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We sometimes speak of our meditation using the metaphor of computers. Programs for positive thinking, creating wealth, creative visualization, etc. we can think of as new software programs. Very exciting, many of them. And they may work wonderfully well, but only for a moment unless you have upgraded your hardware. De-fragged your hard drive. Expanded your memory. Our meditation and the release of stresses is the hardware upgrade we need.
Yesterday I found myself teaching a man who once had a farm. I grew up on a farm. Though he uses a computer, this certainly isn't the thing that sings to this man; and I found myself saying yes, all these books and ideas people have mentioned are wonderful, but without meditation, to study them is like planting seeds on hardpan - clay-heavy soil that, after a season of rains, seals itself like concrete. The seeds will simply lie there. And if they sprout, they will soon die.
Our meditation, and the release of stresses it brings us, is like plowing. Tilling the dirt, opening up the earth so that the seeds are accepted deep into the soil and have a chance to take root and grow and bear the fruit of a blissful life.
I saw him get it. A big smile. Maybe because it reminded him of a Bible story from his youth. But also because it made sense, specifically for him. And I enjoyed speaking to someone who actually knows what it's like to plow - the smell of diesel and fresh-turned earth. The feel of physical labor. Trying and failing to keep a straight furrow. The joy of preparing for planting.
Today I will remember that all that I am, all I have done, enhances my value in the flow of evolution. I will pay attention to the subtle tug of charm, knowing that I will be led to the place, the people and the time where I, with all my foibles and failings and odd-man-out experiences, everything that makes me specifically me, will be useful. I will trust my value in the world.
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