You Have to Be Bigger
You have to be bigger than slights
to let insults pass through without hurting you
to find a deep essential self inside you
which is too sturdy to be damaged by disrespect.
You have to be bigger than bitterness
to let go of wrongs that you can’t correct
and give up trying
to resuscitate past events
that only stop you being present
and let them dissolve and die away, naturally.
You have to be bigger than self-pity
to remember that the world is vast, and your life is small
and stop ruminating over problems which don’t exist
except when you ruminate over them.
You have to be bigger than rivalry
to see your peers as colleagues, not competitors
who share the same goals as you
who are part of the same project as you
which will only succeed if you co-operate.
You have to be bigger than personal ambition
not to strive to accumulate, but to
contribute
not to see your life as a long straight road of achievement
that cuts coldly through the landscape
but as a wide, winding river that nourishes the soil
and sustains and supports everyone you touch.
You have to be bigger than yourself
because every petty feeling wastes your energy
and squanders your potential
and strengthens the
boundary
between you and the world.
You have to be bigger than yourself
so that you don't become the centre of the universe
and your own world doesn’t become your whole world
and your circle of concern stretches way beyond your own concerns
and so that your true purpose can flow through you
powerfully and purely.
You have to be bigger than yourself
so that you can become nothing
and the world can take you over
and your own life merges with life itself.
All Of This Is Inside You
Don’t believe that your life is worthless
and that it doesn’t matter if you waste it, or abuse it.
Don’t believe that your life is arbitrary
that it doesn’t matter what you do, or if you do nothing.
Don't believe that your life is meaningless
and that the universe wouldn't miss you, if you disappeared.
How can you be worthless when you are the cosmos?
How can you be meaningless when the whole history of the universe is inside you
and you're the miraculous manifestation
of billions of years of unfolding?
From the beginning of time to now,
a process of elements coalescing, fusing into higher forms,
becoming ever more complex and intricate
and at the time more spacious inside, wider
and deeper with being.
An inevitable trajectory through aeons of time -
ever-increasing complexity, ever-expanding awareness -
and then you.
Your being is an ancient torch -
just a tiny flame at first, that sparked out of silent blackness
and flickered unsteadily for millions of years.
Then carefully nurtured and carried by countless other unknown forms;
the flame
grew brighter and stronger, until it was passed on to you,
as an incandescent, white-hot glow.
All of this is inside you.
All of this informs you.
Your life is all of this.
Your purpose is the purpose of the universe
Your meaning is the meaning of the universe.
All best wishes and blessings, Steve
