A speaker explores how someone with inner peace finds reason to change their circumstances. Using examples like bus travel and figures like St. Francis and the Buddha, the discussion examines what motivates an enlightened person to act differently in the world.
Ah, one more at least. If an enlightened person can find peace at any given life situation, how could he have the motivation to change anything? Why would he improve his life situation? So if you can find peace in any life situation through surrendering, as we saw in the story of St. Francis, even out in the cold outside the monastery, how would you want to change any life situation? Well, let's say just a most simple example will show you the answer. Rather than talking in abstract terms, the enlightened person is traveling on a bus. And I used to travel a lot on Greyhound buses in the past in the States. And often you wonder at the next stop, who is going to. The next person going to sit next to you. It could be somebody pleasant, or it could be somebody drunk, or it could be somebody who talks continuously. So the enlightened person is sitting there, somebody comes in at the next stop, and he's talking and talking and getting out his beer and drinking and getting more and more drunk, and then starts bothering you. But there's a seed over there that's free. Does the enlightened person say, I'm enlightened, therefore I'm not going to change seeds? Because what is the need to change my life situation? I'm at peace already. It is true that deep down there is the peace. But on the outer levels, certain situations are preferable to other situations, and one seat may be preferable to another seat. And so it happened once or twice that I did that I changed seats on the Greyhound bus so to get away from somebody next to me. But if the bus is full, then what do you do? You can't change seats. Then you stay and be at peace with where you are, which is perfectly possible. So the changes can take place. On the surface of your life. There may be one place where you would rather live than the other place, or you would rather travel to this location than to that one. That's all. On the outer. On the surface of your life, there are certain choices, and you make certain choices. If there is no choice, you are perfectly fine with there being no choice. The peace is there anyway. And on the outer levels, some things are more pleasant than others. And then I would choose the more pleasant one. But perhaps St. Francis would have chosen the unpleasant one. Maybe that's our difference, and maybe that's the difference between medieval spirituality and this. There's nothing, not one is better than the other. It's just different. But what matters is that at the core, the peace is there. And so I believe everybody, even the Buddha, must have made certain choices. He chose to go to that particular garden. Somebody had given him a pleasure garden. So he moved himself from the forest into the pleasure garden. Why did you go from the forest to the pleasure garden? Wasn't the forest good enough for you? Says the eagle. No, it's just on the surface that seemed to make more sense and was more suitable. And he moved himself there. He would have been equally happier the rest of his life in the forest. So that's quite simply how it is. So you're perfectly capable still of changing your life situation. If change is called for, why not Sa?
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
