mind, so the watcher is separate from the mind, different from the mind. And this watcher has a totally different quality, just the opposite to the mind - the quality of contentment, absolute contentment.

Each moment is so full of joy, so exquisitely joyful, that even if death comes right now, we will not ask for another moment because this moment was enough. There is no question of asking for another world. Contentment means ‘This moment is enough. Right now, all that I need is here; all that I have ever needed and will ever need is here.’ And to be in such a state is to know God, is to be one with God. Then each moment is a dance and a celebration. Then each moment has such infinite depth and so much treasure, that who cares whether tomorrow comes or not? Who bothers?

Say thank you every morning on waking up and at night before going to bed because who knows? - this may be the last moment and, in the morning, we may not wake up, so at least before we leave the world - He has given so much to us - we should say thank you. In the morning when we wake up, we are so full of wonder, we cannot believe our own eyes that we are here again and the day is here — so it seems we have one day more!

Prayer is a thankfulness; in fact a contented being is continuously prayerful. Whether such a person says anything or not there is always a deep undercurrent of thankfulness. That has to become our life.