You have to have a passionate fling with life to be bigger than such pettiness. It is entirely conceivable to me that we might only get one shot at life. So make it a wild, passionate fling! Make it real, total, rich, and full of possibility. Life should be a grand, majestic affair--the good, the bad, and the indifferent. If one day is a misery, be miserable. If you're "in the pits" one day, don't take it out on everbody else. Feel it, taste it, exude it. Don't bitch at your friends. If life is lousy one day, it will be great another day. That's beginner's mind. Anything could happen tomorrow. If for twenty years that is your attitude, and if for twenty years nothing does happen tomorrow, it doesn't matter. That attitude is enough!
If you don't have a love affair with life everyday, if you don't expect a miracle everyday, you're always going to be looking for God exclusively in what appears good--in the attractive, in the easeful, in the predictable. Most of you reading this are old enough and mature enough and have had enough experiences to know that you should not expect appearances to convey everything. Appearances are totally subjective. Instead, you should look to the heart of things; feel through appearances to the Essence. Not only are you capable of that, you all do that naturally anyway. You just need to be aware that you do it, trust it, and make this awareness more real than the illusions of your trained beliefs and opinions. But you tend not to do that when the circumstances are making life look a little grey. "What's going to happen when the bill collectors start knocking on the door...?" you ask. And on and on.
You'll always have passion if you have beginner's mind. If your passion starts to die, it won't be because of your spiritual work, your friends, your lover, or because of life's down times. Your passion will die because you have bought--hook, line, and sinker--an attitude that was sold to you by your parents, your school teachers, and this society. You've bought the attitude that you've got to look like that Playgirl man (if you're a man) or that Playboy woman (if you're a woman.) You think you've got to be cool and cultured, that you've got to dress right and smell like the corporate world wants you to smell. If your passion dies it will be because you've bought that appearances are everything, including the appearances of your worldview, politics, opinions, and beliefs.
To ultimately "make it" in this World of Awakening, of Transformation, you have to embrace the miraculous--always. And that miracle is you being so much at peace with yourself that you can turn your energy towards welcoming and using the opportunities that are always falling into your lap. To embrace and devour these opportunities will make you free, happy, full of life, full of passion. Then your circumstances won't affect you so dramatically.
